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James Cameron

Réalisateur/trice, Producteur/trice, Scénariste
États-Unis

Français

James Francis Cameron est né le 16 août 1954 à Kapuskasing (Ontario, Canada). Il est réalisateur, scénariste et producteur américain.

Biographie
James Cameron, fils de Phillip, un ingénieur électrique, et Shirley, une artiste, est né et a passé son enfance au Canada, près des chutes du Niagara (d’où lui vient peut-être son goût de la démesure). En 1971, il déménage à Brea (Californie, États-Unis), où il sera diplômé de physique à la California State University. Mais ses premiers jobs alimentaires seront mécanicien et conducteur de camions car il nourrit une toute autre ambition : le cinéma. Son premier court métrage : Xenogenesis, est financé par un consortium de dentistes. Il officie alors comme réalisateur, producteur, co-scénariste, monteur, directeur de la photographie, maquettiste et superviseur des effets spéciaux. Cette expérience lui permet de se faire remarquer en 1980 par Roger Corman qui l’engage dans sa compagnie New World Picture. James Cameron travaille alors principalement sur les effets spéciaux avant d’être nommé directeur artistique sur Les Mercenaires de l’espace puis directeur de la photographie et réalisateur de deuxième équipe sur Galaxy of terror. Il travaille également aux effets spéciaux de New York 1997 de John Carpenter.

C’est à cette époque qu’il entamera l’écriture du scénario de Terminator. Entre-temps, il est nommé réalisateur de Piranha 2 : Les Tueurs volants, une coproduction italo-américaine. Mais ses relations avec le producteur Ovidio G. Assonitis se dégradent, tant et si bien que celui-ci lui retire le contrôle artistique du film. James Cameron tente bien de pénétrer par effraction, la nuit, dans la salle de montage mais ses modifications sont systématiquement écartées par le producteur. Bien qu’étant co-crédité comme réalisateur, il reniera le film (souvent absent de ses filmographies officielles).

Mais cette mauvaise expérience ne freinera en rien ses ambitions. Tourné pour 6 millions de dollars, Terminator en rapportera 80. Le film est produit par Gale Anne Hurd, qui est alors aussi sa femme. Grâce à cet immense succès, nul à Hollywood ne peut alors l’ignorer, et les sollicitations se multiplient. Il écrit la première mouture de Rambo II : La Mission, réécrit ensuite par Sylvester Stallone. Qualifié de reaganien par les critiques, ce film vaudra longtemps à James Cameron sa réputation de cinéaste bourrin, mais Sylvester Stallone avouera plus tard qu’il regrettait de ne pas avoir tourné la version originale du script, plus subtile dans son approche.

Pour la société de production Brandywine, il écrit Aliens le retour, avant de se voir proposer l’opportunité de le réaliser lui-même, suite au succès de Terminator. C’est sur ce tournage, dans les fameux Studios Pinewood en Angleterre, qu’il se mettra à dos les techniciens, les traitant de « syndicalistes fainéants », ceux-ci se vengeant en arborant des tee-shirts « je peux tout supporter : j’ai travaillé avec James Cameron ». Il renverra le premier directeur de la photographie, assurant lui-même la fonction avant qu’un remplaçant n’arrive. Finalement le film est un succès qui le conforte dans sa position de nouveau génie d’Hollywood, et lui permet de monter avec Gale Anne Hurd un nouveau projet?

Pour tourner Abyss, James Cameron se donnera les moyens de ses ambitions : budget hollywoodien, tournage dans un silo nucléaire en cours de construction noyé par plus de 26 000 m³ d’eau, invention (avec son frère Mike) de caméras révolutionnaires pour filmer sous l’eau, effets spéciaux en images de synthèses derniers cris. Il pousse ses acteurs à bout, dans des conditions de tournage déjà éprouvantes (Ed Harris craquera à plusieurs reprises). Pourtant le film ne recevra qu’un accueil mitigé.

A cet époque, il a déjà usé deux épouses. La troisième sera Kathryn Bigelow, réalisatrice au style assez violent, dont le goût pour les scènes d’action musclées la rapproche indéniablement de son mari. Celui-ci produira pour elle Point Break et Strange Days, tout en écrivant également ce dernier. Son prochain projet personnel sera Terminator 2 : Le jugement dernier, suite des aventures de Sarah Connor campée par Linda Hamilton, sa quatrième épouse. Comme il l’avait prouvé avec ses films précédents, James Cameron est un pionnier des images de synthèse, repoussant toujours plus loin les limites du possible. T2 n’y fera pas exception. Pour un budget record à l’époque de 100 millions de dollars, cette nouvelle association avec Arnold Schwarzenegger rapportera plus de 500 millions de dollars à travers le monde, tant et si bien que lorsque l’acteur essuie un de ses premiers échecs avec Last Action Hero, c’est tout naturellement qu’il se tournera vers son réalisateur fétiche pour redorer son blason.

Après la tentative avortée de monter un film autour du personnage de Spider-man, avec l’autrichien dans le rôle du super-vilain, la troisième collaboration entre les deux hommes sera finalement True Lies, remake de la comédie française La Totale ! de Claude Zidi. La comparaison entre les deux films s’arrête là. Bénéficiant d’un budget à peine comparable, le film multiplie les scènes d’action épiques, dans une ambiance bon enfant tranchant avec le reste de sa filmographie. Une partie des effets spéciaux numériques est pour la première fois assurée par Digital Domain, compagnie qu’il a fondée en 1993, et qu’il quittera en 1998.

