James Cameron now wants to do a six-hour movie despite Avatar 2 duration backlash

Virgin Radio

23 Dec 2022, 13:12

Cinema fans have been crossing their legs while watching the latest Avatar film due to a three hour plus run-time.

Now, director James Cameron has revealed he wants to push boundaries even further with a six-hour film.

He told Variety: "I want to do a movie that’s six hours long and two and a half hours long at the same time."

Cameron explained that the films would be the same, but the longer version would be aimed at streaming with the shorter version being for the cinema.

"You can stream it for six hours, or you can go and have a more condensed, roller coaster, immersive version of that experience in a movie theater," he confirmed.

"Same movie. Just, one’s the novel, and one’s the movie. Why not? Let’s just use these platforms in ways that haven’t been done before."

Entertainment writer Jeff Sneider says Cameron "handed in a cut of Avatar 3 last week" that was "no joke – nine hours long".

"Apparently, he’s insisting on doing the VFX for this cut… and then he’ll cut it down, rather than figuring out what he wants," Sneider told The Hot Mic podcast.

One fan agreed with the idea: "Nine hours is essentially how long The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy is like. I’ve watched those in one sitting numerous times, so I could do this. It makes sense to do a normal length release in theatres and then provide two different versions for streaming."

Someone else added: "That is a pretty good idea, we should utilise streaming's strengths more. I'd prefer if it's broken into episodes though, or maybe just show clear segments in the six hour cut for when is the best time to pause and take a break."

Another disagreed: "Just make a TV show at that point."

One viewer argued: "No, because that would not be profitable for a project like Avatar. He means having a 2-3 hour movie that turns a profit and pays for the extended version which can be sold to streaming services for additional income. Just making a TV show for streaming would not work financially."

Would you be happy with this?