Cameron Directs Bigelow in Bill Paxton’s Music Video…come again?
By Julia Rhodes
Excerpt: calitreview.com
February 19, 2010 - James Cameron’s Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker are among the Oscar nominees for Best Picture of 2009. From 1989-1991, Cameron and Bigelow were married. They apparently parted amicably, since they have pleasant things to say about one another onstage at awards shows.
In 1988, Cameron directed this music video for Bill Paxton’s (short-lived) band Martini Ranch, starring Bigelow and Paxton (“Big Love”). Bigelow was hot on the heels of directing Paxton in Near Dark, which is one of my favorite vampire movies–a dirty, gory, totally off the wall Western with a fantastic AIDS allegory.
So: “Reach” features two Oscar-nominated directors and an actor from one of the best shows on TV.
Avatar Producer Says 'Battle Angel Alita' Has A New Name, Will Follow 'Avatar 2'
By Larry Carroll
Excerpt: mtv.com
February 18, 2010 - “'Avatar' was something Jim had written before, but we were about to embark on a film called ‘Battle Angel: Alita,’ and then we looked at ourselves and said ‘Wait a second, ‘Avatar’ is something that Jim always referred to as his magnum opus, and we can do it now,’” remembered the filmmaker’s producing partner, Jon Landau.
“But [‘Battle Angel’] is something that Jim is very, very passionate about. It was actually brought to our attention by another filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro; Guillermo saw those things in the property that he thought would really relate to Jim, and Jim responded to it immediately.”
Although Landau was quick to point out that Cameron plans to shoot an “Avatar” sequel first, he re-affirmed the filmmaker’s intentions to adapt Yukito Kishiro’s manga classic after that.
“We had a wonderful writer who came in and collaborated with Jim, Laeta Kalogridis, who worked on it; Laeta brought to our attention that there was much more to this world of Battle Angel than we ever knew,” explained Landau.
“We were familiar with the anime that had been produced, we were familiar with one of the main books. But she opened us up to the other nine books that exist, and how rich that world is.”
The general consensus over the past few years is that Cameron and co. will drop the name of their main character from the title and simply call the film “Battle Angel.” But according to Landau, that will definitely not be the movie’s name — and for good reason.
“I’m telling people that we have to call it ‘Alita: Battle Angel,’ because Jim only does T&A movies,” grinned Landau, listing the examples. “’Titanic,’ ‘Aliens,’ ‘Terminator,’ ‘Abyss,’ ‘True Lies,’ ‘Avatar.’” “So, we can’t call it ‘Battle Angel’,” he insisted. “We have to call it ‘Alita: Battle Angel.’”
James Cameron On 'Terminator': 'I Know What You Know'
Source: mtv.com
February 17, 2010 - Cameron has stepped away from the franchise, even with movies 5 and 6 in development.
James Cameron Says Grammys Did 3-D Wrong
Source: mtv.com
February 17, 2010 - The director explains how to do 3-D right.
James Cameron: Failure's OK, fear isn't
By Richard Galant
Excerpt: cnn.com
February 13, 2010 - A lifelong fascination with science fiction and the ocean has driven "Avatar" director James Cameron's career, he told the TED2010 conference Saturday.
"The ocean is so rich with amazing life," he said beginning a session called "Wisdom," the final one of the conference. "Nature's imagination is so boundless compared to our own human imagination."
Cameron said some thought his filming of "Titanic" was about the opportunity to depict "Romeo and Juliet" on the doomed ship. In fact, he said, "Secretly I wanted to dive to the wreck of the Titanic."
He did wind up exploring the wreck and said he saw amazing forms of underwater life. Cameron was struck by the comparison between deep ocean exploration and space travel; in both cases there's a search for alien creatures and no hope of rescue if you can't get back yourself. "I completely closed the loop between being a science fiction fan as a kid and doing this stuff for real."
Cameron's ground-breaking film, Avatar, has received nine Academy Award nominations and is the highest-grossing film ever (without taking inflation into account).
In the past 40 years, Cameron has spent 3,000 hours underwater, with 500 of that in submersibles. Cameron says he's learned a lot about science, but even more significantly he has learned lessons about leadership.
He says he asked himself why he tackled exploration. "You're doing it for the challenge, the thrill of discovery and the strange bond that happens when a small group of people form a team," Cameron said. "In that bond you realize the most important thing is the respect that you have for them and they have for you."
