James Cameron, who is that? Well, if you don’t know you've come to the right
place! In these pages pages you'll find everything you always wanted to know
about “the King of the World”, a great director, a magnificent story teller and much, much
more. So hang on, I am going to let you experience the world of James Cameron!!!
James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario in Canada August 14 1954. His
family later moved to Chippewa Falls near Niagra Falls. In his early years JC (short for Cameron) was very fascinated by the world of movies. He was mezmerized when he saw
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (who wasn't?), and he drove himself crazy trying to figure
out how they had made that film. What kind of technique had they used and so on...
Cameron also wrote many sci-fi stories and fantasized a lot
instead of doing his school work. He was a genuine day dreamer. It was actually during a (boring) biology class that
Cameron wrote a short story which would later develop iinto the movie The Abyss.
Cameron got a lucky break when he was 17. His family moved to Orange County,
California because of Phillip Cameron's(JC's dad) job opportunites. When learning the news Cameron
asked his dad, “Los Angeles, isn’t that somewhere near Hollywood?”. And oh, yes
it was.
When Cameron and his family moved to the Hollywood area, Cameron found out that a career in movies might not be the easiest thing to get. He let go of the hope of becoming a famous film maker
and instead enrolled in a physiscism and english study at California State University. Later, he dropped both classes. Reasons for this were many, but one reason overshadowed the rest. JC couldn't let go of his dream of the movie business. This came as a shock to his, at the time being, wife whom
he later left. Keep count, that was wife nr 1.
After some time of truck driving,
James Cameron got a job as a miniature model maker at the Roger Corman Studios.
The Roger Corman Studios was a famous studio which produced tons of cheap, low-budget horror and sci-fi flick. No one who worked at the studio were professionals, so Cameron fit right in. It turned out that it was actually an advantage to his because Cameron had a natural gift for this. He quickly moved up the ranks in the studio, jumping from one
movie to another. Corman was impressed with Cameron and admired his enthusiasm.
Cameron also had many good ideas which solved technical problems related to the productions that some
thought were impossible to solve. James Cameron has a lot of credit for the relatively good luck of some of Corman's movies.
Cameron worked as an art director on the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars, he did
special effects design and direction on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York.
He consulted on the design on the instantly forgettable Android, and he was the
production designer on the horribly Galaxy of Terror.
Cameron knew
he wasn't producing major movies, but he was thrilled to be a part of
team who could create movies even though the movies weren't that good.
It would not be until 1981 Cameron got his first shot at directing. There was an Italian
producer named Assonitis who was about to make a sequel to the original Pirahna movie. It
was going to be called Piranha 2: The Spawning. Assonitis wanted a debut director
because it would be the cheapest, and the director would not question Assonitis editing the movie as he saw fit. They just picked the wrong guy, Cameron would not take any crap.
The movie was of course terrible. The casting was bad, with the exception of Lance
Henriksen. The effects were lousy and Assonitis was always on Cameron’s back. Assonitis kept
telling Cameron that the shots looked like shit, and when principal photography
ended he would not allow Cameron to edit the movie. This made Cameron mad, he
knew that the movie was bad but it was his movie, and he wanted to edit it himself. So one night
Cameron broke into the editing room with a plastic card. The movie was shot in Italy
and Cameron could not speak Italian, so he did not know what role of film to look at,
but he finally found the right ones and pieced the film together the way he wanted it to be.
During the entire production of Pirahna 2, the Spawning Cameron was under tremendous pressure which eventually triggered illness and one night during high fever, probably nausia and everything else he had a dream of a machine coming from the future trying to kill him. When Cameron awoke from his nightmare he put down some words on paper about his dream and a interesting story emerged. This story would later become the movie the Terrminator.
