Could A 9-Hour Cut Of “Avatar 3” Be Turned Into A Disney+ Series?
Following the huge success of “Avatar” and “Avatar: The Way Of Water”, two of the biggest movies of all time, Disney is no doubt wanting to make the most of this successful franchise, which is why there are three more films currently scheduled to come out over the next decade.
Considering the success Marvel and Star Wars have brought to Disney+, it seems a new rumour from The Hot Mic with Jeff Sneider and John Rocha, Disney is looking to make a 9-hour-long cut of “Avatar 3” with the intention to release it as a limited series on Disney+, long after the theatrical release, which is currently scheduled for 20th December 2024. With the plan to release the extended cut over a nine-episode series, long after the film had been released.
It’s important to note that this is very much a rumour and should be taken with a pinch of salt as there are many issues with this idea. James Cameron has been very vocal about his love of cinema and of theatrical releases. He has some of the biggest box office successes of all time, and if there was to be an extended version of “Avatar” as a Disney+ series, it would likely be a long time after the film’s initial release, because Disney wouldn’t want to cut into the potential box office success of the third film.
The idea of a nine-hour cut, also comes from a report last year that James Cameron has handed in a 9-hour cut of Avatar 3, and that the filmmaker “[is] insisting on doing the visual effects work for this cut…all nine hours [would] get fully VFX’d” and then the director will “cut it down.”
It wouldn’t make much sense to do all the visual effects work for a nine-hour version of the film, just to cut it up and throw it all away, but if the plan was to use that for a potential extended series, it could be possible. But there are some major issues with the idea of making an “Avatar” series. The films cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, so a series would be two to three times that price, which doesn’t make sense in a world where streaming services are trying to cut costs. Disney also might not want to overexpose the franchise as it has with Marvel and Star Wars, with it impacting on the box office success of future films.
James Cameron has also recently spoken about the idea of a Disney+ “Avatar” series and said it would be years away:
“Right now, the economics don’t make sense to spin off any of our CG main characters onto TV. But the cost of these things will progressively come down as we introduce machine deep learning into the processes and make them more automated. Ask me again in five years.”
However, it wouldn’t be the first time that a longer film has been turned into a series as Disney is planning on doing something similar with “Australia”, where because there was so much footage film, it’s being turned into a six-episode limited series called “Faraway Downs”. And we’ve also seen long extended versions of other films, like the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy released afterwards.
Ultimately, we are just going to have to wait a little bit longer to see if this is actually happening.
Do you think an extended version of “Avatar 3” could be released as a Disney+ series? Let us know on social media!
Roger Palmer
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