It's just three weeks until the world premiere of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third instalment in James Cameron's sci-fi franchise, and the stakes are higher than ever. The film has cost "a ton" of money, so it will need to gross "two tons", in the words of its director, if it is to become a major saga with more films, or if it all remains a trilogy.
But someone who is very calm right now about the future of the film is Disney chairman Bob Iger. Iger, as well as other people of relevant opinion, have seen Avatar: Fire and Ash at various stages of both its post-production and editing, and at least as far as general feelings are concerned, Iger is "delighted".
This is reflected in James Cameron's comments to Puck News, on comments after seeing a rough cut of Avatar 3: "It's interesting. He doesn't have an opinion until I have something to show. His comment when he first saw it, even though at the time it was 3 hours and 23 minutes long, not including credits, so it's been shortened by about 18 minutes since then. He said, "Yeah, I know you're going to keep cutting it, but it's magnificent." He basically said, 'I love this movie'."
So, for the time being at least, it looks like Disney will keep the gamble and the final marketing push when Avatar: Fire and Ash hits cinemas worldwide on December 19. Are you going to go and see it?