James Cameron's 'Avatar 2' has a budget of over Rs 7500 crore, making it the most expensive film

New Zealand has lifted lockdown as the country has been quite successful with dealing with coronavirus. This means that now film studios that were planning to shoot in the country can go back to business. One such film is James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’. 

According to a Deadline report, the combined budget of the film is over $1 billion (Rs 7500 crore).

Earlier this year, makers had announced the release dates of the upcoming sequels to the hit film. They go as follows: ‘Avatar 2’ on December 17, 2021; ‘Avatar 3’ in December 2023; ‘Avatar 4’ in December 2025; and ‘Avatar 5’ in December 2027. 

Cameron has said that he hopes for the second film to meet its release date, despite the unexpected delay.

James Cameron had said in an earlier interview, “It’s putting a major crimp in our stride here. I want to get back to work on Avatar, which right now we’re not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it’s all on hold right now. We were about to shoot down in New Zealand, so that got pushed. We’re trying to get back to it as quick as we can.”

“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,” he explained. “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.”

The filmmaker also added, “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.”