JAMES CAMERON
As the writer/director of the most financially successful film of all time, Titanic, not to mention The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, and True Lies, James Cameron has surely earned a spot among Hollywood’s most visionary and successful directors. His seventh theatrical film, Avatar, is scheduled for release in December 2009.
James Francis Cameron was born on August 16th, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. His father, Phillip Cameron, was an electrical engineer, his mother, Shirley, an artist and nurse -- both were rather demanding disciplinarians, though they did encourage his work ethic and artistic skills. As a teenager in the late 60s, James had a life-changing experience that took place (not surprisingly) in a movie theater. Having always been an avid fan of science-fiction (both literary and cinematic), he watched Stanley Kubrick’s epic 2001: A Space Odyssey no less than ten times at the local theater. James later explained: "As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. It hit me on a lot of different levels. I just couldn't figure out how he did all that stuff, and I just had to learn." With interests sparked in both the technical and creative aspects of cinema, James used his father’s Super-8 camera to make his own “backyard” movies. He also wrote many science-fiction stories -- often instead of doing his homework. During a high school biology class, James penned a story which would, years later, be the basis for his film The Abyss.
The Camerons moved to Orange County, California in 1971. Believing that his dream of being a Hollywood film director was as fantasy-laden as his fiction, James enrolled at California State University, where he studied physics. He later changed his major to English. "I liked science and I thought I might want to be a marine biologist or physicist. But I also liked to write, so I was pulled in a lot of different directions. I liked the idea of an ocean, even though I'd never seen or been in one. I loved the idea of being in another world, and anything that could transport me to another world is what I was interested in." Realizing he wasn’t happy with either major, James eventually dropped out of school, married a waitress, and took up several jobs, including driving a truck, driving a school bus, painting, and working in a machine shop. At night, he continued to write stories.
JAMES CAMERON
In 1977, James saw another film which hit him with the same impact as Kubrick’s 2001. It’s director was named George Lucas -- its title was (of course) Star Wars. Realizing it was the movie he had dreamed of making for nearly a decade, James re-embraced his long-dormant cinematic aspirations, and set out to realize some childhood dreams. Star Wars (along with Syd Field’s book Screenplay) also made him realize that mixing science and art was possible. James quit his job (to the chagrin of his wife), spent his savings on photographic equipment (to the horror of his wife), and often frequented USC’s film archives where he was "completely self taught in special effects. I'd go down to the USC library and pull any theses that graduate students had written about optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology. If they'd let me photocopy it, I would. If not, I'd make notes." Borrowing some money, James made a short film which landed him a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. "Three weeks after I started I had my own department," James later said. "I was hiring people, and everybody else that worked there just hated me." James’ first professional job was as art director for the 1980 B-movie Battle Beyond the Stars. He went on to do special effects work on John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (1981).
Amusingly, James got his first big break by accident. While doing 2nd unit pick-up shots for 1981’s Galaxy of Terror, James was shooting scenes of a dismembered arm which was covered with maggots (they were actually meal worms). However, the darn things just sat there, and didn’t look very frightening, much less interesting. To make them move, James had the ingenious idea to use electricity. Hooking up an AC power cord to the arm, an off-camera assistant would plug it in at the proper moment. Two producers walked through the set, heard James call “Action,” and saw the worms begin to squirm. When James called “Cut,” the worms stopped. The producers were so amazed at James’ directorial authority, they began talking to him about directing some features.
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THE TERMINATOR -- 1984 POSTER
Hired as the special effects director of 1981’s Piranha 2: The Spawning, James was asked by the producer to take over the directorial reigns when the original director quit. The verrrrrry low-budget film was simply a producer’s cheap attempt at cashing in on 1978’s Piranha (which was actually a pretty good Jaws spoof, directed by Joe Dante). The production was so stressful that James became ill during its filming. While in the midst of a fever nightmare, James dreamed of a robot hit man from the future sent to kill him -- the image eventually morphed into a metallic robot rising out of flames. Even after he awoke the images haunted him, and James began to write the script for his next film: The Terminator.
Between Piranha 2 and The Terminator, James took on two writing projects. He worked on the first draft of the screenplay for Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (later rewritten by Sylvester Stallone), and Aliens, a sequel to 1979’s classic Alien.
