Cameron in talks with Weta over Avatar

Sequels to James Cameron's blockbuster film Avatar look set to be shot in Wellington, with the acclaimed director in talks with Weta Digital.

Twentieth Century Fox announced this week that Cameron would begin writing scripts for two sequels early next year, with production to begin late next year for a December 2014 release.

Weta Digital co-director and senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri said Cameron had been in touch to discuss shooting the films in Wellington.

"I know Jim would like to do that, so once we know what the story is he'd like to come down here and explore that."

The Wellington film industry was integral to bringing the imaginary world of Pandora to life in the original film, with Weta Digital handling the 3D visual effects and Stone Street Studios shooting the live action sequences.

"Weta Digital is hoping that again we'll be working with Jim and Fox to actually create Pandora and to create the characters and to do all the visual effects work on the films.

"And we're actually hoping that Jim will come back to Wellington to shoot the live action portion of the films, as he did the first one."

Letteri said it would be some time before anything was finalised.

"It's still early days right now. I would think we're at least a year away from knowing something more concrete," he said.

"We do have a good relationship, and he took us on as creative partners on the film, and we hope to just continue working with him in that way."

Weta would look forward to working on the sequels.

"We don't really know at this point what he has in mind for future stories, but we're hoping that since we have the foundation -- you know, we have the landscape here, we have everything that went into making up the planet Pandora - that whichever way he decides to go with it, that we are in good shape to continue to work with him and to make that happen."

Letteri said the original Avatar film had stirred up interest in Weta Digital.

"There has been a lot of interest and more projects coming to Weta Digital, and in fact we have been doing more work since Avatar," he said.

"Overlapping Avatar we began work on Tintin with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, so that's in full production here as well.

"And of course we're gearing up for The Hobbit, so we actually have quite a busy slate right now."

The timing would fit in nicely, with The Hobbit wrapping up before Avatar shooting began.

"It's great news on both fronts - the news about Hobbit this week and the news about Avatar. I think that means we've got hopefully a good future for filmmaking in Wellington."

Cameron said earlier this week that the second and third Avatar films would be "self-contained stories that also fulfil a greater story arc".

He did not reveal plot details, but said he was "looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild".

The original Avatar film - the highest-grossing movie of all time - brought more than $307 million into the local economy, Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee said earlier this year.

The film's backers received a $45m rebate under the Government's large budget screen production grant, which offers a 15 per cent rebate on production expenditure over a certain value within New Zealand.

Overseas movie and television productions have spent more than $1.42 billion in New Zealand since the scheme was launched in 2003, resulting in taxpayer-funded payments of $189.4m.

On Wednesday the Government announced another studio, Warner Bros, had agreed to keep The Hobbit films in New Zealand in return for a taxpayer sweetener of up to $20m, and an amendment to a crucial element of employment law due to be passed today.

- NZPA