James Cameron has recruited Josh Friedman, who created Fox's cult hit series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," to work on the screenplay for the much-anticipated "Avatar 2," an individual familiar with the 20th Century Fox project has told TheWrap.

Friedman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a representative for his agency, UTA, referred TheWrap to Cameron's production company Lightstorm Entertainment.

Lightstorm's COO and "Avatar" producer Jon Landau, reached by TheWrap, said: "I would not comment on 'Avatar 2' one way or the other way."

Fox had no comment.

Friedman has a long-standing relationship with Fox, having created its series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and written a "Locke & Key" pilot for the Fox network. He also served as a producer on Fox's short-lived series "The Finder."

Friedman is a logical choice to work on the "Avatar 2," screenplay, as Cameron has entrusted the writer with his previously established characters, such as Sarah and John Connor. Friedman earned strong reviews as he expanded the "Terminator" mythology.

"Avatar" is the highest-grossing movie of all time, having amassed nearly $2.8 billion worldwide. With that in mind, it's fair to say that by default, "Avatar 2" is the most highly-anticipated sequel in the history of movies.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are expected to return for "Avatar 2," which is expected to hit theaters in 2015.

Friedman's previous screenwriting credits include Steven Spielberg's 2005 remake of "War of the Worlds" and Brian De Palma's serial killer thriller "The Black Dahlia." He also received story credit on the 1996 Keanu Reeves movie "Chain Reaction." He's repped by UTA and attorney Karl R. Austen.

Stoke the fires at the rumour mill, because a new report has come in saying Arnold Schwarzenegger will be playing the human antagonist in the first of the three planned Avatar sequels.

According to sources close to Latino Review, Arnie will play "a bad guy human general" who will cause trouble for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and the rest of the Na’vi in the first Avatar sequel, set to release in 2016. Director James Cameron had previously told MTV News that the sequel will continue the story directly on from the first movie, hinting that "those nasty humans didn't go away forever."

If the rumour proves to be true, it'll be the fourth collaboration between Schwarzenegger and Cameron, following Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and True Lies. That's a pretty magical run.

The three Avatar sequels are set to film simultaneously and then release one year after another starting in December of 2016.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — James Cameron says his vision for his three "Avatar" sequels is to create a family epic in the mold of "The Godfather" that will introduce viewers to new cultures and go underwater on his fictional moon Pandora.

The director announced Monday he will be filming the sequels in New Zealand, where he shot the triple Academy Award-winning original. In an interview with The Associated Press, Cameron also talked about life on a New Zealand farm, where he's growing walnuts and allowing his children to roam.

Cameron, 59, said he plans to release the first sequel in 2016, seven years after the release of "Avatar," which has become the highest-grossing film in history with a box office take of nearly $2.8 billion.

He said a core team has been developing new software for the sequels even while he's been gone on other projects, including 18 months planning a 7-mile descent to the deepest part of the ocean, which he successfully completed last year.

"It's going to be a lot of new imagery and a lot of new environments and creatures across Pandora," he said. "We're blowing it out all over the place. At first I thought I was going to take it onto other worlds as well, in the same solar system, but it turned out not to be necessary. I mean the Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come, the way I see it."

Cameron said the films will explore different Na'vi cultures as well the cultures of other Pandora creatures.

"There's a fair bit of underwater stuff. It's been inaccurately said that the second film takes place underwater. That's not true," he said. "There are underwater scenes and surface-water scenes having to do with indigenous ocean cultures that are distributed across the three films."

He said water is enormously difficult to recreate on a computer, something he's been talking about with Joe Letteri, the visual effects supervisor at Weta Digital.

"I said Joe, you know, there's a lot of water," Cameron said. "And he basically said 'Bring it on. We're ready.'"

He said the first movie focused on the main character, Jake Sully.

"It was very Jake-centric. His story seen through his eyes," Cameron said. "We spread it around quite a bit more as we go forward. It's really the story of his family, the family that he creates on Pandora. His extended family. So think of it as a family saga like 'The Godfather.'"

Cameron said the theme of sustainability that runs through the "Avatar" series also extends to his personal life. He and fifth wife Suzy Amis bought a farm about 90 minutes' drive from Wellington where they spend some of the year with their three children. Cameron said he's putting in 650 walnut trees.

"There'll also be tree crops, grains, produce, it will be quite a mixed bag," he said. "But really, I think of it as an experimental station to look at various sustainable agriculture approaches."

A native of Canada, Cameron said the New Zealand farm feels like "closing a loop" after he spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario.

"The kids love it here. They love that combination of freedom and responsibility that you get here because you can run freely," he said. "There are no predators and snakes and that sort of thing. We just let them go out with a walkie-talkie, and as long as they are back by dinner, we don't care where they are."

He said he plans to bring his own helicopter from California to help make the commute from the farm to Wellington when he's working on the movies.

Before then, he said, he'll be throwing a Christmas party for the community around his farm. He said about 95 people turned up last year but he worries that numbers could be down this year because it's going to be an all-vegan menu, a lifestyle his family recently adopted.