Director James Cameron just finished his extensive AMA on Reddit, where he went over his entire career and discussed all of his movies, both future and past. In an unusually candid conversation, the man behind two of the world's biggest movie releases, Titanic and Avatar, was definitely asked anything and everything.
To read his comments about the future of the Avatar franchise: Click Here!.
Read on for his comments about True Lies 2, Battle Angel, the future of the The Terminator franchise and the Alien franchise, where he discusses his thoughts, feelings and general attitude towards cinema at this point in time.
For years, we've heard that True Lies 2 is happening. These rumors have mostly been kept alive by Arnold Schwarzenegger's co-star Tom Arnold. According to James Cameron, we'll probably never see a sequel.
We abandoned True Lies 2 after 9/11, because we didn't think a comedy about fundamentalist terrorists was so funny anymore. And then we never picked it up again.
Another movie that has been in the planning stages for years is Battle Angel, but the director decided to make Avatar instead.
"My intention when I made Avatar was to do Battle Angel next. However, the positive feedback for Avatar and the support of the message of Avatar, encouraged me to do more of those films.
For me, the success was a factor because I was encouraged by the fact that an environmental film, or a film about nature, could be successful. It's certainly not just about money. I'm considering success to mean the measure of the ability of the film to communicate. Every director wants their film to communicate. The biggest factor, however, is the drive to continue developing the world- more characters, more creatures with unfettered creativity.
James Cameron created one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most iconic roles with The Terminator. The actor is returning soon to reprise the role. What does the director think of Terminator: Genesis?
Well, I have to be objective, or as objective as possible about that. I'm not big fans of the films, I think that the big ideas of the first movies - I didn't make the second film until I had an idea as big as the first film, and it had to do with the moral complexity of the story, and asking the audience by the end of the film to cry for a Terminator. I don't think that the 3rd or 4th film lived up to that potential. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles I never really watched much of it, so I never gave it a chance. I get to get hooked, like you have to with a TV series. I'm hopeful that the new films, which are being made right now as a reboot, but still involving Arnold, will be good. From what I've seen from afar, it looks like they will be quite good.
Do the Terminators still give him nightmares?
"No, I've never had nightmares about Terminators after I made the film. I had nightmares that inspired the film. But I always feel that making the film is the catharsis that stops the nightmares, if you will...For example, I used to always have nightmares about giant waves, tsunamis essentially. And when I made the Abyss, which had a giant wave scene in it, those stopped...Filmmaking is therapy."
While James Cameron didn't create the world of Alien, he did make arguably the most crowd-pleasing sequel in the franchise. Has he ever considered returning to this series?
"We never talked about Alien 3. I don't remember the timing exactly, but I might have been making the The Abyss at that time, also for Fox. What came up was the idea of doing Alien 5, and at one point I pitched that I would write it and produce it, and Ridley Scott would direct it, and we had lunch talking about this, and we were in violent agreement, then nothing happened. What happened was Fox went ahead with Alien Vs. Predator, and I said "I really don't recommend that, you'll ruin the franchise, it's like Universal doing Dracula versus the Werewolf," and then I lost interest in doing an Alien film. But Prometheus is seen as the A-level Alien, as opposed to rather, the derivative. I don't think I have anything to offer on the Prometheus sequels, that's Ridley Scott's, I think I'll stick to the Avatar universe.
Does he see Aliens as a slasher film?
"I think I was following in the footsteps of the first film ALIEN, which was the classic "10 little Indians" model where you start out with X number of beloved characters, and have one that prevails. In Alien, three characters prevail at the end. So I would say Aliens is more about family bonds, even though it's a pseudo-family in the film, and cooperation against an enemy....So it doesn't exactly follow the slasher model."
What are the director's thoughts on Prometheus?
"Interesting. I thought it was an interesting film. I thought it was thought provoking and beautifully, visually mounted, but at the end of the day it didn't add up logically. But I enjoyed it, and I'm glad it was made. I liked it better than the previous two Alien sequels...And it was done in native 3D and I'm a big fan of Native 3D done by directors who embrace it as an art form.
What is James Cameron's favorite guilty pleasure? The answer may surprise you.
Oh, probably Resident Evil, the first one. I just like that film! You don't have to defend a guilty pleasure.
What about his favorite movie of this year so far?
This year, 2014, I haven't seen that much that inspired me yet. My favorite film of last year, hands down, was Gravity, and I was hoping it would win best picture, but certainly happy that my friend Alfonso Cuarón won best director. I did think that this new Captain America: The Winter Soldier was an interesting film for its genre, in that it tackled this idea of digital surveillance and the kind of dark side of our hyperconnected society."
What movie has he made that is his own personal favorite?
"Well, I have 5 kids and I would never answer the question if someone asked me which one was my favorite. The same with my movies. Each film is a journey, you learn so much from it, and it's a reflection of a different period in your life, a different snapshot of who you were at this time. The one I'm working on is always my favorite. Right now it's Avatar 2 (2016), Avatar 3 (2017) and Avatar 4 (2018)."
He was then asked to name his biggest influence.
Well, I can point directly to the film that had the biggest early influence on me, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even though it's not necessarily my favorite film right now, it has a very special place for me developmentally, because when I saw it, I went from someone who enjoyed watching movies to wanting to make movies myself. So I started to experiment with creating that imagery."
The director has always sought out projects that required new innovations in terms of filmmaking. Does he have an idea for a movie where the technology doesn't exist yet?
"I'd like to see sensor technology, image capture sensor technology, increase so that we could do some fun things like higher resolution, larger format, adding more XY camera movement on after the image has been taken, as part of the editorial process. There are some things I'd like to do that technology doesn't allow me to do right now but i think the technology will happen in a few years.?