Après déjà une décennie passée à révolutionner les effets spéciaux et à monter des projets toujours plus fous, James Cameron n’est toujours pas comblé. Lors de la production d’Abyss, il a accumulé une abondante documentation à propos du destin tragique du Titanic. L’idée a fait son chemin, et il s’attelle à réaliser ce qui s’avèrera être le film de tous les excès. Co-produit par deux studios « frères ennemis », 20th Century Fox et Paramount, le film, budgeté à 150 millions de dollars, en coûtera finalement plus de 200, un nouveau record, soit plus que le prix qu’avait coûté la fabrication du Titanic en son temps. Le paquebot est reconstruit presque à l’identique (échelle 9/10), le caviar dans les assiettes est vrai. Les rumeurs les plus folles circuleront sur ce film : on racontera qu’il sera un gouffre financier, menant à une faillite certaine les deux studios qui en assurent le financement. James Cameron sera d’ailleurs obligé de sacrifier son salaire de réalisateur et son intéressement aux recettes afin de prouver sa foi dans le projet. Finalement, Titanic sera le plus gros succès de l’histoire du cinéma avec plus de 1,8 milliard de dollars de recettes et le réalisateur en sera largement récompensé, financièrement d’abord, mais aussi par 11 oscars dont 3 pour lui-même (seuls Ben-Hur et Le Retour du Roi en ont obtenu autant).

Par la suite, James Cameron décide d’élargir ses visées, avec la série TV Dark Angel pour commencer, qu’il produit et dont il réalise l’épisode final, puis avec une série de documentaires : Les Fantômes du Titanic dans lequel il expérimente le tournage en trois dimensions, Expedition: Bismarck sur un autre naufrage célèbre, Aliens of the deep sur les étranges créatures des fonds sous-marins, et Volcanoes of the Deep Sea. Il fut même question qu’il embarque à bord d’un Soyouz russe à destination de la station Mir, épopée qu’il n’aurait sans doute pas manqué de filmer. En outre, il produira le film Solaris pour Steven Soderbergh, en sa qualité d’expert en science-fiction et en effets spéciaux.

En mai 2006 James Cameron revend à la firme d’investissement WyndCrest (dont fait notamment parti le réalisateur Michael Bay) Digital Domain, la compagnie spécialisée dans les effets spéciaux en images de synthèse qu’il avait cofondée avec son collaborateur de longue date Stan Winston. Parmi les nombreux films auxquels Digital Domain aura contribué depuis sa création en 1993, on peut citer notamment : Apollo 13, Armageddon, Le Jour d’après, ou I, Robot.

Actuellement, James Cameron n’a pas moins de 5 films en préparation :

Une adaptation des neuf premiers tomes du manga Gunnm (Battle Angel en anglais), sous la forme d’une trilogie. Ces films seront tournés en trois dimensions grâce aux technologies que Cameron a déjà expérimentées sur Les Fantômes du Titanic. Cameron mise sur le fait que d’ici à la sortie du premier film (estimée à 2009), de nombreuses salles de cinéma se seront équipées du matériel adéquat pour projeter ce type de métrage, et seront ainsi en mesure d’accueillir le fruit de son travail. Autre détail intéressant, l’héroïne de l’histoire (Gally) sera un personnage entièrement en images de synthèse (à la manière de Gollum dans la trilogie du Seigneur des Anneaux).
The Dive, qui devrait se tourner en 2007 pour une sortie en 2008, racontera l’histoire vraie des apnéistes Francisco « Pipin » Ferreras (italien), et Audrey Mestre (française), qui furent compétiteurs et amants.
Dernier projet en préparation, le mystérieux Project 880 serait en fait une adaptation d’Avatar, un scénario qu’il avait écrit au début des années 90, mais qu’il n’avait pu tourner pour des raisons techniques. En effet, la rumeur de l’époque voulait que ce film nécessite la mise au point de personnages en images de synthèses photoréalistes (le titre sous-entend que ces trompe-l’?il seraient au c?ur de l’histoire), chose alors impossible. Aujourd’hui encore ce genre de prouesse paraît irréalisable, mais on peut attendre beaucoup d’un homme comme James Cameron qui a beaucoup contribué à développer les effets spéciaux en images de synthèse au cinéma ces deux dernières décennies. Autre détail intéressant, la sortie du film (trop éloignée pour être estimée) devrait être accompagnée de celle d’un jeu vidéo de type MMORPG, invitant les joueurs à vivre des aventures dans l’univers du film, en parallèle de l’histoire développée dans celui-ci.

Vie matrimoniale
Marié le 14 février 1978 à Sharon Williams, ils divorcèrent en 1984.
Marié en 1985 à la productrice Gale Anne Hurd, ils divorcèrent en 1989.
Marié le 17 août 1989 à la réalisatrice Kathryn Bigelow, ils divorcèrent en 1991.
Marié le 26 juillet 1997 à l’actrice Linda Hamilton, ils divorcèrent en 1999 (une fille).
Marié le 4 juin 2000 à l’actrice Suzy Amis (deux enfants).