After finishing Pirahna 2, the Spawning Cameron accepted two writing jobs,
Rambo: First Blood part 2 and Alien 2 (which would later be called Aliens). Cameron
also contacted action producer Gale Anne Hurd, and showed her the screenplay The
Terminator which he had written. Gale Anne Hurd liked it, and Cameron sold it to her for
one dollar on one condition, that he would direct! Cameron cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as the role of the Terminator and
Michael Biehn as the role of Kyle Reese. Actually Arnold Schwarzenegger was initially cast as Kyle Reese but then decided that it would be more cool if he played the Terminator instead. Lance Henriksen,
who had become one of Cameron’s good friends, was originally cast as The Terminator
but then got the part as Sipowhich, one of the cops in the movie.
The Terminator was Cameron’s breakthrough. It features a brilliant story, excellent acting and some amazing effects, even though it only had a $6.5 million budget.The movie was done with very little comprimise.
The crew and the cast were very impressed with Cameron. He showed great
dedication to his project, and he often performed many of the stunts himself. Schwarzenegger
has been quoted sying, “There were times when I thought he was completely fucking crazy!”.
The Terminator became a great success, commerically as well as in terms of reviews. David Giler
and Walter Hill, the would-be producers of Aliens, were very impressed with
Cameron’s work and they suggested that he should direct the second Alien movie
himself. He had already written the script, remember? Cameron did it on one condition, namely
that Gale Anne Hurd would be brought on board as a producer. She was and the team was up and
running again. Actually it was more than a professional team, in the following weeks of the production of
The Terminator had finished James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd got involved
emotionally and they were married just before shooting Aliens. Wife number 2!
Cameron got Sigourney
Weaver (of course), Bill Paxton and Michael Biehn to star in the movie. He also cast
Paul Reiser the slick company guy. Aliens was truly a great movie, it has splendid
effects, a well written script and so fine acting that Sigourney Weaver got an Academy
Award nomination for her performance. Alien was nominated to 7 Oscars of which it
won four. For sound and special effects and such. Aliens really made Hollywood
open its eyes and look at James Cameron, everybody wanted to work with him, everybody
wanted to be his new best friend. He got milion dollar deals offered where ever he
went. But as a talented director and as a true person commited to his work Cameron decided to do
something of his own. It would be the toughest movie shot in history. Cameron’s
adventure movie The Abyss.
As mentioned before The Abyss was based on a short story that Cameron wrote
during a biology class. It features a great story, very difficult shots, and it had effects written that were almost impossible to produce and shoot. But Cameron
was not afraid, he insisted on the fact that he was able to do it. The movie was finally
set in motion, and it would be on this movie that Cameron would get a reputation as a
dictator on set. He pushed his crew to the limit. So much that one day Mary Elizabeth
Mastrantonio (the actress who played the lead female character) ran off the set screaming,
“We are not animals!”. Mastrantonio has also said that she was very impressed with
Cameron when she first met him, becuase of his vision of what this film would look
like, but during the production she had wanted to kill him at least a dozen times.
The
movie also set new standards for underwater shooting. The crew and Cameron
had to design a lot of new gear. It was time consuming and expensive, and furthermore post-production was delayed because of some difficult effects
shots which were a part of the action and story. They were later cut out, but were restored for the
Special Edition of the Abyss. Defnitely worth watching.
Cameron made this movie with a
surprisingly sure hand, he did not let his sinking marriage leave him behind. Yes that is
right, James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd were breaking up during the production,
and this resulted in a divorce right after the movie was finished.
Cameron then went on to producing and ghost-writing the very successful surfer
movie Point Break. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, whom Cameron married in
1991, the same year the movie opened. Wife nr 3!
In 1990 Cameron contacted his old friend the screenwriter Wiliam Wisher. He would like Wisher
to help him write a sequel to the first Terminator movie. There had been talk for many
years that The Terminator definitely needed a sequel, and Cameron was finally about to
make it happen. The two friends sat down and wrote. Initially they came up with a huge
script from which they cut about half and then revised the remaining several times. James
Cameron contacted Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger and they both agreed
to be in the sequel without having read the script.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which the movie was called, became the first movie to
go past the $100 milion budget. It also became very successful both domestically and
overseas. The movie features some of the most stunning effects ever made for the big screen
which include the “morphing” of the T-1000 and much more. The movie won four
Oscars for sound and visual effects, and also brought in several MTV Movie Awards
for best action picture and sequence.
