Giant Freakin Robot

James Cameron’s Avatar took the world by storm back in 2009, earning nearly $3 billion at the box office and spurring the development of not one, but two upcoming sequels. While the quality of the movie itself is up for debate, there’s no question that it had an amazing idea at its core. The protagonists of Avatar are able to project their minds into vat-grown, genetically engineered hybrid bodies in order to interact with the native Na’vi aliens. When plugged into the machine, Jake Sully and the others can see, taste, feel, and smell everything that their Avatar body does. It’s a thrilling concept, spurring dreams of a day when we could use similar technology to explore strange new worlds without having to risk our fragile human bodies in the task. It’s far-fetched, to be sure, but it shouldn’t surprise anybody that the closest thing to Avatar technology right now is currently being developed by — who else? — the United States military.

Yes, according to the 2013 budget for DARPA, the Pentagon’s research arm, similar technology is indeed being investigated, and the project is even named “Avatar.” According to Wired, the project will receive $7 million in funding and “will develop interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier’s surrogate.” In other words, they’re attempting to further telepresence technology to allow soldiers to control bipedal robots, sort of along the same lines as Jake and his Na’vi doppelganger. If you were hoping this story would actually include vat-grown alien bodies, sorry, but that’s what you get for a paltry $7 million these days.

The robots could be used for various duties that are inherently hazardous but which could benefit from a human mind directing the action, such as “room clearing, sentry control [and] combat casualty recovery.” Obviously, the budget doesn’t go into details of how the interface would work, but given past developments the eventual goal is likely to allow a direct interface between the soldier and the controlled robot. That still seems like science fiction, but it’s probably a safe bet that DARPA’s closer to the goal than they’ve publically let on. And hey, once they release the civilian tech we can all run around in super-hot Surrogates bodies!

One question remains, however: can James Cameron now write off this DARPA research as a marketing expense towards Avatar 2?

Given how much cash Avatar raked in ($2.7 billion worldwide according to IMDb), a sequel was pretty much inevitable. Typically, that sequel would be rushed into theaters as quickly as possible to feed fans’ cravings for more of Pandora. Avatar is James Cameron’s baby, however, and if there’s one thing James Cameron likes to do, it’s take his time. Now it seems the sequels may be a few years further away than we thought. Bleeding Cool is reporting that the Avatar sequels are still almost half a decade away.

That latest update comes from the lips of Avatar producer Jon Landau, who delivered the news after a preview screening of scenes from the new 3D version of Titanic. While the site doesn’t have an exact quote (recording devices were banned), they report that Landau said the first sequel was “four years away.” That puts Avatar 2‘s arrival sometime in 2016, or possibly Christmas of 2015, which is still a year later than the last rumored date of Christmas 2014.

There were whispers and rumors about it before, but now James Cameron has actually been sued for stealing the idea for Avatar. TheWrap reports that Eric Ryder claims that he had an informal agreement with Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment to adapt his story “KRZ 2068″ into a film. Ryder says he worked for two years on his project when Lightstorm told him to stop because there would be no audience for it. Imagine his surprise when a film that he alleges is almost exactly the same as his own became a worldwide multibillion dollar blockbuster.

There are definitely similarities between the story and movie Ryder says he was working on and Avatar. According  to the lawsuit, his story was an “environmentally themed 3-D epic about a corporation’s colonization and plundering of a distant moon’s lush and wondrous natural setting.”  Moreover, the corporation that brings the protagonist to this luscious place was to be a mining company.  And the 3D aspects were not just to be tacked on, but integral to the feel of the story.  Lightstorm says that Cameron passed around a scriptment for Avatar before they entered into the agreement wih Ryder, but Ryder says it isn’t so.  His lawsuit claims Lightstorm only went forward with Avatar after telling him to stop working on his film and used so many elements from his film that it violates that agreement.

Now, obviously, Ryder could just be tryin to cash in on Avatar‘s success. It’s not unheard of for Hollywood studios and production companies to be sued for “idea theft” and copyright infringement, but sometimes those suits do have pretty good grounds (see the case of The Matrix and ‘The Third Eye’). The case will likely take the path of most such suits and settle out of court but, if it doesn’t, it might be interesting to see how the case affects production of Avatar‘s sequels.

Avatar was undeniably an instant, cultural sensation and of course they’re supposed to be working on a sequel. So where is it? When will we see it? James Cameron’s taking his sweet time about it, don’t be surprised if it takes him another decade to get around to it. In the meantime though, he did offer an update one what he may be planning for the follow-up to NY Mag. It may be time to start thinking prequel.

Going that route doesn’t really make any sense. There’s so much more of Pandora left to explore, besides the Earth military is bound to show up again at some point. Exploring the consequences of what Jake has done could spawn an epic unlike anything we’ve seen on screen before. But Cameron doesn’t sound interested. Here’s what he said on the subject of the Avatar 2 plot, word for word, when asked if Sigourney Weaver would be in the sequel. Make of it what you will:

Well, I don’t want to disabuse her of that fantasy. But have you ever heard of nonlinear storytelling? A lot happens on that planet before she shows up, and before Jake shows up to join her. She’s there for fifteen years ahead of time. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. And I’ve already said way too much about Avatar 2 and 3 here and there, but people piece it together like those voice cameos and tell the whole story!

Frankly this sounds like a pretty awful idea. What’s the point in a prequel, when we already know where that story will end up? Especially when there’s so much left to be said about what happens next. What do you think? Would you rather see an Avatar sequel or a prequel?