James Cameron has announced that now his underwater explorations in the Marianas Trench have come to an end that he has shut down the development arm of Lightstorm Productions in order to focus on sequels, Avatar 2 (possibly scheduled for release in 2016, but don’t hold your breath – you’ll turn blue!) and 3, with the possibility of a part 4.

Cameron’s reason for this is that he wants to say everything about the state of the world addressing its problems and what we need to do about it exclusively through his Avatar franchise while sporadically filming underwater docos.

Zarking fardwarks! We have scientists that go to school for years that address these issues, not filmmakers!

Does one think that Robert Wise would have abandoned all his future projects to make Day the Earth Stood Still: Gort’s Revenge or Howard Hawks and The Thing From Another World II: Electric Boogaloo (it was Hawks who actually directed The Thing, not Christian Nyby who was credited)?

The late, great Lindsay Anderson pulled it off with the Mick Travis series, but had also directed Wish You Were Here and The Whales of August after completion of his trilogy. If, O’ Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital (ever more so today) still stand the test of time.

My take on this, is that Cameron once said that he could make a better Star Wars series than King George could and King George created his own franchise only because Universal turned him down when he wanted to remake Flash Gordon. Perhaps there is a child out there who he or she can make a better Avatar picture in twenty years when they grow up. Ad infinitum.

Story and dialogue (which has never been Cameron’s strong point) does not matter, but wowing the audience with eye candy does. It compares to a nicely, wrapped box of chocolates that’s presented to you and when you open it; all you get are empty wrappers inside.

Overall, its all about the pounds and dollars one makes in merchandising with those two.

Let’s hear your thoughts.