Filmographie

Réalisateur
1978 : Xenogenesis (court métrage)
1981 : Piranha 2 : Les Tueurs volants (Piranha Part Two: The Spawning) (co-réalisé avec Ovidio G. Assonitis)
1984 : Terminator (The Terminator)
1986 : Aliens le retour (Aliens)
1989 : Abyss (The Abyss)
1991 : Terminator 2 : Le jugement dernier (Terminator 2 : Judgment day)
1994 : True Lies
1996 : T2 3-D : Battle across time (court métrage en 3D pour parc d’attractions) (co-réalisé avec John Bruno et Stan Winston)
1997 : Titanic
2000 : Dark Angel (série TV – épisode Freak nation)
2002 : Expedition: Bismarck (documentaire co-réalisé avec Gary Johnstone)
2003 : Les Fantômes du Titanic (Ghosts of the Abyss) (documentaire)
2005 : Aliens of the deep (documentaire co-réalisé avec Steven Quale)

Scénariste
1978 : Xenogenesis (co-écrit avec William Wisher Jr.)
1984 : Terminator (The Terminator) (co-écrit avec Gale Anne Hurd)
1985 : Rambo II : La Mission (Rambo : First blood part II) (co-écrit avec Sylvester Stallone, d’après une histoire de Kevin Jarre)
1986 : Aliens le retour (Aliens) (d’après une histoire de David Giler et Walter Hill)
1989 : Abyss (The Abyss)
1991 : Terminator 2 : Le jugement dernier (Terminator 2 : Judgment day) (co-écrit avec William Wisher Jr.)
1994 : True Lies (d’après une histoire de Claude Zidi et Didier Kaminka)
1995 : Strange Days (co-écrit avec Jay Cocks)
1996 : T2 3-D : Battle across time (co-écrit avec Adam J. Bezark et Gary Goddard)
1997 : Titanic
2000 : Dark Angel (série TV – Pilote co-écrit avec Charles H. Eglee)
2003 : Terminator 3 : Le soulèvement des machines (Terminator 3 : Rise of the machines) (personnages)

Producteur
1991 : Terminator 2 : Le jugement dernier (Terminator 2 : Judgment day) (producteur)
Point Break (producteur exécutif)
1994 : True Lies (producteur)
1995 : Strange Days (producteur)
1997 : Titanic (producteur)
2000 : Dark Angel (producteur exécutif) (série TV – épisodes Avis de recherche, L’habit ne fait pas le moine, Surveillance rapprochée, Charmante soirée, Sans relâche, Instinct maternel, Prédateur, Cible vivante, Féline, Dieu tout puissant, Le prix de l’évasion, et Liberté)
2002 : Solaris (producteur)
Expedition: Bismarck (documentaire) (producteur)
2003 : Les Fantômes du Titanic (producteur)
Volcanoes of the Deep Sea (producteur exécutif)
2005 : Aliens of the deep (documentaire) (producteur)
Heart of the Ocean (vidéo) (producteur)

Nominations et récompenses
Grand prix du festival d’Avoriaz en 1985 pour Terminator.
Oscar du meilleur film en 1998 pour Titanic.
Oscar du meilleur réalisateur en 1998 pour Titanic.
Oscar du meilleur montage en 1998 pour Titanic, avec Conrad Buff et Richard A. Harris.
Golden Globe du meilleur film dramatique en 1998 pour Titanic.
Golden Globe du meilleur réalisateur en 1998 pour Titanic.
Nominé au Golden Globe du meilleur scénario en 1998 pour Titanic.
Nominé au BAFTA du meilleur film en 1998 pour Titanic, avec le producteur Jon Landau.
Nominé au BAFTA du meilleur montage en 1998 pour Titanic, avec Conrad Buff et Richard A. Harris.
Nominé au David Lean Award du meilleur réalisateur en 1998 pour Titanic.
Nominé au César du meilleur film étranger en 1998 pour Titanic.
Razzie Award du plus mauvais scénario pour Rambo II : La Mission, avec Sylvester Stallone et Kevin Jarre.
Nominé par la WGA (Writers Guild of America) en 1998 pour le meilleur scénario original pour Titanic.