In the four years he spent making "Avatar," he said he tried to apply that same lesson. "Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own," he said. "Don't put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you...failure has to be an option in art and exploration because it's a leap of faith.
"In whatever you're doing, failure is an option, but fear is not."
Terminator Rights Sell for $29.5 Million
By Nikki Finke
Excerpt: deadline.com
February 8, 2010 - The auction for the Terminator movie, TV program, and other spin-off rights just ended after a marathon bidding session today that stretched from 3 PM this afternoon until 8 PM tonight.
Both Sony Pictures and Lionsgate separately were bidding for the franchise, and then joined up after the first round was completed. "We're going to fight one hell of a fight," a Lionsgate insider told Deadline Hollywood in advance. Its plans were for "a complete re-boot, back to basics, with real emotional stories, and effects that will be secondary.
JAMES CAMERON NEWS FEBRUARY 2010
James Cameron, the focus and the fury
By Rachel Abramowitz | Excerpt: latimes.com
February 24, 2010 - I first met James Cameron on the set of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and what I remember most is the screaming. It was a rainy night and Cameron's crew was set up at one of those glass mansions in Malibu, which, for the purposes of the film, was the home of Skynet scientist Miles Dyson, portrayed by Joe Morton.
The script pages for the evening were an ambush scene -- Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, had invaded the home to assassinate Dyson -- but Hamilton was the one who seemed under attack. My very vivid recollection of the night was watching Cameron berate the actress.
It was only later that I found out that the two were dating; that left me feeling like I had been in Malibu watching a foreign film without the benefit of subtitles.
Cameron is, of course, the T-800 of all directors -- a fierce taskmaster, with almost superhuman drive and very little patience for human fallibility. On the "T2" set, someone had T-shirts printed up with the filmmaker's (supposedly) favorite saying:”If I wanted your opinion, I would have given it to you.” When he’s not working, however, I've found that Cameron can be erudite and charming, and an infectiously enthusiastic evangelist. That’s the Cameron who’s been working the Oscar campaign trail recently.
Many of the nominees seem exhausted by the endless rounds of Q&A's, screenings, awards – some have a reason to look haggard after plugging their films and performances for almost a year, since Sundance 2009. By contrast, Cameron just started his pilgrimage after “Avatar” came out at the end of December, and his cyborg stamina hasn’t flagged yet. It was the "good" Cameron who got on the phone recently to talk about the role of actors in his revolutionary “performance capture” technology and why he feels that the “Avatar” stars haven’t gotten their due from the Hollywood community.
He was disappointed that neither Zoe Saldana nor Sam Worthington were nominated for Oscars or any other significant acting award. Yet he was not totally surprised, because the performance capture technology is so new, and many people in the film industry still are unfamiliar with how the process is done. Many – particularly actors -- are apprehensive about the process, and their role in it. "Actors have to be taught more about it, that it empowers them and doesn’t replace them, “ says Cameron. “What we’re replacing is the complicated application of prosthetic makeup.”
Even Saldana and Worthington needed reassurances at one point. “I had to look into their eyes and be able to say to them, ‘What we do today is what you’ll see when you go to the premiere,' “ Cameron says he told them, as they embarked on the production of the film. “Otherwise, why would they commit to doing a great performance if you think the performance is going to be mediated and modulated down the line?” The performance-capture filming takes place on a specialized stage called “the volume.”
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James Cameron Lending Director Marc Webb a Hand in Bringing SPIDER-MAN to 3D
By Michael Sullivan | Excerpt: collider.com
February 16, 2010 - It seems as though behemoth auteur James Cameron will get to live his Spider-Man directorial dreams after all, albeit vicariously through (500) Days of Summer’s Marc Webb.
Jon Landau, Cameron’s friend and associate, told MTV that he and Cameron met with Webb last week to help bring the project into the third dimension.
Those who recall the recent frenzy over who would helm the Spider-Man reboot will remember hearing James Cameron’s name; after all, the Academy Award-winning director did write an extensive, story-boarded treatment (dubbed a “scriptment”) back in 1991.
However, in another interview with MTV at the Critics Choice Awards, Cameron called the Spider-Man reboot Sam Raimi’s “sloppy seconds.”
