Zoe Saldana won’t need convincing to head to the set of “Avatar 2.”

“We signed our lives away for whatever was going to happen. It was the kind of thing that, had they not asked me to sign, I would’ve offered myself regardless,” the star told Access Hollywood of the potential sequel at the 3rd Annual Essence Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon. “Any excuse to go back and reunite with [director] Jim [Cameron] and the rest of the cast, especially Sam [Worthington] and Sigourney [Weaver], is something that I won’t even hesitate [to do].”

As the cast and crew of “Avatar” gear up for their big night at the Oscars on Sunday, Zoe said she’s been trying to slow down the whirlwind of awards season events.

“Life happens and it goes so fast,” she said. “It’s been so wonderful so far.”

The film has grossed over $2 billion, making it the top-earning film ever – beating out Cameron’s previous record holder, 1997’s “Titanic.” The director has confirmed a sequel is in the works, though the project is likely a ways off.

From Access Hollywood

The 3D blockbuster received nods in the Best Film and Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy categories, while Cameron is in the running for the Best Director prize. The movie’s stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are each tipped in the Best Actor/Actress category.

Fighting it out with Worthington are Sir Michael Caine (Harry Brown), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga: New Moon) and Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes).

Saldana is up against Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria) and Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds).

Cameron will go head-to-head with ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) in the Best Director list, as well as Neil Blomkamp (District 9), JJ Abrams (Star Trek) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds).

The former couple’s movies are also facing each other in the Best Film category; they’ll fight it out with Star Trek, District 9 and Inglourious Basterds.

The awards will take place in London on 28 March (10).

Avatar landed two Golden Globes last month (Jan10), two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards last week (21Feb10) and has received nine nominations at the upcoming Oscars on 7 March (10).

From Hollywood.com

“Avatar” picked up another award Tuesday night, but Oscar prognosticators probably shouldn’t read anything into it — “The Hurt Locker,” “Up in the Air” and “Inglourious Basterds” weren’t eligible.

James Cameron’s blockbuster was named best live-action 3-D feature by the month-old International 3D Society, kicking off its inaugural Lumiere Awards at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

“Up,” also in the running for Academy Award best picture honors, was honored as best animated 3-D feature, and another Pixar work, “Partly Cloudy,” won in the category for best short 3-D motion picture/narrative.

The International 3D Society was formed Jan. 21 with a stated mission of advancing “the achievement of professionals working in the arts and technologies of Stereoscopic 3D.” Its board of governors includes a diverse group — studio executives, the heads of 3-D and post-production houses and even a PhD at UC Berkeley’s school of optometry. The awards were voted on by more than 100 film industry 3-D experts, a spokesman for the group said.

Among other winners Tuesday were the Imax film “Under the Sea 3D” as best 3-D documentary, “G-Force” as best 2-D-to-3-D converted feature, and “Avatar’s” Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana) as best 3-D character of the year.

From the Los Angeles Times

“Avatar” leads the competition at the upcoming Saturn Awards, with 10 nominations including bids for best fantasy picture, leads Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana and supporting players Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver.

“Sherlock Holmes” has eight nominations while “Watchmen” and “Inglorious Basterds” earned seven apiece. “District 9″ and “Star Trek” both contend in six races, though Oscar nominee “District 9″ did not earn a best picture bid from these kudos.

This 36th annual edition of the awards honors films across four genres — sci-fi, fantasy, horror and action/adventure/thriller. Though there are four best film awards, the other categories cull nominees from all four genres.

The best director race includes “Avatar” helmer James Cameron — who has won this award four times — and two of his Oscar rivals Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Inglorious Basterds”), with both their films contending in the catch-all action/adventure/thriller category. The other nominees: J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek”), Neil Blomkamp (“District 9″), Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes”) and Zack Snyder (“Watchmen”).

Members of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror decide on both nominees and the winners, which will be announced June 24, 2010.

From the Los Angeles Times

In early February, just as “Avatar” became the highest-grossing movie in U.S. box-office history, News Corp. top dog Rupert Murdoch announced that Fox had held “very early talks about” a sequel to James Cameron’s sci-fi love story. More than two weeks later, Cameron tells MTV News he’s still waiting to sort out those contractual details before committing to a return to the motion-captured world of Pandora.

“I’ve got some deal hurdles I got to get over with the studio before I want to emotionally embrace that,” the writer/director said.

Declining to elaborate about the specific obstacles — not compensation-related, he assured us — Cameron nonetheless said all parties involved expect a deal to be signed at some point down the road.

“[Sequel details have] never properly been worked out, let me put it that way,” he said. “But everyone’s highly motivated. Rupert Murdoch told us we were doing it, so now they have to make a deal.”

During the Wednesday interview, Cameron also confirmed what he’s been telling us since December: that the sequel will pick up after the events of the first film — spoiler alert! — when Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) permanently transfers his consciousness to his Na’vi avatar and begins a new life with Princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) after they defeat the human colonizers.

“It would be a continuation of their story and I expect that those nasty humans didn’t go away forever: ‘Oh, well that didn’t work!’ ” he said.

For now, though, Cameron adamantly refuses to say whether a second “Avatar” will be his next feature film project as a director. He’s got his hands in a number of other creative ventures and will soon jet off to Australia for work on “Sanctum,” a 3-D underwater cave-diving tale that he’s producing.

“I’m sort of reacquainting with a bunch of projects that are non-theatrical film projects, like space stuff and ocean stuff,” Cameron said. “But yeah, I’m thinking about what the next feature will be and another ‘Avatar’ film is a strong possibility.”

From MTV