Anecdotes
Ses films se caractérisent souvent par des personnages principaux féminins forts : Sarah Connor dans Terminator, Ellen Ripley dans Aliens le retour, Lindsey Brigman dans Abyss, Helen Tasker dans True Lies, Rose Dewitt Bukater dans Titanic, ou Max Guevera, l’héroïne de la série TV Dark Angel que James Cameron a créée.
Il fut le premier réalisateur à tourner un film d’un budget de plus de 100 millions de dollars (Terminator 2 : Le jugement dernier), puis d’un budget de plus de 200 millions de dollars (Titanic).
Il est surnommé Iron Jim sur les tournages.
Il possède sa propre société de production : Lightstorm Entertainment.
Ses acteurs fétiches sont Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Arnold Schwarzenegger et Lance Henriksen.
James Cameron raconte qu’il fut remarqué par des producteurs alors qu’il officiait comme réalisateur de deuxième équipe sur Galaxy of terror. Il devait tourner ce jour-là des gros plans de vers grouillant dans un bras démembré et avait pour cela attaché un câble électrique sur le faux bras. Un assistant devait brancher le câble lorsqu’il criait « Action ! », afin que les vers se mettent à remuer. Les producteurs furent tellement stupéfaits par sa maîtrise technique qu’ils commencèrent à lui parler de plus gros projets.
N’étant pas membre de la guilde américaine des monteurs, il ne reçut pas de crédits pour son travail sur le montage de Strange Days. Ayant effectué les démarches nécessaires auprès de la même guilde avant le tournage de Titanic, il a reçu un crédit pour le montage de celui-ci.
Sur l’écran de l’ordinateur qui lui servait à monter Titanic, il avait collé une lame de rasoir avec une mention « Use only if film sucks! » (A n’utiliser que si le film est raté!).
Salaire pour Titanic : 600 000 dollars comme scénariste, 8 millions de dollars comme réalisateur, plus un intéressement sur les recettes, font 115 millions de dollars.
Les négociations autour du salaire de Sigourney Weaver s’éternisant et celle-ci menaçant de ne pas faire le second Alien, James Cameron téléphona à l’agent d’Arnold Schwarzenegger, lui racontant qu’il était en train de réécrire le scénario sans le personnage de Ripley. Comme il l’espérait l’agent téléphona à son collègue qui représentait les intérêts de Sigourney Weaver, et quelques jours plus tard celle-ci se décidait enfin à signer son contrat.
Kate Winslet a déclaré que James Cameron est l’artiste qui l’a dessinée nue pour les besoins de Titanic. C’est aussi sa main que l’on voit dans les gros plans.
Les mandibules sur le visage du Predator sont son idée.
Il fut un temps envisagé pour réaliser Spider-Man avec Arnold Schwarzenegger dans le rôle du Docteur Octopus. Il avait même écrit un premier traitement plus violent que le film qui a finalement vu le jour et qui contenait déjà l’idée des lance-toiles organiques (plutôt que les mécaniques de la bande dessinée, jugeant qu’un simple étudiant ne devrait pas être capable de fabriquer de tels gadgets).
Il a écrit un scénario nommé A Crowded Room (Une Pièce Bondée) qui fait parti des plus célèbres scénarios n’ayant jamais été produits.
Il a déclaré qu’il serait judicieux que le prix des tickets de cinéma soit proportionnel au budget du film projeté (autrement dit une place pour voir un petit film indépendant filmé en DV serait vendue moins cher que pour un blockbuster tel qu’il les réalise).
James Cameron est un grand fan de films d’animation japonais, et les éditeurs de DVD le citent souvent sur les pochettes de leurs produits.

Un article de Wikipédia, l’encyclopédie libre.

English

« The convincing creation of new worlds, imaginary but plausible science, and the psychology and movement of the inhabitants of futuristic or unfamiliar worlds is perhaps the most challenging of all tasks that a filmmaker can undertake. James Cameron, with his genius in this area, can truly be described as a writer-director with a vision »

– Roger Corman

The Early Years
James Cameron was born in the small town of Kapuskasing in Ontario, Canada on August 16 1954. His father Phillip Cameron was an electrical engineer, and his mother Shirley Cameron was an artist. Cameron had several siblings, one of them, Mike would later become a great asset to Cameron when making his films.

James Cameron has often been described as one of those nerdy kids, a loner who didn’t really fit in. Cameron’s great interest when he was young was how to make things work, explore new things. He and his brother Mike were quite the scientists of the little town. Through his mother Cameron was also inspired to paint, something he was very gifted at.


When Cameron was 15 years old he initially found out what he wanted to do with his life. It happened one night when he went to the movies. The movie he saw was Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Cameron was of course mesmerized by the film, he wanted badly to find out how the movie makers had achieved the effects which were displayed on screen. He almost went crazy figuring out how anyone could have made this spectacular movie.


Cameron got a hold of an old 16mm camera and he instantly started shooting his own star epics. He toyed with models, camera angles and he lay awake in bed at night and envisioned how his star battles and beautiful landscapes would appear on film.


Cameron had set his hopes high. He wanted to make movies. At the time he was only interested in the special effects and technical know-how of a movie production. He didn’t know anything about cinema history and he still had many limitations in using the camera right. Furthermore Cameron was frustrated knowing that he lived miles and miles away from Hollywood – the place for his dreams to be realised.


Cameron got a lucky break in 1971 when his father informed him that the whole family would be moving from Chippewa, Ontario (due to Phillip Cameron’s working opportunities they had moved there from Kapuskasing) to Orange County, California. Cameron’s father had been offered a job he wouldn’t like to turn down. Cameron was only thrilled by the idea of living only few miles away from Hollywood so he was not the one to object against the « relocation » of the family.


As so many others Cameron was struck with disappointment when he realised that starting a career in movies isn’t that easy. He had a great desire to get his foot in the door and maybe attend film school, but the limitations were huge and his family couldn’t afford to pay for his tuition. Cameron had to face the facts and he enrolled to study physics at Fullerton College, he later switched to English litterature when his math skills became inadequate.


Down the Right Path at New World
Time went by. Cameron had dropped out of college and had married a young waitress named Susan Williams. Cameron earned his living by working as a truck driver but he still hadn’t quit on his dreams of becoming a movie maker. One day in 1977 Cameron went to the movies to watch this new film, a new sci-fi adventure and Cameron would like to know what all the fuss was about. « I went from being a bum who liked to smoke dope and hang out by the river drinking beer and race around in a fast junk-heap cars to this completely obsessed maniac » – James Cameron on his transformation


When Cameron had seen this movie, which was of course Star Wars, he was bewildered. He felt lousy actually, he felt that Star Wars was the movie he had always wanted to make. He decided that the time to fully pursue his dreams had come. Cameron spent nights and days in the library reading every movie related piece of writing he could find. He read everything from screenplays to « how do you do this and that with special effects ». He even bought lenses, movie equipment and much more, he took it home and took it apart to find out how every little mechanism worked. He became totally obsessed. Oblivious of everything else in his life. This profound interest in movies and the making of these would eventually be the downfall of his first marriage.