And those sloppiest of seconds now belong to . . . . . Marc Webb, director of 2009’s beloved (500) Days of Summer! It seems Cameron is willing to put aside his disdain for the all-too-soon revived franchise for an upstart director he’s got his eye on. “Jim loved (500) Days of Summer,” according to Landau. “It’s not something that you would think is necessarily in his wheelhouse, but he really enjoyed that.” Apparently James Cameron and Jon Landau are further in favor of Webb’s call to use 3D now, in pre-production, as more and more projects scramble to add 3D in post:
There’s no word now on how involved Cameron will be on the Spider-Man project down the road, but my guess is he’ll stick around. Nobody devotes that much time and effort into fleshing out a project so completely and not retain a passion for it — even if his idea was ditched almost 20 years ago. Columbia hopes to release Spider-Man in 3D in July 2012.
Crowning James Cameron
Director of Avatar, Titanic Named Modern Master by SBIFF
By Barney Brantingham
Excerpt: independent.com
February 7, 2010 - The King: There he was Saturday night, “the king of the world,” all six-feet-two of Jim Cameron, bathed in love and applause from the Arlington audience and getting a hug from his buddy, the king of California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger, joking in his fractured English that “I’m still struggling saying the word Avatar,” the title of Cameron’s hit sci-fi film, presented the filmmaker with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor, the Lucky Brand Modern Master Award. The governor, who was directed by Cameron in earlier films, called the part-time Santa Barbaran “a great talent and great innovator.” Added the governor, “You’re the king!”
“We had budget problems [making movies] back then too,” Cameron cracked, a reference to California’s problems. Accepting the award for his body of work, he offered a bit of philosophy: “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” And in Cameron’s case, the people love what he does too — Avatar has become the highest grossing movie of all time, beating out the former champ, Cameron’s own Titanic.
During a Q & A session with moderator Leonard Maltin, Cameron offered this advice to would-be moviemakers: “You have to have something to say,” explaining that film school is fine, but you have to learn “from the school of life.” And, he said, “You have to create your own luck. You have to bang on doors,” but also be prepared to deliver when the opportunity comes along. “Good films are personal films,” said Cameron.
“A big film like Avatar is a personal film for me.” He recalled how after the 1969 channel oil spill Santa Barbara was “ground zero” in leading the environmental movement. “I applaud that,” he said, to the applause of the audience. “My wife and I have had a place here for 11 years.” They also live in Malibu.
Here are two more articles on the ceremony along with the directors panel discussion from andthewinneris.blog.com and variety.com.
Directors talk about choice at panel discussion
Excerpt: variety.com
February 7, 2010 - Variety VP and editorial director Peter Bart asked Kathryn Bigelow if she intended to seek a bigger budget for her forthcoming South America-set drama given the recent awards for "The Hurt Locker." "No," she replied, having learned that "with a more modest budget you get to retain more creative control." But "modest," she insisted, is a relative term; for the ambitious scope of a project like "Avatar," that film's budget might have felt comparatively modest. "That's right," quipped James Cameron. "We could have used a lot more money."
The benefits of parameters came up again when Quentin Tarantino ("Inglourious Basterds") said he had been tempted to direct an animated film until he became daunted by the prospect of the milieu's limitless possibilities. "If you can do anything, then what do you do?" he lamented. Peter Docter ("Up") explained that a Pixar creative pillar is to establish a set of consistent rules within a film that will facilitate an audience's "investment and belief in the characters. You set it up in subtle ways early on," thereby convincing them that, say, a house could be airborne by a bundle of balloons.
Cameron chimed in on Tarantino's dilemma, noting "an infinity of choices is not a luxury" and quoting a popular 1980 tune: "Freedom of choice is what you got; freedom from choice is what you want." Bigelow agreed, quoting, "Art is born of restraint and dies of freedom." That prompted Cameron to note self-mockingly, "Kathryn quotes Andre Gide; here I am quoting Devo."
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February 8, 2010 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California and the man whom Cameron had turned from an Austrian bodybuilder into a major movie star, strode out onto the stage, presented his close friend with his award, told the audience his iconic line from the film (“I’ll be back”), and then departed for the airport to catch a plane back to Sacramento. At this point, the Q&A portion resumed, and Cameron made the following comments:
* “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), he says, “was — and still is — my favorite movie,” in part because of its employment of cutting-edge technical wizardry (it morphs a black-and-white world into a world of Technicolor) and in aprt because it features “both beauty and terror,” both things that he strives to include in his films, too.
* As a youngster, he “couldn’t decide if I wanted to write or I wanted to draw,” and then, in his 20s, realized that he could do both by telling stories with pictures on film.
