{"id":181328,"date":"2025-12-13T04:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T04:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/181328\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T04:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T04:15:08","slug":"avatar-fire-and-ash-premiere-draws-films-stars-to-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/181328\/","title":{"rendered":"Avatar: Fire and Ash premiere draws film\u2019s stars to Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Herald will be bringing you all the action from the red carpet as Avatar: Fire and Ash is screened for the first time ahead of its nationwide cinematic release on December 18. <\/p>\n

\"DirectorDirector James Cameron and actor Sam Worthington on the set of Avatar: The Way of Water. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Filming for the movie finished in December 2020 and was pieced together over a three-year period, and filmed alongside Avatar: The Way of Water, which was released in 2022. The film\u2019s theatrical release has been subject to nine delays.<\/a><\/p>\n

The plot<\/a> takes audiences back to the planet of Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine, turned Na\u2019vi leader, Sully, played by Worthington.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto \/ Annaleise Shortland<\/p>\n

The film also stars Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement and Giovanni Ribisi.<\/p>\n

In 2013, the New Zealand Government signed an agreement<\/a> with Lightstorm Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox to ensure three Avatar films<\/a> were made in New Zealand. In exchange for tax breaks, the deal required one world premiere to be held in Wellington<\/a> and at least $500 million to be spent on production activity in New Zealand. <\/p>\n

The Avatar franchise began with the eponymous film, released in 2009, which went on to become the highest-grossing motion picture of all time. With the first film and its four sequels having a combined budget estimated at US$1 billion ($1.72b), the franchise is one of the most expensive franchises ever created. It has grossed more than US$5.2b worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Herald will be bringing you all the action from the red carpet as Avatar: Fire and Ash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,4921,59871,6726,1288,18983,593,434,2079,115233,10750,111,43,139,69,95456,16083,5436,3755,61,52],"class_list":["post-181328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-ash","tag-avatar","tag-become","tag-capital","tag-draws","tag-film","tag-films","tag-fire","tag-franchises","tag-instalment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pandora","tag-premiere","tag-stars","tag-third","tag-to","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}