Cameron got involved with his first real movie-making process in 1979. His friend William Wisher, an aspiring screenwriter with whom Cameron later on would co-write T2 – Judgment Day, had gotten a lucky break when he was hired by some dentists in Tustin, California who wanted to invest their money in movies as a tax shelter. Wisher asked Cameron if he wanted to help him. The two sat down and came up with many different story lines but eventually decided to go with a sci-fi related story. They wrote a screenplay which would require numerous special effects but the youngsters didn’t consider that problem at the time. The project became so time consuming that Cameron had to quit his truck driving job. The project, however, never made it beyond the stage of a screenplay but nevertheless it was an educational experience for Cameron who learned a great deal about writing a screenplay and plotting a movie.

Cameron was now without a job and decided to fully invest his time in movie making. He applied for a job at New World Pictures, Roger Corman’s company. Corman was always looking for young, talented and eager movie makers « wanna-bes » and in this category Cameron fit in perfectly. He initially applied for a job as a special effects camera man, however there was no need for such at the studio at the moment. Instead he was offered a job as a miniature builder on Battle Beyond the Stars. Wanting to work with movies Cameron had to accept. Though Cameron had very little know-how his ideas were many and often good ideas for how to make the special effects in the movie better. Corman was impressed with this young miniature builder who wanted to be in every aspect of the movie. After Cameron successfully had been innovative and carried out his ideas he was promoted to head of the visual department on the movie. He got his own office and now people were depending on him to deliver the goods.

The First Try-out
Cameron worked on several films at New World, and he had several different job titles such as production designer and 2nd unit director. He quickly moved up the ladder and he was becoming quite unpopular with the rest of the studio crew because he was so boldly and overly ambitious. Other films that Cameron worked on at New World include among others Galaxy of Terror and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York.

Roger Corman had distribution rights all over the world and when an italian producer Ovidio G. Assonitis contacted Corman because he needed a director for the sequel to Jo Dante’s 1978 Piranha he was to start shooting, Corman immediately thought of Cameron. Using a first time director had many advantages and Assonitis agreed to sign on Cameron to the project. Cameron was of course very pleased to be offered a chance to direct a real motion picture but his dreams would soon be shattered once again.

Cameron took the screenplay for Piranha 2 – the Spawning and gave it a quick polish to make it his own, though he had no experience in screenwriting he felt the script needed to be polished. When Cameron arrived at the set of Piranha 2 – the Spawning in Jamaica in February 1981 he was very disappointed. Hardly any of the film crew spoke english, the production was terribly under-budgeted, and the special effects creatures produced for the film were so disappointing that Cameron produced his own himself. Throughout the shooting of the film Cameron became more and more displeased. Assonitis wasn’t being very cooperative and wouldn’t let Cameron view any dailies. Cameron’s only comfort was the friendship he was making with Lance Henriksen who starred in the film.

When principal photography was completed Cameron had gotten his first real try-out as a director, it had been a very hard time with a lot of anger and long working nights, he knew that the movie wouldn’t be great but then again he was very frustrated that he wouldn’t have any say in how the movie was going to be edited. Assonitis simply wouldn’t let him. Then one night he decided to break in to the editing room in Rome and started editing. He returned night after night until the movie had been edited in such a way that Cameron could call it his own. Assonitis of course found out and threatened Cameron with a lawsuit but nothing ever came of that. It was during his stay in Rome when Cameron was ill and suffered from a depression he had a dream of a machine coming from the future with only one purpose, to kill him. This dream would later emerge into the screenplay that would become The Terminator.

Piranha 2 – the Spawning is a lousy movie that received even worse reviews. Cameron knew this but he had gotten hands-on experience and a look at how cruel the process of making movies can be.

Cameron returned to the states to pursue his movie career once again. His haunting dream that night in Rome slowly evolved into the screenplay The Terminator. Cameron wrote it strictly for commercial purposes, to show off to people interested in working with him etc. Cameron had a very hard time finding funding for the project so he took it to one of his old colleagues at New World, Gale Anne Hurd. She had worked four years with Roger Corman until she had left to start her own production company Pacific Western Productions. Cameron and Hurd sat down and polished the screenplay to The Terminator and then decided to shop it around. Cameron had sold the screenplay to Hurd for the mere sum of 1 dollar on the condition that he would direct the movie. Everywhere they went people were like, « Well, we wanna do it, but we want some high profile director on it. » Cameron and Hurd knew they had a hit on their hands. Finally the script was shown to John Daly at Hemdale Pictures. Daly was very impressed with the visions and eagerness of the young director and he decided that Hemdale would back the movie.

Introducing Arnold
Cameron had to kill some time before the Terminator could go into production and since it had rumoured around Hollywood that this talented writer had writen a very good screenplay Cameron was offered writing jobs. He was offered two jobs the same day, not knowing which one he would let down he took them both. One of them was the screenplay called Alien 2 which would later be Aliens. The producers of Alien wanted to make a sequel to the 1979 hit Ridley Scott’s Alien. Cameron wrote a more action oriented screenplay with a lot of tech stuff and soldiers on mission in outer space. He didn’t know at the time he would be offered to direct the movie himself. The other screenplay was also a follow-up, it was Rambo: First Blood part 2. Cameron wrote quite an interesting screenplay which featured more depth than the first Rambo movie had had. He also wrote in a sidekick to Rambo in order to make the screenplay more character driven. However Sylvester Stallone, as he always does, rewrote the screenplay to fit his needs. Most of what Cameron had written was left out including the sidekick. When Cameron went to see the movie he felt odd. His only comfort was the fact that the crowd cheered at the those action sequences he recognized as his own.