* Before becoming a filmmaker, he spent his weekdays driving a truck, and his off-hours photocopying hundreds of pages from film-related books, magazines, and even college theses, through which he taught himself a great deal about the technical terminology and techniques of filmmaking.
* Spent some time working as a “model builder” and “art director” for B-movie king/recent honorary Oscar recipient Roger Corman, during which he learned that “you need other people to accomplish anything.”
* On screenwriting, he candidly says, “I like having written. I don’t like writing.” He also adds, “If you can’t make yourself cry, how can you expect someone else to have an emotional reaction?”
* “I made ‘Titanic’ (1997) because I wanted to dive the shipwreck.”
* While making “Titanic,” “It was fun knowing that were doing something that hadn’t been done… that’s been true on really every one of the films… I don’t really think of how impossible these things are before the fact… I just take them on.”
* Reveals that in “Titanic,” 1 in 5 people in the scene in which the ship sinks were actually licensed lifeguards dressed in period costumes.
* Of the scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio shouts, “I’m the king of the world!,” says he initially asked the actor — via walkie-talkie, since DiCaprio was in a basket high above the ground — to try a variety of other ways to convey his excitement at the situation before suggesting “I’m the king of the world!”
Cameron adds, “Of course, I got in a lot of trouble with that line later,” referring to his awkward acceptance speech after winning the best director Oscar for the film. “He sold it. I didn’t sell it.”
* Made several underwater documentaries between “Titanic” and “Avatar,” including “Aliens of the Deep” (2005), because “I wanted to make science aspirational for kids.”
* While going underwater to explore the “Titanic” shipwreck, “I made a vow to myself to shoot my next film in 3-D.”
* “Good films are always personal films, no matter what their scale… ‘Avatar’ was certainly a personal film for me.”
* Regarding “Avatar,” says he first thought of and wrote the story (about 100 pages) in two to three weeks in 1995; then left it for other projects; returned to it in May 2005, whereupon he spent two years working on the design of the CGI-created creatures and world and developing the technology to bring it to life (the simulcamera, eMotion capture, etc.).
He then started working with his actors in April 2007, spending one year on principal photography; and then spent 2 years working on post-production, which involved over 2600 tech shots
* To prepare for “Avatar,” he read extensively about the conquest of New Spain and the history of the American West (and especially the genocide and displacement of the horse clans of the plains)
* Somewhat surprisingly volunteers, “I don’t make movies for iPhones, but if you’re making a good film it should be scalable.”
* Of his film’s nine Oscar nominations he says, “Do I need another trophy? No, I don’t. But I’m proud for the team, which feels a sense of validation.”
* Besides, he says, when receiving awards, “I usually do something stupid like yell ‘I’m the King of the World’ and jump around.”
The right way forward on space exploration
By James Cameron | Excerpt: washingtonpost.com
February 5, 2010 - What do rockets burn for fuel? Money. Money that is contributed by working families who have mortgages and children who need braces. And why do the American people support our efforts in space? Because they still believe, to some extent or another, in that shining dream of exploring other worlds. So it could be said that rockets really run on dreams.
The exploration of space is the grandest adventure challenging the human race. As a filmmaker I have celebrated this greatest of dreams in my movies and documentaries, and I remain as passionate about the discoveries ahead as I was when I was a kid. So it was with some trepidation that I waited for the NASA budget to be unveiled this week. I was concerned that amid the nation's fiscal crises, space exploration would fall off the priority list. But the NASA budget reveals a pathway to a bright future of exploration. It simply reflects the deep changes and hard decisions necessary to accomplish that goal.
Last year President Obama instructed the Augustine commission to report on the likely prognosis for NASA's exploration activities. After months of study, the conclusions the panel released in October were gloomy. The Constellation program, designed to put humans back on the moon by 2020, could not possibly succeed within that time frame or budgeted amount, it reported.
In response, the president and NASA have crafted a bold plan that truly makes possible this nation's dreams for space. Their plan calls for the full embrace of commercial solutions for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit after the space shuttle is retired this year. This frees NASA to do what it does best: deep space exploration, both robotic and human. By selecting commercial solutions for transportation to the international space station, NASA is empowering American free enterprise to do what it does best: develop technology quickly and efficiently in a competitive environment.
As Peter Diamandis, chairman of the nonprofit X Prize Foundation, wrote this week: "The U.S. Government doesn't build your computers, nor do you fly aboard a U.S. Government owned and operated airline. Private industry routinely takes technologies pioneered by the government and turns them into cheap, reliable and robust industries."
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