New Zealand's beauty may delay 'Avatar' sequels

Director James Cameron says he busy working on the sequels, but finding the scenery on his New Zealand farm a little too distracting.

Wed, Dec 19 2012 at 2:38 PM

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After purchasing over 2,500 acres of land in New Zealand for an estimated $20M earlier this year, James Cameron and his family are now settled in and enjoying their new home. The move completes a vow the 58-year-old director made back in 1994 after visiting the country and falling in love. Unfortunately for fans looking forward to Cameron's next two "Avatar" films, New Zealand's unmatched beauty in proving to be something of a distraction for the filmmaker.

"I'm actually over here writing, because I need some peace and quiet," he told the New Zealand site Stuff.co.nz.

"So we're out on our farm in the Wairarapa and loving it. Unfortunately, it's distracting because it's so beautiful. You want to go fishing and on yachts and all that sort of thing. It's going to take me a while to get these scripts nailed down exactly the way I want them.

"I don't want to be writing the movie in post-production. We kind of did that on the first picture and I ended up cutting out a lot of scenes and so on."

I honestly don't blame Cameron for finding it hard to concentrate. As someone who once lived in New Zealand, I can attest to its visually arresting qualities. If you were looking for a true slice of Pandora on Earth, this is one country that would certainly qualify.

As was reported earlier, Cameron has plans to make his new farm an eco-friendly enterprise - with a shift away from the current milk production on site and towards something more crop-based. As the filmmaker and environmentalist adheres to a plant-based diet, he's says not changing the farm would label him a hypocrite.

“You can’t be an environmentalist, you can’t be an ocean steward without truly walking the walk and you can’t walk the walk in the world of the future, the world ahead of us, the world of our children, not eating a plant based diet," he said during a talk in October.

While Cameron recently completed work on a new solar-powered studio in Los Angeles, he plans on spending a lot of time in New Zealand - at least 88 days out of the year according to his residency agreement. "As time goes on, I just want to spend more and more time here," he told Stuff. He added that he expects to finish scripts for both films by the end of January or early February.

With those months being prime time summer New Zealand weather, fans better hope he starts writing in a windowless room.

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