Cameron did not know what to do next, he was now one of the most important movie
makers in Hollywood, he could call Spielberg and Lucas his new friends. This meant he could do pretty much whatever he wanted to. He thought
about making a Spiderman movie, but it was deemed too costly at the time. He also
had some ideas concerning the doomed ocean liner Titanic, but nothing
specific at the time. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally made him aware of a small french
movie called La Totale!, which could easily be turned into an overbudget Hollywood
blockbuster, and Schwarzenegger couldn’t think of anyone better than Cameron to do
it. Cameron signed on and wrote a screenplay based on the french movie. It was to
be the movie True Lies. You can call it America’s answer to James Bond with a twist. It was also a
first time attempt for Cameron with something new because the movie was full of humour and funny lines. It was
actually an action comedy, but it also featured some of the most stunning and
expensive effects at the time. The movie went way over budget, but it was definitely
worth waiting for!
True Lies was received with different opinions in 1994. Some called it funny, great,
terific. But many also thought it was too long and too ridicilous. True Lies took in $25,5
million the first week, but box office numbers dropped steadily as the weeks went by. It
settled with a total domestic gross of $150 million which was not that impressive
when the budget was as high as $125 million. The total world gross went up to $350
million.
Cameron had, since the middle of the eighties, thought about making a kind of sci-fi
movie that takes place a couple of days before the beginning of the new millenium, but he
was having trouble finding the time to direct it himself. He then let his former wife
Kathryn Bigelow, yes that is right, former wife, direct it. During the production of Terminator
2: Judgment Day Cameron had hooked up with Linda Hamilton and they had a child together in 1993, but they were on and off, not really settling on something steady. Well,
back to the movie. The movie was called Strange Days, it is actually a film noir which
makes it a'la Blade Runner. Cameron wrote the screenplay
and produced the movie but did not have time for anything else because in the beginning of
1995 Cameron was busy doing something much more exciting.
Cameron had gotten the "go-ahead" on his Titanic movie. He had written a script which featured many
actual events, and he had included a love story of two young people taking place just
days before the sinking. Cameron took an expedition down into the abyss to discover
the wreck for himself. They shot 12 minutes of film, and Cameron was positive that he
was able to base a movie upon that.
The movie was greenlit by Fox and Paramount up to $125 million and the production
of the movie Titanic began.
Production was not easy. I cannot stress that enough. Titanic went over the budget, way over the budget. This made
Cameron sacrifice his fee as a director, producer and editor on the film, but he did
keep the $1,5 millon salary he had received for the screenplay. He invested his money in the film instead.
Production was delayed,
rumours again circled around Cameron pushing his crew to the limit of inhuman, tormenting people, Cameron taking adrenalin shots so he could work at least 18 hours a day and expected no less of the crew, cast and all the extras, sound like a true Cameron movie, right?
But it was all worth it afterwards, at least that is the opinion of Kate Winslet, who
played the lead role who has been quoted saying “Cameron was a tough nut to crack.
There were times when I was genueinly frightened of him” and “Sometimes during
production I would just wake up in the middle of the night, and wish I were dead”.
Titanic opened in the US December 19 1997, and took in $25,5 million the first
weekend. It kept itself steady on that number for months to come and did just as well
overseas. This resulted in Titanic being the first movie to pass the one billion dollar
mark, and it is the most profitable movie ever. Cameron restored his fee and got a
paycheck of $75 million placed in his lab.
On March 23, 1998 Titanic received 11 Oscars, including best picture and best
director, it also earned many other prices such as the golden globes. The movie is
probably the highlight of James Cameron’s career, and he was quoted saying when he
received his Oscar for best director, “I’m the king of the world”.
And he will probably be for now!
