James Cameron decides Avatar and documentaries only

Despite a recent interview where James Cameron said he still had hopes to make the long-gestating Battle Angel, it seems he’s recanting that and basically saying his scripted developmental slate will be the Avatar sequels and his documentary work. No more producing other peoples films, no more looking at scripts. In some respects, it sounds like he’ll be retiring from block buster movie making.

In an interview with the New York Times, Cameron -when asked about other projects not called Avatar- he said: “I’ve divided my time over the last 16 years over deep ocean exploration and filmmaking. I’ve made two movies in 16 years, and I’ve done eight expeditions. Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the Avatar business. Period. That’s it. I’m making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, maybe Avatar 4, and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts.”

He adds: “And that all sounds I suppose a little bit restricted, but the point is I think within the Avatar landscape I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it. And doing it in an entertaining way. And anything I can’t say in that area, I want to say through documentaries, which I’m continuing.”

And in some ways, I can understand this. The writer/director will be 58 this year. With Avatar 2 seemly set for 2016, he’ll be in his early 60′s. If he can get a third and possible four movie out in two year-intervals (or depending on if the technology exists to do what he wants a few years later than that) he could be close to 70 before finishing his saga. As he pointed out, his interests have shifted away from scripted fare into the realm of documentary production.

He may have come to realization that there is more important things to do than make films like Battle Angel. I’m sure many fans would disagree, and maybe he’ll let someone else handle it, but it appears if it ever gets done, he’ll not be associated with it.