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Thirteen years on, James Cameron’s mega-budget Avatar sequel opens in cinemas next week, hoping to illicit that same appetite in cinemagoers for the 3D magic of the first.

While the medium has fallen out of favour, it remains Cameron’s preferred choice of viewing.

But not only will cinemagoers need 3D glasses – coming in at a whopping three hours and 10 minutes, it also requires stamina.

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With production costs totalling around £285m (up there with the most expensive films ever made), to make it worth Disney’s while, the epic has to at least end up making it into the top five highest grossing movies of all time.

To do so, it needs audiences to want to see it more than once, which perhaps isn’t too unreasonable when you factor in that a huge amount of the money generated in both of Cameron’s previous blockbusters – Titanic and the first Avatar – came from cinemagoers paying to see the film’s multiple times.

But in a cost of living crisis do we have the cash now?

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The film sees Sam Worthington return to the role of Na’vi leader Jake Sully and is rooted around the family he now has with warrior Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana.

“The movie’s mighty,” Worthington told Sky News.

“It’s a mighty film, and very heart-wrenching.

“We all went through a pandemic together as a whole world, and that’s a connection that we all have to each other… and it’s about us being connected as individuals – I think that’s very important to relate to and really take to heart.”

Thanks to the magic of motion capture, Sigourney Weaver returns, playing Jake Sulley’s adoptive teenage daughter.

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‘I needed to see it twice’

“It’s an experience so immersive and also takes your breath away,” she told Sky News, adding that she will need to see the film once more to get the full experience from it.

The sequel also features Kate Winslet in the cast as the matriarch of an ocean-bound clan.

Sigourney Weaver in Avatar: The Way Of Water. Pic: 20th Century Studios
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Sigourney Weaver in Avatar: The Way Of Water. Pic: 20th Century Studios

For the Oscar-winning actress it was a chance to work, once again, with the filmmaker who put her on the Titanic:

“He (Cameron) asked and I said yes. Why on earth would I not?,” she told Sky News.

“Also, my children would never have allowed me to. They were like… just do it.”

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Kate Winslet on accepting Avatar role

Cameron, who overtook his own movie, Titanic, with Avatar as the highest grossing film ever in 2009, has already set the wheels in motion for the next films in the franchise – and spent much of the last decade preparing.

“It was a lot of time spent working on the script for four movies, production design for four movies, a bunch of new technology we needed,” he said.

“And then we started at full tilt five years ago… and then we shot two movies, actually part of the third one.”

Kate Winslet (L) in Avatar. Pic: 20th Century Studios
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Kate Winslet (L) in Avatar. Pic: 20th Century Studios

Cameron also describes his new sci-fi epic as a “love letter to the oceans”.

“A lot of people [in 2009] picked up on the messaging around the rainforest and around the plight of indigenous cultures around the world.

“We have that in spades now because nothing has really got that much better – in the meantime, this one is my love letter to the oceans and a cry for people everywhere to be responsible for guardianship of the oceans.”

Right now the Na’vi’s survival might just depend on what happens off-screen more than on.

Avatar: The Way of Water is in cinemas on 16 December.

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Former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Quentin Willson dies

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Former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Quentin Willson dies

Former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died.

The Leicester-born car dealer and motoring journalist joined the BBC show in 1991, appearing alongside the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and James May, until the original format was cancelled 10 years later.

He then moved to Channel 5 to join its rival motoring show, Fifth Gear, and did not rejoin when Top Gear relaunched in 2002.

The 68-year-old died on Saturday following a short battle with lung cancer, his family said.

Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

In a statement, they described him as a “true national treasure” who “brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms”.

The broadcaster created and presented both Britain’s Worst Drivers and The Car’s The Star.

He went on to perform on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, where he continues to hold the lowest score in the show’s history.

He was also an avid “consumer champion”, having advocated for a number of campaigns, including helping to freeze fuel duty with his FairFuel campaign.

He recently worked “tirelessly” to make electric vehicles affordable through his FairCharge campaign, his family said.

