Last November, James Cameron said he hoped to have the scripts for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 finished by February, and planned to shoot later this year.  February has now come and gone, and Cameron is still at work on getting back into the world of Pandora.  But not to worry, Avatar fans.  Cameron is still plugging away at the sequels, and he's close to reaching the point where the story begins to write itself.

Hit the jump for more.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Speaking to Play Goes Strong [via Bleeding Cool], Cameron talked about trying to build Avatar sequels from scratch:

"I'm working on 'Avatar 2' and 'Avatar 3.' I was talking the other day with Peter Jackson and said, 'You had it easy dude. You had the books when you did the second and third 'Lord of the Rings.' I have to create my own books in my head and extract a script from it. I'm deep into it and I'm living in Pandora right now. There is that start up torque where you feel it's coming to you. Then you build up momentum. That's when it gets fun. The characters talk and it's writing itself. I'm almost there right now. It's building fast."

I suppose for Cameron, "book in my head" equals "FernGully: The Last Rainforest".  The good news is that there was a direct-to-video sequel, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Cameron says that for him to get into the headspace to write the sequels, he needs isolation.  "I'm calling you from New Zealand right now where I'm writing on a little farm," Cameron told PGS.  "When you live in a special world like Pandora, you have to live in that world."

Finally, when asked about the pressure of topping his record-breaking and influential film, and when we might see the sequels, Cameron responded:

"Pressure, no. It's a little daunting because sequels are always tricky. You have to be surprising and stay ahead of audience anticipation. At the same time, you have to massage their feet with things that they know and love about the first film. I've walked that line in the past, so I'm not too worried about it. At the same time, I definitely have to deliver the goods…As for a release date that will be determined by when I get the script out. No pressure!"

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Image via 20th Century Fox