While James had trouble finding a production company to finance The Terminator with him as director (not surprising for someone whose only directing credit featured cheesy flying piranhas), he eventually sold the rights to producer Gale Anne Hurd (soon to be his second wife) for one dollar -- she in turn made a deal with Hemdale Pictures. Orion Pictures would distribute. The Terminator told of a seemingly unstoppable cyborg assassin (Arnold Swarzenegger) from the year 2029, who is sent back in time by a race of artificially-intelligent machines determined exterminate the human race. The Terminator's mission is to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will lead a resistance against the machines. A human, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), is also sent back to protect her. The low budget movie ($6.5 million) made stars out of its players, made numerous Top Ten Best Films of the Year lists, and earned over $78 million -- it also spawned a very lucrative franchise.
CAMERON AND HAMILTON ON SET (1984)
In addition to his nightmares, Cameron once noted that two episodes of 1960’s sci-fi TV series The Outer Limits also inspired the writing of The Terminator: Soldier and Demon With The Glass Hand, both written by author Harlan Ellison. When Ellison threatened a lawsuit, the producers of the film gave the writer a cash settlement and an “acknowledgment to the works of ...” credit on all video releases (in case you were wondering what was up with that last time you watched The Terminator -- it is the second credit listed at film’s end).
In 1986, Cameron made Aliens, the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece. Sigourney Weaver reprised her role as Ellen Ripley. The $18 million production was shot at Pinewood Studios in England, where the British crew clashed constantly with the director. The Terminator had not yet been released overseas, and the limey pros thought Cameron too young and inexperienced to replace their beloved Ridley Scott. The film did get finished however, and went on to earn $180 million worldwide, and be nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Actress for Weaver). To this day, it is deservedly considered one of the best sci-fi action movies of all time.
Opting to only direct his own scripts, James next turned his attention to The Abyss (based on a short story he had written in high school). Involving underwater oil-rig workers who discover an otherworldly presence within an abysmal trench, the shoot would be incredibly dangerous and harrowing. Shot at an abandoned nuclear power station in South Carolina, the underwater sequences were shot in two tanks, one of which held 7.5 million gallons of water, and was 55 feet deep. Indeed, the film was so grueling to shoot, Ed Harris, who played the lead role of Virgil 'Bud' Brigman, nicknamed the film The Abuse. The film was released in the summer of 1989, and eventually made over $131 million around the globe. Reviews were mixed ... at least until 1993 when James reedited and rereleased the film with nearly a half hour of extended footage. That version won raves from audiences and critics alike, leading many to wonder why this edit wasn’t released to begin with -- it is now considered the definitive cut of The Abyss.
... WITH BILL PAXTON (5 COLLABORATIONS)
In 1991, James Cameron returned to the franchise that started it all, with Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The film reunited Arnold Swarzenegger and Linda Hamilton (and also Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in the extended DVD version). Arnold was a “good” Terminator this time, sent to protect Sarah’s now teenage son, John Connor. The $100 million film was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever produced (a distinction Cameron would repeat at least one more time) -- however, it also grossed nearly $520 million worldwide. In the wake of this gargantuan success, Cameron (in collaboration with fx wizard Stan Winston) would launch his own special effects company: Digital Domain. He also formed his own production company: Lightstorm Entertainment.
Cameron’s next film was 1994’s True Lies, starring Arnold Swarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis --a remake of a French film entitled La Totale, about a globe-trotting secret agent who leads a double life, and whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. Produced for $115 million, the film made $232 million worldwide. It’s a bit eerie watching this waaaaay over-the-top action-comedy today, simply because its subplot about Arab terrorists threatening the US with nuclear weapons is no longer fantastic fiction, and is genuinely frightening. On why he never got around to making True Lies 2, James has said, "It just never really gelled, and then the September 11th attacks happened and the idea of a domestic comedy adventure film about an antiterrorism unit just didn't seem all that funny to me anymore."
WITH WINSLET AND DICAPRIO ON TITANIC SET
While most in Hollywood thought they had James Cameron pegged as a director of bigger-than-life science-fiction and action fare, most were shocked when James announced that his next film was going to be ... a love story -- albeit one with mind-blowing special effects aboard the ill-fated Titanic. Starring Leonardo DiCapro and Kate Winslet, not to mention seamlessly edited footage of the actual Titanic wreckage, the troubled production ran months over schedule and millions of dollars over budget (final budget: $200 million, another record). Industry pundits foresaw disaster. And yet, James had the last laugh (indeed, all the way to the bank). Not only did Titanic earn $1.85 BILLION worldwide, it swept the Academy Awards, winning 11 Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture (a record matched years earlier by Ben Hur, and years later by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). To this day, Titanic remains the most financially successful film in history (unadjusted for inflation).