« There were times during that shoot that I really thought to myself that he was completely fucking crazy »

– Arnold Schwarzenegger referring to Cameron on the set of The Terminator

The Terminator was about to go into production, Arnold Schwarzenegger was of course cast as the terminator, a part originally intended for Lance Henriksen, but he appeared as a cop in the movie. Originally Schwarzenegger was also trying out for the part as Reese but thought the terminator to be more intriguing. Linda Hamilton was cast as Sarah Conner, a character loosely based on Cameron’s first wife Susan, and finally Michael Biehn was cast as Reese. The cast and crew were instantly impressed with Cameron, his commitment to the project, his willingness to demonstrate stunts and his no-compromise attitude. The movie was completed on schedule and on budget and to everyone’s satisfaction.

Cameron was disappointed when Orion, who had later opted in to share the costs with Hemdale on the movie, wouldn’t promote in other way than a sci-fi movie of the week. They expected it to last a week or two and didn’t think highly of the film. However they were wrong. The Terminator did very well at the box office and made it on several of the top 10 lists in 1984. Cameron had helmed his first hit. Hollywood had opened his door to him and his foot was in.

Following in the footsteps of Ridley Scott
When Cameron started working on The Terminator the Aliens screenplay wasn’t finished yet. Since David Giler and Walter Hill (the producers of Aliens) liked what they saw from the pages they had received from Cameron they decided to wait for him to complete the screenplay. After the success of The Terminator Hill and Giler suggested Cameron that he should direct the Aliens movie himself. Cameron thought a long time about it and finally agreed on the condition that Hurd would be brought on as a producer. Cameron and Hurd had gotten romanticly involved during the making of The Terminator and they now decided to make it official. They were married just before the production of Aliens commenced.

Cameron went to Pinewood Studios in England to shoot Aliens with a lot of the same cast and crew he had used on The Terminator. Sigourney Weaver was of course cast once again as Ripley, Michael Biehn as the marine soldier Hicks. Lance Henriksen also joined playing Bishop, a cyborg. And Bill Paxton who had briefly appeared in The Terminator also starred as one of the marines. Stan Winston created the aliens that were to be used in the movie. He used the original designs of H.R. Giger but improved them quite a bit. Stan Winston had also been responsible for creating the terminator effects.

Aliens was completed in 1986, on schedule and on budget ( million. The film became a huge success, it made million and really established Cameron and Hurd as an A-list partnership. Aliens went on to receive 7 Academy Award nominations, including ones for best actress for Weaver and music for James Horner. It won four of the seven awards. Cameron was also awarded Nato/Showest director of the year award in 1986.

The « brutal » director
Cameron now had the opportunity to do whatever he wanted. He had several of his own projects laying around, including one revolving around the last days before the millenium (Strange Days). He, however, decided to realize a story that was initially born one boring biology class when Cameron was 17, he had written a short story named The Abyss and now it was time to make it into a huge blockbuster movie.


« I remember being hugely impressed by Jim Cameron when I met him. This man was completely focused and could describe and defend all of his ideas with clarity and enthusiasm. Before it was over I’d want to kill him at least a dozen times »

– Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio on James Cameron

Twentieth Century Fox who had signed a deal with Cameron was going to produce the movie. The screenplay had problems written all over it. Cameron had written such an outstanding screenplay taking place at the bottom of the sea concerning man’s first encounter with aliens. People were saying that this movie would be impossible to shoot. However Fox confided in Cameron and give him the go-ahead. Hurd was once again producing.

Again joining Cameron was Michael Biehn, but apart from him the cast was relatively unknown. It included Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the lead roles. Cameron’s brother Mike was brought in to develop the very advanced equipment they’d to use during the underwater shooting. The brothers earned 5 patents in the process of making this film.

It didn’t take long for problems to occur on the set. Because of the underwater shooting this movie was so demanding on the actors that they felt like quitting every single day. It was also on this movie that Cameron would establish himself as a real tough guy to work with. He would snap at the crew if they got the tiniest thing wrong, and there were even rumours circulating that Cameron wouldn’t let anyone go to the bathroom during takes. The problems were starting to wear off on Cameron and Hurd’s relationship, during the production of the film they became seperated but kept it a secret fearing that the studio would intervene if they knew of the tension on the set. In the end Hurd was only there when strictly needed and the two were divorced after principal photography was completed.

The Abyss features ground breaking effects, including that of the underwater alien. For the first time you see the morphing-effect which would later be used more extensively in T2- Judgment Day. It also features beautiful underwater shots and locations. You can tell by looking at the images in the film how tough this was to shoot and it will go down in cinematic history as the hardest movie ever shot.

The Abyss was released in August 1989 to mixed reviews and a disappointing box office result. Cameron had made two versions of the movie, the theatrical one is the shorter one for obvious reasons. Cameron later restored the alternate version and released it in a special edition in 1996.

The Return of the Cyborg
Ever since the first Terminator movie had been completed rumours had been circulating around a sequel. Schwarzengger had often spoken to Cameron about his desire to make another Terminator movie but nothing had ever come of it. William Wisher and Cameron had often met, discussed and toyed around with ideas but it wasn’t until late in 1989 that the two really sat down and started writing a sequel to the 1984 smash hit.

Meanwhile Cameron had gotten remarried to the tall, beautiful director Kathryn Bigelow and he went on to produce and co-write her surfer movie Point Break in 1991. The two would later collaborate on Strange Days in 1995.

