Avatar actress Zoe Saldana says she is glad there will be a sequel to the movie as she knows she still has a job.

The 31-year-old plays the role of Na’vi princess Neytiri in James Cameron’s new movie and the director has confirmed that there will be a sequel.

Saldana also starred as Uhura in the Star Trek re-make earlier this year and that has also had a sequel confirmed.

She told E! Online: ‘I mean, I’m just grateful that between Star Trek II and Avatar II, I’m employed.

‘Jim [Cameron] has proven once again that even though he takes a decade between his projects, he promises to deliver you the most amazing adventure ever.’

From Monsters and Critics

Well, James Cameron thinks so at least. Sure most of us would agree that if honors were being handed out for Avatar’s acting, then obviously Michelle Rodriguez’s five-line cameo deserves to be the front-runner. But Cameron’s likely pleading his case with thesp Zoe Saldana in mind, arguing that despite being made up, Photoshopped, and CGI’ed, Saldana’s ability to remind all of us that inside our organs, there lies something squishier–feelings!–should’ve earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Cameron tells the New York Daily News, “People confuse what we have done with animation. It’s nothing like animation. The creator here is the actor, not the unseen hand of an animator.” (Slate wondered, pointedly, yesterday, ”How is Avatar not an animated film?”) It sort of sounds like Cameron’s saying the audience couldn’t separate actual actors from animated characters, rather than thinking maybe the acting wasn’t exactly Avatar’s strength.

At the same time, Cameron’s staying realistic about Avatar taking home any of the nine prizes it’s nominated for. “If we get nominated, I believe it’s very unlikely that we will win because I made such a jackass of myself last time. Although there might be some curiosity about what I might do,” he says. Last time, you’ll recall, there was talk about being the king of the world and the world was like, “Wrap it up, Jimmy, these quaaludes are starting to kick in.”

But here’s another possibility: Maybe Avatar is getting some version of the Lord of the Rings treatment–that is, upon getting wind that this could become the first big franchise of this decade, the Academy has decided to hold off on acting prizes. But that’s still inconsistent with the film’s possibly undeserved Best Picture nomination. LOTR didn’t enjoy that until after the series had wrapped with The Return of the King. Awards or not, Avatar–Cameron’s labor of love for nearly 15 years–is getting one thing that many Oscar nominees, post-telecast, will fail to enjoy: Major box office $ucce$$.

From BlackBook

The cast of “Avatar” is feeling blue.

The box-office behemoth may have gotten nine Academy Award nominations this week, but none were for its actors – and “Avatar” director James Cameron thinks the Oscar snub is totally unfair.

“People confuse what we have done with animation,” Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s nothing like animation. The creator here is the actor, not the unseen hand of an animator.”

More than 15 years in the making, “Avatar” used groundbreaking CGI technology to tell the tale of a futuristic conflict between humans and the blue-skinned Na’vi tribe of Pandora, including an innovative method of capturing the actors’ facial expressions.

But Cameron’s hi-tech wizardry apparently put off Oscar voters who, Cameron believes, didn’t consider the film’s performances to be actual “acting.”

“We made a commitment to our actors that what they would see up on the screen were their performances, not somebody else’s interpretation of what their performance might or might not be,” said “Avatar” producer Jon Landau.

Despite the Oscar dis, one movie expert believes “Avatar” may also be breaking new ground in the way people look at acting from now on.

“This is very much the first film of the 21st century,” film professor Richard Brown told The Hollywood Reporter. “What we need to do is expand our concept of what the word ‘actor’ means. It’s unfair to take performances as good as these and not designate them as actors.”

From the New York Daily News

“Avatar” kept its hold on the top spot in the domestic box office as it passed the $2 billion mark in worldwide gross, according to Box Office Mojo, a Web site that tracks box-office revenues.

The movie also continued to close in on one of the few box-office records it has not yet attained — all-time biggest domestic gross, which is still held by “Titanic.”

The weekend marked the seventh-straight weekend that “Avatar” was number one at the box office.

“Avatar” continues to draw still-solid audiences in the Sacramento region, though much smaller than the sold-out shows during its first few weeks. The blockbuster is showing at seven theaters in the Sacramento region.

On the all-time domestic gross list, “Avatar” has pulled in $595 million, second to “Titanic’s” $600.8 million, which “Avatar” should pass this weekend.

“Avatar” also climbed the list of all-time domestic grosses, taking inflation into account. The movie was 26th on that list last week and 21st this week. To break into the top 20, “Avatar” will need to pass Disney’s “Fantasia,” which has an adjusted gross of $619.5 million.

From Biz Journals

“Avatar”, the sci-fi phenomenon that sank the Titanic from its number one spot, is getting a sequel, which we knew would happen sooner or later. Back in December, before Avatar’s debut, James Cameron said that if the film did well, it would turn into a franchise. Surprise, surprise, it did a lot better than we expected and now the question is, how far into the next film is Cameron?

Joel David Moore, who plays the eager anthropologist Norm Spellman in Avatar, told MTV News Cameron has already shared some of his ideas about the sequel with him and the rest of the cast:

“There have been conversations about certain ways to go. Of course nothings set in stone. I love all the ideas… There are a lot of places for it to go and all of those decisions lie in one man’s brain. And that’s a giant brain. It is hard to feel smart around him.”

Cameron hasn’t said much about the sequel, but he did mention that the next film (or two) would follow Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and it would pick up right where it left off.

Moore will once again return as Spellman, one of the few humans who was allowed to stay on Pandora.

“Yes, I will be a part of whatever they want me to do. How can you now? I would love to go back to that world.”

Sequels are scary because they’re rarely as good as the originals. It would be a shame for Avatar, a film so beautiful, to be diluted by a follow up that’s not nearly as good. The only hope we have is in the director himself. He’s a god when it comes to the movies, and he’s got a more-than-adequate resume of successful franchises (Alien, Terminator). We’ll trust him to do his job right.

From Screen Crave