The statement continued: “Long before it was fashionable, he championed the GM EV1 and the promise of electric cars, proving he was always ahead of the curve.

“Much-loved husband to Michaela, devoted father to Mercedes, Max and Mini, and cherished grandfather to Saskia, Xander and Roxana.

“Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.

“The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach.”

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Davina McCall reveals breast cancer diagnosis a year after brain tumour surgery

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Davina McCall reveals breast cancer diagnosis a year after brain tumour surgery

Davina McCall has revealed she has had breast cancer, nearly a year after she had surgery to remove a brain tumour.

The TV presenter revealed the diagnosis in a video posted to her Instagram on Saturday, saying she was “very angry” when she found out, but now is in a “much more positive place” after undergoing surgery to remove the tumour three weeks ago.

“I found a lump a few weeks ago. It came and went but then I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show, and Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee, I did that,” she said.

“It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought ‘I’m going to get that looked at’. I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.”

McCall, 58, said the “lump” was “very, very small” and was discovered early.

Davina McCall said she had surgery to remove the "lump" three weeks ago. Pic: PA
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Davina McCall said she had surgery to remove the “lump” three weeks ago. Pic: PA

“I am so relieved to have had it removed and to know that it hasn’t spread. My lymph nodes were clear, I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy,” she explained.

The former Big Brother presenter thanked her medical team, family and fiance for their support, before adding: “It’s been a lot. I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that, and I feel in a much more positive place now.

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“I think my message is: get checked if you’re worried. Check yourself regularly. If you are due a mammogram, then get it done.

“I have dense breasts and I had a mammogram in August, and I was postponing the ultrasound; I just couldn’t find time to do it. Don’t do that. Get the ultrasound.”

Her breast cancer diagnosis came nearly a year after McCall revealed that she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.

McCall revealed last November that she had a benign brain tumour. Pic: PA
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McCall revealed last November that she had a benign brain tumour. Pic: PA

She said in a video posted in November last year that chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.

McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.

She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, and currently presents ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.

In recent years, McCall has spoken regularly on women’s health and the effects of menopause in a bid to break taboos around the subject. Her 2022 book, Menopausing, won book of the year at the British Book Awards.

McCall's brain cancer was found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work. Pic: PA
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McCall’s brain cancer was found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work. Pic: PA

The same year, McCall fronted the Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, and told the BBC that perimenopausal symptoms caused her difficulties multi-tasking and she considered that she had a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s disease at the time.

In 2023, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting.

The presenter has previously raised money for Cancer Research UK by running the Race For Life in honour of her late sister, Caroline Baday, who died from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 50.

Read more from Sky News:
Kendrick Lamar leads Grammy nods
Celebrity Traitors star reveals double-bluff

Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.

She lives with her fiance, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and presents a weekly lifestyle podcast with him, called Making The Cut.

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Kendrick Lamar leads Grammy nominations as K-pop makes it mark

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Kendrick Lamar leads Grammy nominations as K-pop makes it mark

Kendrick Lamar is leading this year’s Grammy nominations, up for nine trophies, including record, song and album of the year.

The 38-year-old swept last year’s awards, taking home five gongs for his hit dis track Not Like Us.

The varied bag of Grammy nominees – featuring big names and a few surprises – also saw K-pop stars, a knighted British rocker and a Hollywood leading man make it into the Grammy competition.

Lady Gaga earlier this year. Pic: AP
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Lady Gaga earlier this year. Pic: AP

Lady Gaga (who is up for record, song and album of the year too), Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer-songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar with seven nominations each.

Sabrina Carpenter got six nods, matching her nomination tally for last year.

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Alongside Lamar’s GNX, other albums to make it into the best album category this year include Lady Gaga’s Mayhem and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos (only the second all-Spanish language album to be nominated in the category, following the Puerto Rican rapper’s 2023 all-Spanish album Un Verano Sin Ti).

They are all potential first-time winners in the category.

