‘Avatar’ has resumed production in New Zealand.
The film’s producer Jon Landau posted a photograph from the set at Stone Street Studios, Wellington to show they were back in production following the coronavirus pandemic.
He wrote on Instagram: "Used my iPhone to snap a picture of our first shot back in production on the Avatar sequels."
Meanwhile, director James Cameron recently insisted he is confident ‘Avatar 2’ will still be released in December 2021.
The 65-year-old filmmaker opened up about delays to the production of the highly anticipated sequel – and other planned movies in the franchise – and said that New Zealand’s response to the global health crisis means they will have time to hit their targets.
He explained: "On the bright side, New Zealand seems to have been very effective in controlling the virus and their goal is not mitigation, but eradication, which they believe that they can do with aggressive contact tracing and testing. So there’s a very good chance that our shoot might be delayed a couple of months, but we can still do it. So that’s good news."
Cameron – who created, wrote and produced the original movie – revealed his team continued to work on the virtual effects during the lockdown but he was limited in what he could do at home.
He said: "We’ve got everybody – everybody at Weta Digital and Lightstorm – working from home to the extent that that is possible.
"But my work is on the stage doing the virtual cameras and so on, so I can do a bit of editing, but it’s not great for me."