James Cameron made an appearance at Fox's CinemaCon with some big news.  He has been working with four top screenwriters to build the universe of Avatar, with plans for four sequels. The release dates for those four films have already been set — 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Each will debut in the Christmas season of those years.

The four sequels will be able to stand alone, but will together create a saga. Talking about the development of the project, Cameron says:

"We have decided to embark on a truly massive cinematic process... I've been working the last couple of years with a team of four top screenwriters to design the world of Avatar going forward: The characters, the creatures, the environment, the new cultures. So far, the art I'm seeing, is in pure imagination, really far beyond the first film. It's going to be a true epic saga."

As the first film did, it seems like Cameron will be pushing movie technology forward by leaps and bounds.

"... we've begun to bump up against the limitations for our art form."

Concept art shown confirmed underwater and sky environments for some of the films.

The 2009 first film earned $2.8 billion worldwide and remains the highest grossing film ever made.

According to IMDB, those four screenwriters may be Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Rick Jaffa (Jurassic World), Shane Salerno (Armageddon), and Amanda Silver (Jurassic World). They are the four screenwriters most recently connected to the Avatar sequels.