James Cameron Reveals When Next Two ‘Avatars’ Due

“Avatar” director James Cameron has provided a timeline for the next two installments in what he says will be the “Avatar” trilogy, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Speaking Saturday at the PGA Awards, Cameron said the next two movies will be released about a year apart, with “Avatar 2” coming around Christmas 2014 and the third installment due at Christmas 2015.

“I am in the process of writing the next two ‘Avatar’ films now,” the director told EW. “We are planning to shoot them together and post them together, and we will probably release them not quite back to back, but about a year apart.”

The story points out that the first “Avatar” movie had a number of release dates before it eventually came out in December 2009.

Cameron also offered a hint about casting. “Basically, if you survived the first film, you get to be in the second film, at least in some form,” he said.

EW Names Top 100 Greatest Characters of the Past 20 Years

Homer Simpson is Entertainment Weekly’s pick for the greatest character of the past 20 years.

The magazine looked at characters from TV, movies, the Internet and other places to come up with the list.

Simpson’s creator Matt Groening said millions of people were able to identify with Homer, best known for his catchphrase “D’oh”.

“People can relate to Homer because we’re all secretly propelled by desires we can’t admit to,” he said. “Homer is launching himself head-first into every single impulsive thought that occurs to him. His love of whatever has caught his eye is a joy to witness.”

Harry Potter ranks second, followed by Buffy, Tony Soprano and Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Others on the list include Jack Sparrow at number 13 and Gollum at number 36.

The only character from “Glee” is Sue Sylvester. She’s in 18th place.

The only character from “Lost”? John Locke, in 63rd place.

Pearl the Landlord from Will Ferrell’s viral video ranks 50th.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Didn’t Sell Your Film at Sundance? Hang In…

The Sundance Film Festival may be over for ’09, but, like everything in life, things aren’t ever really over… 

The wind-whipped Sundance banners are coming down for another year, and, according to The New York Times, more filmmakers are departing Park City for LA, not with suitcases stuffed with swag, but with saggy shoulders, knit brows and several urgent, help-me text messages to their reps.

It’s hard to not have closed a sale at some cozy cafe off Main Street by the Monday after the festival shuts down. Well, we imagine. Like everyone who has ever thumbed through an Entertainment Weekly or watched an “Access Hollywood,” we’ve fantasized what the elation born of a bidding war must feel like, the clamoring photographers wanting to erase your former anonymity (yesterday, no one knew your name), the accolades from your own personal filmmaking heroes.

But, so often, one or none of those things happen, and the sale talk for your beloved film drags on and on long after the festival has gone dark. Your mother is calling you, asking what the story is.  Your ex-boyfriend is hectoring you on Facebook.  And then, like so many things in life, the end story writes itself in a way you couldn’t have predicted. Maybe you sell it to someplace you didn’t even know existed. Or maybe it launches a TV series, or another project, like a comic book.

Why do we remain positive when the signs point to hazy? Because people love movies — sorry naysayers, it’s true — and during economic downturns, a two-hour escape to the cinema is among the little luxuries that people allow themselves with regularity. So even if your film never reaches a multiplex, it might find life on TV, or DVD, or whatevs.

Anyway, we’re just saying is all. Scary times for Tinseltown, but hasn’t the industry weathered a few of those over the last century? Big wheel keeps on turning, and all that…

KNBC