Avatar producer Jon Landau on his return to New Zealand

The producer of the Avatar sci-fi movie sequels says he has no qualms coming back to New Zealand during the Covid-19 recovery phase.

Director James Cameron is currently working on a number of sequels to the original film, the first of which is currently expected to arrive in December 2021.

While VFX teams from Weta Digital and Lightstorm were able to work from home as much as possible, live-action filming came to a halt in March because of the pandemic.

But producer Jon Landau is due back in Wellington next week and has praised the way the New Zealand handled the crisis.

A small crew will return to the country with Landau and they will go into quarantine for two weeks.

Landau spoke to RNZ about his plans for filming:

On returning to New Zealand:

"We feel very comfortable because of the actions of your government and also the responsibility the people took to really curb the virus there. 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."

On mandatory quarantine:

"If there's a silver lining to a very, very grey cloud, it's that we live in a day and age where technology allows us to be productive, it allows us to be entertained and it allows us to socialise."

On the benefits of filming in New Zealand:

"One of the great things about the film industry is that our spending is quite diversified. We don't just spend money in one area. We spend money when we cater for 400 people a day - we go to the local market. The stationery supplies that are required on a film had a big impact. So we're not just spending in one area, our sets require lumber, all of those things.

"So the economics of any film coming into a community are quite strong in that the dollar spent circulates in that community because of the diversity of spending for quite some time."