Remember the little film "Avatar" that grossed almost $3 Billion? Well its director, James Cameron announced that he will be returning to New Zealand to film three sequels to the Academy Award winning film.

According to the Associated Press, the man behind the immensely popular about 10-foot tall blue Na'vi inhabitants of Pandora revealed the news on Monday in the capital Wellington with producer Jon Landau and Prime Minister John Key.

The 2009 film, which was released by Lightstorm Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox was shot in New Zealand and took home a total three Academy Awards. The flick was also named the highest-grossing film in history with an international box office result of nearly $2.8 billion.

James Cameron said that he plans on completing the principal shooting on the three movies at one time over a 9 month period which will start in the beginning of 2015.

The famous "Titanic" director revealed that he wanted to be able to release the first sequel in time for Christmas 2016 and the following sequels in late 2017 and late 2018.

While at a news conference Cameron said, "It's quite a thrill to be officially saying that we're bringing the Avatar films to New Zealand," adding, "We had such a wonderful experience here making the first film."

Cameron has begun the writing and design of the movies and New Zealand's government has agreed to a 25 percent rebate for the films which means they will cover one-quarter of the film's expenses.

Lightstorm and Twentieth Century Fox are set to spend at least $413 million in New Zealand on the three films however, James Cameron refused to reveal the budget.

But he did say that he expects that the money available for the three movies together will cost less than $1 billion.

Like the initial film Cameron plans to make the sequels in 3D and shoot at least some sequences at 48 frames per second which is different seeing as films are typically shot in 24 frames per second.

Prime Minister John Key seems to be thrilled about the film being shot in New Zealand. The Associated Press reported that the New Zealand film industry has been facing a drought in filming projects following the last Peter Jackson film.

Key explained, "It's a day of great celebration," adding, "It's a great Christmas present for those involved in making world-class movies."

Are you looking forward to the "Avatar" sequels? Let us know in the comment section below.