James Cameron lands in New Zealand to re-start 'Avatar 2' filming

James Cameron and his producer Jon Landau have arrived back in New Zealand to recommence filming of Avatar 2.

The pair landed in Wellington on a flight from Los Angeles, and were then immediately ordered to self-isolate for 14 days, per the government's stringent guidelines for incoming travellers on COVID-19.

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In a post to Instagram by Landau, both he and Cameron are wearing masks and protective face shields at the airport.

He captioned: “Made it to New Zealand. Our 14-day government supervised self-isolation now begins.”

Production on the ambitious movie – being shot back-to-back with the third Avatar film – was halted in mid-March as countries around the world locked down amid the developing pandemic.

New Zealand in particular has been praised for its swift and decisive response to the virus, with cases of infection barely over 1000 and 22 deaths.

Speaking about going back to work last week, Landau told Kiwi news site RNZ: “We feel very comfortable because of the actions of your government and also the responsibility the people took to really curb the virus there.

Read more: How will social distancing work in cinemas?

“So we feel we're coming back to the safest place in the world possible thanks to a team of people that we've worked with. We believe we have a very thoughtful, detailed and diligent safety plan that will keep everybody as safe as possible in these unprecedented times.

“I think with Avatar, we have an opportunity to allow people to escape to an incredible world with incredible characters that they will follow, in much the same way as Peter Jackson was able to do with Lord of the Rings, so that's what we're looking forward to doing.”

Avatar 2 is set for release in December, 2021.

There's no word yet as to whether the filming hiatus will affect the release date.