When all the fuss about Titanic had settled Cameron decided to take a long break from Hollywood and filmmaking. His plans were to take his wife Linda Hamilton (yes Cameron was married to Linda Hamilton few months prior to the release of Titanic. Rumours say that his wedding day was Cameron's only day off in 1999), and their daughter Josephine on a month long trip around the world to get a break from everything, however that was not going to happen. Cameron's marriage with Hamilton was also going to be his shortest. It turned that Cameron and Suzy Amis, who starred in Titanic, had an affair during the production. Cameron eventually eventually left Hamilton for Amis and they are now married and have a child together, is that wife number 5? Yes, this is true Hollywood!
There was a lot of discussion on what Cameron should do next. Avatar, a futuristic thriller set in outer space was a possibility, Terminator 3, True Lies 2 and Cameron still had an interest in making a Spiderman movie. However Cameron turned to something completely different!
Cameron went to tv. He created to sci fi weekly show Dark Angel which stars Jessica Alba. She plays a girl cloned as a "superhuman", who escapes from a the military lab in which she had been created to seek life in the city. After a serious breakdown of modern communications and computer system all records are lost of these superchildren. She tries to live a life of her own, seeking others of her kind trying to avoid bounty hunters out to get her!
The show aired in October 2000, and is still running today. However Fox has dropped the show after two seasons meaning it won't be reappear this fall. It is an ok show but doesn't do Cameron pride, it is a typical tv show but Cameron's gifts belong on the big screen!
Cameron opted from doing Terminator 3, however the movie is in production starring Claire Danes, Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Jonathan Mostow. It scheduled to be released in 2003. And the Spiderman project was caught in a web between movie studioes and the outcame of that was not in Cameron's favour. Spiderman has already opened making a lot of money, directed Sam Raimi.
For complete references on James Cameron's movies go here.
Okay, here's the thing, no one is really set on James' future. I don't think Cameron is himself, some good intelligence on this sucbject is very hard to come by. Since the projects that Cameron wanted to do has been sold off to other directors much of this is guess work. Because it has been a long time since Cameron has a movie in the theatres, 5 years actually. But I speculate this, Cameron's next movie will probably be True Lies 2, there has been talk of a sequel to this movie and I have learned from reports that Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Tom Arnoldh have met in secrecy to discuss things. It can only be the making of True Lies 2. Well hopefully if I'm right we'll see this movie appearing perhaps next summer, hopefully, but it is still Cameron so it has to go overbudget and everything else!!!
There are a many things that make James Cameron one of the greatest directors. One of the essential things is the fact that James Cameron always uses incredible effects so you are always mesmerized. Cameron was one of the first to use the morphing technique. Cameron experimented with these effects on The Abyss, but it was not until the production of Terminator 2 - Judgment Day that the effects were shown in their true colours.
Another great thing is the fact that James Cameron writes very entertaining stories that are particuarly good for movies. With great action and great characters they are unique.
Cameron's movies are action movies, but they have other qualities too. E.g. Cameron uses a lot of messages in his movies. In the Abyss there is a message from an alien saying that all people should live in harmony, and in Terminator 2 - Judgment Day Linda Hamilton is ending the movie with this clever sentence, "If a machine can learn to respect a human life maybe we can too". These are the kind of messages which make Cameron's movies just a little bit better.
James Cameron is not afraid to show his feminin side. In his movies there are always strong, independent women who guide the male hero (if there is one) through the movie. In Cameron's movies the women are essential, and they always steal part of the picture - if not all of it. Examples are, Linda Hamiton in Terminator 2 - Judgment Day, Sigourney Weaver in Aliens , Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies and of course Kate Winslet in Titanic.
Cameron has never been afraid of trying new genres. He has moved on from science-fiction to action to historical drama.
This biography could not have been done without all the info from Christopher Heard's book: Dreaming Aloud, The life and films of James Cameron. It is truly a stunning piece of work. BUY IT NOW!!
What about the future???
What makes Cameron good??????
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