James Cameron Reportedly Wants Full VFX For A 9-Hour Cut Of Avatar 3

James Cameron has gone above and beyond for Avatar before, but a new report suggests he asked the studio for full VFX on a 9-hour cut for Avatar 3.

A new report suggests that director James Cameron delivered a 9-hour cut of the upcoming Avatar 3 to the studio and asked for it to receive full VFX. The Avatar franchise is finally returning to theaters after 13 years with the long-awaited sequel, Avatar:The Way Of Water. The new movie is the first step in Cameron’s plan for the expansion of the franchise, which appears to be coming in a big way with Avatar 3.

According to Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic podcast, Cameron handed in a 9-hour cut of Avatar 3 to 20th Century Studios. He then demanded that the visual effects be fully done for all 9 hours before deciding what will be cut out down. Sneider doesn’t corroborate the report himself, but his willingness to share suggests there could be some validity to its claims. Read Sneider’s comments or check out them out in podcast episode (~1:00:40 mark), below:

“Someone reached out and said Cameron handed in a cut of Avatar 3 last week. The cut was, no joke, 9-hours long. And apparently, he’s insisting on doing the VFX for this cut, so that all 9-hours get fully VFX’d, then he’ll cut it down. Rather than figuring out what he wants and having them just do the VFX for that. That’s what I heard.”

Related: Everything We Know About Avatar 3

Why A 9-Hour Avatar Movie Wouldn’t Work

Before even getting into the Avatar 2‘s story details, the logistic behind putting a 9-hour cut of Avatar 3 in theaters would be a nightmare. Any movie with a runtime over 3-hours already presents logistical problems to theaters, with fewer showings being available due to the long runtime and the necessary cleaning period in-between showings. Cameron obviously knows this, which is why he’s reportedly still planning to cut down the movie releasing it in theaters. However, the studio’s unlikely to accept the expenditure of completing VFX for a cut of a movie most will never see.

From a story standpoint, if Cameron actually asked for full VFX on a 9-hour cut, then that means the Titanic director is extremely confident in what’s been shot for Avatar 3. Still, releasing a 9-hour movie isn’t really feasible because it’s an absurd amount of time to ask audiences to spend at a theater, not matter how good. Perhaps the best way to handle it is to take Cameron’s recent comments of bringing Avatar into the television space and applying them to Avatar 3. The director’s talked about how the necessary technology to produce a long-form series set in the Avatar universe is still 10 years away, but if he’s truly confident in all 9-hours of Avatar 3, then a solution could be reached.

If 20th Century Studios agree to Cameron’s request and complete VFX on the 9-hour cut of Avatar 3, and Cameron then trims the movie down to a more reasonable theatrical cut, that would leave the director with a substantial amount content set in the world of Pandora on his hands. He would then need to repurpose the cut footage into a series, but if Cameron has the mind to make this work, then a few superfluous subplots from Avatar 3 could become a welcomed companion adventure to the movie. That’s at least one way to rationalize completing VFX on a 9-hour cut of Avatar 3.

Next: Avatar 2 Is Already Fixing 3 Big Problems From 2009

Source: Jeff Sneider/The Hot Mic