James Cameron was the surprise guest at the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in New Zealand yesterday, lending his support to director Peter Jackson. The filmmaker also provided an update on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, revealing that he hopes to finish the screenplays by February to start production by the end of 2013.

"I want to get these scripts nailed down, I don't want to be writing the movie in post production. We kind of did that on the first picture, I ended up cutting out a lot of scenes and so on and I don't want to do that again."

Back in April, the director's producing partner Jon Landau revealed that Avatar 2 might not make its proposed December 2014 release date. If shooting doesn't start until the end of 2013, it seems we may be waiting a bit longer before heading back to Pandora.

The filmmaker also believes that Peter Jackson's use of the 48 frames per second frame rate will lead the way for his Pandora-set sequels.

"If there is acceptance of 48, then that will pave the way for Avatar (sequels) to take advantage of it. We charged out ahead on 3D with Avatar, now Peter's doing it with The Hobbit. It takes that kind of bold move to make change."