Movie Update : 'Avatar' Sequels Likely Set To 'Go' Next Year

Anytime the entertainment news cycle shifts to focus on new information released about highly-anticipated movie sequels and threequels, (i.e. the buzzworthy new photos from "The Dark Knight Rises"), it gets us thinking about all the other exciting upcoming second, third or fourth chapters of film franchises.
Take James Cameron's second and third "Avatar," films for example. When are they going to start production already? I tried to find out from lovely leading lady Zoe Saldana at the Teen Choice Awards yesterday. Specifically, I asked her if she's heard anything from Cameron yet.

"No. I heard that we might go next year so I'm really psyched," Saldana revealed about a potential 2012 start. "I'm keeping my bags packed," she admitted. "I would do anything for that man and for that project, so I'm waiting."

Us too. What we know about the next two "Avatar" films is not much. Cameron has said he plans to shoot the films back-to-back and that he is writing two stand-alone scripts for each film, which are tentatively titled "Avatar 2" and "Avatar 3."
"I’m writing two scripts, not one, which will complete a [three]-film story arc – not really a trilogy, but just an overall character arc so I’m pretty excited about that," he told Fox News in June.
We also know a decent portion of the film's action will take place underwater, which, last time we checked, was proving to be quite the challenge for Cameron and his motion-capture experts. "'Avatar' does have some underwater stuff, but it will mostly involve characters that are the Na'vi and the Avatars," Cameron told MTV News earlier this year. "So we have to figure out how to do performance capture underwater, which has never been done. That's a whole other problem."