Canadian film director James Cameron has confirmed he is planning not one but two sequels to his 3D sci-fi epic, Avatar, which earned a special effects Oscar for the Wellington-based Weta Workshop.

Following the announcement that the blockbuster will return to cinemas with an extra nine minutes of footage to the original 161 minute running time, Cameron told wired.com that he wants to film two sequels.

A DVD set comprising three cuts of the movie - the original, one with nine more minutes and a third with 16 more minutes - is scheduled for release in the US in November.

After that, Cameron will concentrate on sequels to Avatar and producing a new horror film of the HP Lovecraft novel At The Mountains Of Madness, directed by Guillermo del Toro, now at a loose end after leaving the Hobbit. Naturally, the film will also be in 3D.

“Before I go to make another Avatar movie, I don’t want to have to go back. When we close this box, it stays closed, which is why the one in November is the definitive version,” Cameron said.

The additional footage will give some background to the story, he said.

“You’ll see a little bit of background, a little bit of stuff that happened off camera in the movie that you saw,” Cameron told Wired.

“You’ll see new creatures, new set pieces, new emotional scenes. It’s anecdotes, but it’s not going to be perplexing or change the story.”

The additional scenes were edited before Weta went to work on them, according to Wired. However, there was no word as yet on whether Weta would work on the Avatar sequels. 

Here's the trailer for the version with an additional nine minutes: