Producer Jon Landau says director will 'take advantage of the technologies brilliant people are putting out' in next two films

James Cameron's forthcoming Avatar sequels will feature underwater motion capture, according to Jon Landau, producer, along with Cameron, of the record-breaking first film.

Speaking at a technology in cinema conference, Landau said the Oscar-winning director proposed to make use of the process "because we can simulate it visually but can't simulate it experientially for them". Cameron has previously hinted at the possibility of exploring the oceans of Pandora, the forest moon setting for his 2009 3D box-office hit, in future films.

"We want to take advantage of the technologies brilliant people are putting out to make the next two movies even more emotionally engaging and visually tantalising, and to really wrap up the story arc of our two main characters," Landau said on Sunday in a keynote speech at the 2013 NAB Technology Summit on Cinema in Las Vegas. He described the process as "performance capture in water".

Cameron previously said he would shoot Avatar parts two and three back to back and release the films in December 2014 and 2015 respectively, though that timeline has begun to look optimistic. There is also talk of a fourth film that may manifest as a prequel.

The film-maker has also hinted that the second film may take place on another planet in the same solar system as Pandora. He said in 2011 that characters which survived the first film "get to be in the second film, at least in some form". Some of the money made by the sequels will be donated to environmental causes.

Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time, having taken $2.782bn worldwide.