Avatar sequel hopes for success with video game tie-in

Jun 28, 2021 06:00 am

PARIS: Video game adaptations of Hollywood blockbusters fell out of fashion over the last decade, but makers of the sequel to top-grossing movie Avatar hope their tie-in will buck the trend.

Made by French giant Ubisoft, Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora is an opportunity to "extend (the universe) and give fans somewhere to go", said Mr Jon Landau, the head of director James Cameron's production company Lightstorm Entertainment.

The Avatar follow-up set for release late next year is just the latest gargantuan film project the company has steered for Cameron since the late 1980s, from Terminator 2: Judgment Day to Titanic to the first Avatar film in 2009.

Landau pitches the game as a complement to the new movie, a chance to explore the mythical planet of Pandora and its blue-skinned inhabitants beyond the version on cinema screens.

"It is an extension of the experience of the movie, and the movie is an extension of the experience of the game. It goes both ways," he said. - REUTERS