The casting was a huge issue on T2 – Judgment Day. Schwarzenegger agreed to star and so did Hamilton without ever seeing the script. Robert Patrick was cast as the « bad » terminator whoose mission is to kill John Connor. Patrick was very small in comparison to Schwarzenegger but the very remarkable special effects, the morphing, made him nearly invincible. Mali Finn, casting director on the film, discovered Edward Furlong in a boys’ club in LA. He tried out for the part and even though he had no experience Cameron felt there was something about him. He took a major chance and cast Furlong as John Connor.

Considering this was a Cameron movie the principal photography on T2 was completed with very few issues. Of course there were problems concerning Cameron’s temper and Hamilton’s inability to work with Schwarzengger, but the filming was completed on time. The post production of T2 was the tricky part. Industrial Light and Magic who had worked with Cameron on The Abyss were to make the morphing effects of the T-1000. The movie pretty much depended on these effects to work. And the result is amazing. ILM has created groundbreaking effects which has become standard use nowadays, but at that time it was quite remarkable.

T2 opened July 3, 1991 to mainly good reviews. The budget of the movie had exceeded 0 million which was unprecedented. The movie grossed 4,8 million worldwide and Cameron in collaboration with Schwarznegger had created another hit. T2 was nominated for six Academy Awards of which it won four, best effects, best sound editing, best sound and best makeup.

In the mean time Cameron and Bigelow had been divorced and Cameron had become romanticly involved with Linda Hamilton during the production of T2, the two of them gave birth to a girl named Josephine Archer Cameron in 1993.

Remaking the French
Arnold Schwarzengger was actually the reason that Cameron got involved with his next projects. It was one of those days in late 1989 when Cameron and Schwarzenegger were hanging out as buddies riding on their motorcycles in the mountains that Schwarzenegger told Cameron of this french comedy called La Totale. It told the story of a secret agent who was saving the world but at the same time wasn’t able to save his own home, failing both as husband and father. Cameron and Schwarzenegger agreed that after the T2 the time to recreate La Totale had come, the movie was given the more descriptive title True Lies.

Quickly realising that the special effects needed to turn La Totale into True Lies, a blockbuster movie, were many Cameron decided, along with Stan Winston and Scott Ross, to found Digital Domain. The initial task of Digital Domain was just to create the effects for True Lies but it has now developed into a major special effects company like ILM, producing not only for movies but for video games etc. Hundreds of people work there today.

Cameron didn’t want to give up on his old ideas, including the story for Strange Days. However, he quickly realised that he was running out of time. The story had to take place before the millenium. He hired Jay Cocks to write a screenplay based on his very detailed scriptment. Kathryn Bigelow was brought on as director, and it resulted in a quite good film, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Lewis among others. It bombed totally at the box office though.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast as Harry Tasker, the secret agent who seems to have everything under control. Opposite him Cameron cast Jamie Lee Curtis as Harry’s wife. Bill Paxton, and old friend, Tom Arnold and Art Malik also appeared in the film. True Lies became very costly for Universal Pictures and Fox. The budget exceeded that of T2, It was rumoured to be as much as 0 million. The screenplay also involved using the navy’s jets for several days, flying them around downtown Miami and blowing up a vacant office building. However the officials at the studio were certain that Cameron together with Schwarzenegger would mean nothing but another hit.

When True Lies was finally released in 1994 it got disappointing reviews and did poorly at the box office considering the kind of budget it had had. The movie grossed 4,3 million worldwide, the figures were still reasonable but disappointing. Many people argued againts the depiction of the middle east terrorists. Several muslims living in the US demanded that the movie had to be banned. Cameron was of course disappointed, but he was pleased that his newly founded company Digitial Domain had been able to deliver the goods. Cameron received the Nato/Showest producer of the year award that year.

Sailing on the Big Boat
Cameron had for a long time been interested in making a movie about the ill-fated ocean liner Titanic. He had written a screenplay that featured a fictitious love story which also evolved around the sinking of the ship. When Cameron pitched his idea to the studios involved, Fox and Paramount, he warned them that movie would be expensive, around 0 million and at least three hours long. Cameron was finally given the go-ahead in February 1995 and filming was to start in Halifax, Nova Scotia in July 1996. The film was to feature real footage from the real Titanic and a story set in the present concerning modern-day grave robbers who were searching the Titanic for a diamond.

In the intervening time Cameron returned to his most popular franchise ever, the Terminator series. He would direct T2 – 3D Battle Across Time, an amusement park attraction for Universal Studios. The cast of T2 was brought in, Stan Winston hopped on board, and the team created one of the most spectacular rides ever. Anyone who has experienced T2 – 3D agrees.

Casting Titanic Cameron decided to go with young but known actors for the leading parts. Initially Tom Cruise was considered for the movie but the lead part went to Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate Winslet was also cast alongside DiCaprio. Winslet was rather young and untried with the great Hollywood machinery. Her experience would be an unforgettable one. Bill Paxton starred as Brock Lovett, the adventurer set out to find the heart of the ocean. Other supporting cast include, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Francis Fisher, Bernard Hill and Suzy Amis (who would later make a great difference in Cameron’s life).

Problems became evident early on in the shooting of Titanic. The crew was supposed to spend 10 days shooting in Nova Scotia but ended up staying there for 40 days. At the last day due to food poisoning or whatever it was the entire crew and cast were sent to the hospitals. There were some who speculated that sabotage of the food was one of the reasons for the entire crew getting ill.

