Kate Winslet went to shaman school

Kate Winslet went to shaman "school" ahead of making the third 'Avatar' movie.

Director James Cameron has confirmed the 48-year-old actress will be reprising her role as Ronal in the next installment of the blockbuster sci-fi saga and revealed the preparation she undertook for her scenes included learning from a "husband and wife shaman practice".

Explaining how Kate "went to school", he added to People magazine: "When you see her doing that purification ritual to try to revive Kitty in the film and some of the stuff that she's going to do in movie three, that's based on actual practice."

Despite the recent Hollywood strikes, James confirmed the movie is "right on track" for its planned release date of 19 December, 2025.

He said: "We did the capture on three and the live-action photography on three as an intermingled production with [Avatar: The Way of Water], and we even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four."

And as for the fourth movie, which is due for release in 2029, the 69-year-old filmmaker will wait until the third is released before returning to filming.

He said: "We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back. And so the part where we come back is the part we haven't shot yet. So we'll start on that after three is released."

James has found making the third movie "actually much more straightforward" than the second, 'Avatar: The Way of Water'.

He explained: "Two, we got hit with the pandemic in the middle of it and we were interrupted, and then we had to reboot and reboot the production and all that sort of thing. And it was a scramble to get it done."