Sabrina Carpenter is up for six awards. Pic: AP
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Sabrina Carpenter is up for six awards. Pic: AP

Also up for the top album prize are Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Justin Bieber’s Swag, Clipse, Pusha T & Malice’s Let God Sort Em Out, Leon Thomas’s Mutt, and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.

Despite releasing a new album earlier this year, Taylor Swift, didn’t make it on to the best album nominees as The Life Of A Showgirl came out after the close of the eligibility period. The window ran from 31 August 2024 to 30 August 2025.

Rosé from Blackpink. Pic: AP
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Rosé from Blackpink. Pic: AP

K-pop gets its moment

With K-pop typically ignored by the Grammys (BTS are the only K-pop artists to previously get a nod) this year saw two K-pop tracks in contention for best song.

Golden, the lead track from global phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters and APT, the megahit by former Blackpink member Rosé alongside Bruno Mars, both made it on to the list.

Rosé got nods in four other categories, including best record, while KPop Demon Hunters got three other nominations, including in the best pop duo/group performance category.

Lola Young is up for best new arist. Pic: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
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Lola Young is up for best new arist. Pic: Amy Harris/Invision/AP

British artist Lola Young, who is the niece of acclaimed children’s writer Julia Donaldson, got a nod in the best new artist category, alongside Olivia Dean. Both topped the UK charts this year.

They will compete against KATSEYE, The Marias, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas and Alex Warren. Last year the category was won by Good Luck, Babe! singer Chappell Roan.

Sir Elton John in Never Too Late. Pic: Walt Disney Pictures
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Sir Elton John in Never Too Late. Pic: Walt Disney Pictures

Timothée Chalamet is up for a Grammy

In less expected Grammy news, Sir Elton John also got a nod alongside US singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile for the song Never Too Late, which features on the soundtrack of the 2024 Sir Elton documentary of the same name.

Meanwhile, actor Timothée Chalamet got his first Grammy nod in the best compilation soundtrack for visual media category for his work on Oscar-nominated movie A Complete Unknown, in which he played Bob Dylan.

Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Pic: Searchlight Pictures 2024
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Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Pic: Searchlight Pictures 2024

Nominations were announced by past Grammy winners, including Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii and last year’s best new artist winner, Chappell Roan.

Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne came together to announce the rock and metal album nominations in tribute to Ozzy, who died in July. He had previously won in both categories.

The Osbournes announced the best rock and metal album nominations. Pic: Grammys/Recording Academy
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The Osbournes announced the best rock and metal album nominations. Pic: Grammys/Recording Academy

The annual ceremony – which gives out a whopping 95 gongs in total – has four big categories: album, record and song of the year, and best new artist.

Following Beyoncé’s historic win for best album and best country album for Cowboy Carter, this year the country category has been divided into two: best traditional country album and best contemporary country album.

There’s also the new addition of a standalone category for best album cover.

Last year, Beyoncé made history as the Grammy’s most nominated artist, winning album of the year for the first time.

Winners will be chosen by the roughly 15,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.

The 68th Grammy Awards take place on Sunday, 1 February 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Main category nominees

Album Of The Year
DeBi TiRAR MaS FOtoS, Bad Bunny
Swag, Justin Bieber
Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter
Let God Sort Em Out, Clipse, Pusha T and Malice
MAYHEM, Lady Gaga
GNX, Kendrick Lamar
Mutt, Leon Thomas
CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator

Record Of The Year
DtMF, Bad Bunny
Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter
Anxiety, Doechii
Wildflower, Billie Eilish
Abracadabra, Lady Gaga
luther, Kendrick Lamar with SZA
The Subway, Chappell Roan
APT, Bruno Mars and Rosé

Song Of The Year
Abracadabra, Lady Gaga
Anxiety, Doechii
APT, Bruno Mars and Rosé
DtMF, Bad Bunny
Golden, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI
luther, Kendrick Lamar with SZA
Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter
Wildflower, Billie Eilish

Best New Artist
Olivia Dean
KATSEYE
The Marias
Addison Rae
sombr
Leon Thomas
Alex Warren
Lola Young

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