The success of James Cameron’s Avatar was not only good for the movie business; by the director’s own estimation, it was “good for the environment”—inspiring such an “emotional call to action,” even, that’s it's made “certain projects that I liked as potential films seem trivial by comparison.” Perhaps that’s why he’s reluctant to think about anything but more Avatar at this point: In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cameron confirmed that he’s currently working on finishing an additional six minutes of film (hair sex?) for a theatrical re-release of Avatar in August, which will allow him to pick up any “money on the table” left behind when it was forced to yield screens to Alice In Wonderland, while also giving fans a chance to return to the “immersive, transportive experience” that ruined reality for so many. But this, of course, Cameron says this is all just the warm-up to the main event of the already-announced Avatar sequel—and as hinted previously, maybe even a third film beyond that—about which Cameron filled in some details:
We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story—not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film. I’ve already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment—a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.
Of course, what Cameron didn't say is whether after he gets done making you feel bad about the oceans he'll be able to return to some of those "trivial" films he was once attached to—like the adaptation of popular manga Battle Angel, or that proposed remake of Fantastic Voyage. But seeing as neither of those projects has the potential to save the world, we wouldn't count on it.