After a brief foray into television (Dark Angel), James turned his attention to documentaries, including Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep, both shot in IMAX 3-D. He also developed the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System, with which he is shooting Avatar, his first theatrical film since 1997’s Titanic. The film, which stars Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, was inspired by "every single science fiction book I read as a kid." Avatar regards "a paralyzed retired Marine who undergoes an experiment to exist as an avatar, another version of himself . . . an alien – 10 feet tall and blue” on a distant world. It will be released in December of 2009.
James Cameron has been married five times. Sharon Williams (1978 - 1984), producer Gale Anne Hurd (1985 - 1989), director Kathryn Bigelow (1989 - 1991), actress Linda Hamilton (1997 - 1999 one daughter), and Titanic actress Suzy Amis (2000 - present, one son, two daughters).
CAMERON WITH HIS FRIEND OSCAR
Though a brilliant visionary filmmaker, James is notoriously bad-tempered and dictatorial on his sets (‘course, with his film’s budgets, it’s hard to blame the guy). Author Orson Scott Card (who did the novelization of The Abyss) said working with Cameron was: "...hell on wheels. He was very nice to me, because I could afford to walk away. But he made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better. And unless he changes his way of working with people, I hope he never directs anything of mine.” Others, including frequent collaborator Bill Paxton, have nothing but praise for the filmmaker.
Kate Winslet (Titanic) stated that while James was a nice man, he had too much of a temper, and would not work with him again unless she earned “a lot of money.”
Ed Harris (The Abyss) has said of working with Cameron: “@#&%$*%&#@!!!”
James is a member of the NASA Advisory Council -- he is involved in trying to get cameras on the pending manned-mission to Mars.
Up next: Avatar (2009) and Battle Angel (2011)
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EARLY PRODUCTION ART FROM AVATAR
James Cameron quotes:
“People call me a perfectionist, but I'm not. I'm a rightist. I do something until it's right, and then I move on to the next thing.”
On why he hasn’t been involved with any Terminator films after the second one: “I went from driving a truck to becoming a movie director, with a little time working with Roger Corman in between. When I wrote The Terminator, I sold the rights at that time -- that was my shot to get the film made. So I've never owned the rights in the time that the franchise has been developed. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to direct the second film and do so on my own creative terms, which was good. But that was in 1991 and I've felt like it was time to move on. The primary reason for making a third one was financial, and that didn't strike me as organic enough a reason to be making a film.”
On the technological themes of his films: “Well, I see our potential destruction and the potential salvation as human beings coming from technology and how we use it, how we master it and how we prevent it from mastering us. Titanic was as much about that theme as the Terminator films, and in Aliens, it's the reliance on technology that defeats the marines, but it's technology being used properly that allows Sigourney's character to prevail at the end. And Titanic is all about technology, metaphorically as well as on a literal level, because the world was being transformed by the technology at that time. And people were rescued from the Titanic because of wireless technology, and because of the advances that had been made only in the year or so before the ship sank that allowed them to call for help when they were lost at sea in the middle of the North Atlantic. So I think it's an interesting theme, one that's always been fascinating for me.”
“A director's job is to make something happen and it doesn't happen by itself. So you wheedle, you cajole, you flatter people, you tell them what needs to be done. And if you don't bring a passion and an intensity to it, you shouldn't be doing it.”
“As much as I love Star Wars and as much as it's really revolutionized the imaging business, it went off the rails in the sense that science fiction, historically, was a science fiction of ideas. It was thematic fiction. It stopped being that and became just pure eye candy and pure entertainment. And I miss that. With Battle Angel I'm going to flirt with that darker, dystopian message as much as I can, without making it an art film.”
On his digital 3-D Fusion Camera System: "With digital 3D projection, we will be entering a new age of cinema. Audiences will be seeing something which was never technically possible before the age of digital cinema -- a stunning visual experience which turbocharges the viewing of the biggest, must-see movies. The biggest action, visual effects and fantasy movies will soon be shot in 3D. And all-CG animated films can easily be converted to 3D, without additional cost if it is done as they are made. Soon audiences will associate 3D with the highest level of visual content in the market, and seek out that premium experience."
On the appeal of The Terminator: "It's fun to fantasize being a guy who can do whatever he wants. This Terminator guy is indestructible. He can be as rude as he wants. He can walk through a door, go through a plate-glass window and just get up, brush off impacts from bullets. It's like the dark side of Superman, in a sense. I think it has a great cathartic value to people who wish they could just splinter open the door to their boss's office, walk in, break his desk in half, grab him by the throat and throw him out the window and get away with it. Everybody has that little demon that wants to be able to do whatever it wants, the bad kid that never gets punished."
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