He then commented on the future of the film industry and 48 fps compared to 3D and IMAX.
48 fps to me is not a format, it's a tool, like music it's good to use sparingly and in the right spot. I believe all movies should be made in 3D, forever, but the projection needs to be better, and brighter. I want people to see in the movie theaters what I am seeing in my perfectly calibrated screening room, and people aren't seeing that. Larger formats. I'd love to see screens get bigger. In terms of storytelling, I'd like to see Hollywood embrace the caliber of writing in feature films that we're currently seeing in the series on television - more emphasis on character, and less on explosions and pyrotechnics. And I'm talking the big tentpole movies, I think they're obnoxiously loud and fast....Not that I don't like loud fast scenes, I just don't like whole movies that are that way!
I personally would be very interested to find a way to incorporate VR and a narrative filmmaking experience. So a narrative directed experience that has individuated pathways where you have choices that you make in real-time, I think that would be a lot of fun. I think it would be very technically daunting and expensive, to do it as the same quality level as a typical feature, but it would be fun to experiment with. It sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think it would take over the feature film market though. I'm very familiar with VR, but I haven't seen the specific Oculus Rift device. I'm interested in it, I'm meant to see it sometime in the next month or so, but I've been familiar with VR since its inception. In fact, virtual reality is a way of describing the way we work on Avatar, we work in a virtual workspace all day long. We use a "virtual camera" which is how I create all the shots that are CG in the film, a window into a virtual reality that completely surrounds me."
The director then turned his attention to the recent 3D re-release of Titanic, answering a question about the incorrect starfield in the movie, and whether or not Jack could have fit on the raft.
"I wasn't particularly embarrassed because I think that's an unbelievably specific nitpick and if that caused him to not enjoy the film, he may need to reevaluate his priorities. That said, because I'm such a perfectionist, I challenged him to provide me with the correct star fields and incorporated them into the future re-releases of the film. So, if you watch the film now, the stars are correct.
MythBusters did an episode about [Jack fitting on the raft] and proved that two people could have floated on the door in such a way that both could have survived, but it involved using both of their floatation vests rigged under the door in such a way that they wouldn't detach. What they neglected to incorporate was the amount of time that they would have had to spend submerged in 28-degree water to attach them that way. Also, Jack is a 19 year old guy processing a problem in real time, in water, at night, and already hypothermic, so that's a lot to ask of him."
Does he still talk to Leonardo DiCaprio?
"I think Leonardo DiCaprio, when I cast him in Titanic, he was well on his way. I think I helped him skip a rung or two on the ladder maybe, but he certainly would have gotten there on his own because he's one of the most talented actors of his generation. Do I still talk to him? Yes, occasionally. We're friendly but we're not close friends."
One of the best questions asked during the AMA was why so many James Cameron characters always say, 'Go, go, go!'
"Oh, it must just be the way I talk! In fact i just wrote a scene yesterday where a character says "Go Go Go!" The page is open on my computer right now.
First of all, people do that in the military. The reason for it, especially over radio comm, is that people can inadvertently stop a transmission, so if something is really important, you say it three times. Which is why when I do my deep dives, I would always say "Release, release, release" so there was no doubt in case the communications got stepped on by another transmission or interference.
I'm going to go change that scene now. Nobody wants to be predictable."
Which franchise does James Cameron like better? Star Wars or Harry Potter?
"For me personally, Star Wars. It had a lot of meaning in my life. The way I view the world, even if I were starting them together, I would like Star Wars better because I like hard science fiction more than I like fantasy. Which is not to say I don't enjoy watching Harry Potter."
The director has, in the past, been criticized for the abundance of green screen acting in his films. His response?
"Well, different actors have a different tolerance for green screen work. usually theater trained actors have the confidence to work alone, or work in the absence of props and scenery and so on, because they are used to sort of black box theater and/or one person shows, and they know that part of an actor's power and the magic is their ability to create when nothing's there. Other actors simply just don't like it. So it's always good, if you're making a green screen heavy film, to talk to the actors before you cast them about that issue. Because you don't want to have to be buying someone's talent, certainly actors are well-paid, but you also want them to want to be doing that."
What is the best directing advice he's been given?
"As a film director, the best advice I ever got was from Roger Corman. He said "film directing is hard work, sit down as much as possible." The funny thing is, I never followed it! I always come in on first day of production, and there's a producer chair with my name on it, and I say "take it away! It won't be used."
What is his most memorable on set moment?
"I think that there was a moment of magic- pure magic-, of coming together with the lens, when we shot the kiss at the bow of the ship during Titanic. The way the sun set, we were all inspired to run to get the shot and we had seconds to do it. There was no rehearsal, we didn't have time, but the actors did beautifully. We did two takes, one that was out of focus and one that was half out of focus, and the one that was used was the one that was half out of focus. And it was beautiful."
Does James Cameron have any fond memories about working on Entourage?
"Haha! Entourage, for me, consisted of half a day's work, during which they filmed segments for five different episodes. So it looked like I was on that show a lot more than I was. It might have been a full day's work, come to think of it."
Last question: Who wins? T-800, Alien queen or Na'vi?
"Is the T-800 armed or not armed?
An Armed T-800 with a plasma rifle will clean house, all it has to do is shoot the Alien Queen, and have it bleed on the Na'vi. I would think that all three of them unarmed. Queen beats Na'vi. Queen beats T-800, because the T-800 would tear the arm off a queen, which would dissolve the mantel and shut down the cyborg.
Now a Na'vi riding a leonopteryx, or a Na'vi riding a thanataur, that would be a different story."
