We're going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this weekend, Avatar will make another substantive amount of cash, that will push it very close to the $2bn mark at the worldwide box office. We're fairly confident in our prediction there.

We're also fairly confident that the powers that be at the likes of 20th Century Fox are keen to get a sequel motoring sooner rather than later, and given that James Cameron has already indicated his wish to do a follow-up or two to the world's biggest grossing film of all time, Fox will, no doubt, be equally eager to grease the wheels.

And yet it seems they might not have to. Slashfilm is reporting that pre-production work may already be in its extreme infancy on Avatar 2, The site, through its usually reliable sources, has learned that recruitment has begun for the film, and as Slashfilm says, "According to the source, some behind the scenes technical crew have signed on for three to five year contracts, just in case it runs long."

Cameron himself apparently doesn't have his story quite worked out yet, and the script for Avatar 2, of course, needs to be written. And perhaps, if the story above is true, which we - and this is easy for us to say - suspect it might be, it doesn't necessarily mean things are moving that much quicker. While Avatar 2 is unlikely to take the decade and a half that the first film required to bring it to the screen, it's still far from a bang-em-out-once-a-year Saw sequel. As such, it wouldn't be implausible that pre-production work could begin here without a screenplay in place to work around.

When can we expect Avatar 2? Good question. 2013 or 2014 would be our guess, assuming James Cameron chooses to push ahead with it as his next project. That's far from guaranteed, though...

Slashfilm