Jon Landau produced the world's highest-grossing film, Avatar, and today he said he won't be surprised if Avatar 2, which will be made in New Zealand, does even better.
The Academy Award winner is in Auckland as a guest speaker at the Big Screen Symposium and took time out to speak to 3 News.
"I was fortunate to grow up with two parents who were producers," he says. "They tried to convince me to do anything but the film business."
He ignored their advice and became one of the industry's best.
Landau shared his remarkable story and gift with Kiwi filmmakers at Auckland's Big Screen Symposium.
"My mother today kids me that the budget of one of my movies is more than the budget of all 36 of their movies!"
Avatar 2 is no exception. He's set to produce it in New Zealand. Filming has already been delayed, so is there a start date?
"Nope, that's one I'm not going to answer," he says.
But he offered a little teaser.
"I am very excited about the upcoming Avatar sequels. I think they will build from where the first movie left off. Jim Cameron has directed two sequels in his career and both times I will argue that the sequels lived up to, if not exceeded, the first movies. So we are going to treat these movies as a stand-alone that's going to work, but if you look at the three movies together they will play as a trilogy."
They will make New Zealand a whole lot of money; half a billion dollars will be injected into the economy.
"We come here for two reasons – first and foremost the talent of the people, the passion they bring to the project and also because of the incentives the Government provides. If you didn't have those two things combined we wouldn't be coming back here."
He says it's time Auckland built stages for large-scale productions. The city, he says, should be the hub of our filmmaking industry.
He has some simple advice for fledging Kiwi filmmakers: "Follow your dreams and never give up."
3 News