After the shot in Nova Scotia Cameron relocated to Baja, California where a major studio had been built just for the production of the titanic. The studio had a huge outdoor pool in which a nearly full sized model of the Titanic constructed on hydraulic lifts lay.

Principal photography took a lot longer than expected. In the end it took nearly 9 months just to film Titanic. During the process studio executives were becoming worried. The budget was sky-high already and rumours of Cameron humiliating and tormenting his crew had surfaced in LA. The studio finally decided to intervene and demanded that Cameron cut several of his planned scenes. Cameron was very frustrated but knowing how studio executives can be he saw no other option than to invest his own fee plus percentage points into the movie, so that it could be realized the way he wanted. After the success of Titanic he was compensated for this.


« I’m the king of the world!! »

– James Cameron upon receiving his Oscar for best directing.

But Titanic was finally able to sail and it was released December 19 1997, six months later than it was originally intendend. But they had to push to release date, the movie simply wasn’t finished. The movie became a great success, today it still holds the box office record. It finally settled at a cost of 0 million but ended up grossing 35 million – the highest grossing movie off all time. It wasn’t just the audience who liked the movie, critics loved it and Titanic went on to winning numerous awards in 1998. They included 14 Academy Award nominations of which it won 11, the highest number of all time. They were, best movie(Cameron), best director(Cameron), best editing(Cameron), best original score, best original song, best art-direction, best costume design, best cinematography, best sound effects editing, best visual effects and best sound. Titanic was also presented with numerous other awards, and other awards specifically to Cameron were the Broadcast Film Critics Association, best director, Golden Globes for best picture and director, Golden Sattelite for best picture, directing and editing, Producers Guild of America award, Japanese Academy Award for best foreign film, Directors Guild of America award, Eddie film editing, MTV movie award for best film and numerous others.

After having enjoyed the success for months and exhausted after those long months of long working days on Titanic Cameron decided to relax with his family who still consisted of Hamilton and their daughter Josephine. Hamilton and Cameron had been married July 26, 1997, rumours say that was the only day-off Cameron had in 1997. However it turned out that Cameron had had an affair with Suzy Amis who starred in Titanic. Cameron and Hamilton were divorced in December 1998. Cameron is now remarried with Amis. They were married June 4, 2000 and had a daughter, Carol April 4, 2001.

In the years after the Oscar-frenzy
In the aftermath of the Titanic people were starting to speculate on what Cameron would do next. Everyone of course expected a high profile blockbuster like the one he had just delivered. There were rumours about Spiderman which Cameron had written a script for. But the movie was caught in copyright issues and they didn’t resolve to Cameron’s advantage. Another possible movie was Avatar, a sci-fi movie that would feature computer generated characters but the cost was still to big. Cameron decided on leaving the big scene of Hollywood for a while and he launched a tv-show called Dark Angel. It featured Jessica Alba, a girl who had been a part of a military project that went wrong. She was living in a future LA looking for answers from her past. She was a strong independent woman, an element that has always been very profound in Cameron’s films, Sarah Connor in T2, Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Mastrantonio in The Abyss and Kate Winslet in Titanic to name a few.

Along with Charles H. Eglee, who would be responsible for running the show on an everyday basis, Cameron began producing the television shows for fox. Cameron wrote some of the first episodes and directed one himself. The show aired October 2000 on Fox but only made it two seasons before it was finally taken off the air May 2002.

Cameron had a hard time letting go of the powerful experience he had when he was shooting Titanic. The images of the Titanic that lay there on the bottom of the sea was something to explore further than it had been possible on the production of Titanic. So, in the summer of 2001 Cameron, his brother Mike, Bill Paxton and several others went back to the site of the Titanic, and they started filming Ghost of The Abyss – a documentary of the Titanic as it sits on the bottom of the sea today. They used high tech equipment to get the shots they wanted. They even remote-controlled ROVs deep into the wreck of the Titanic obtaining some of the most horrific but majestic images of the grand ship ever. Cameron intended Ghost of the Abyss to be an IMAX feature only to be shown in selected theatres in 3D, so naturally it took some time post produce Ghost of the Abyss.

Meanwhile Cameron produced Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris which opened in 2002, starring George Clooney among others. Steven Soderbergh was actually very surprised of the amount of creative freedom he was getting from Cameron. Cameron was hardly at the set at all and let Soderbergh make his own decisions regarding the movie.

Cameron also led an expedition in May 2002 to the Bismarck. Bismarck was a german battleship which was sunk by the british in 1941. The expedition resulted in a two hour documentary which aired December 2002 on the Discovery Channel.

April 11, 2003 marked the day that Ghost of The Abyss opened. Though this kind of film usually doesn’t get a great deal of attention this one did. Partly because it had Cameron’s name on it but also because it is a spectacular journey to the bottom of the sea. The movie is intended to be viewed in a 3D theatre but it works just as well in your regular theatre.

It has been almost six years since Cameron has released a full scale motion picture. Lately he has confirmed that his next project will definitely be a huge blockbuster movie. Rumours say that True Lies 2 could be a possibility but Cameron has declined from that feeling that comedy/action concerning a secret agent fighting terrorists isn’t as compelling in a post 9/11 – world. Cameron has also shown interest in returning to the alien franchise, but nothing’s for sure yet.

Rumours say that any day now we will receive news on Cameron’s next project…

www.amazingcameron.com’ Sources:

Christopher Heard: Dreaming Aloud, the life and films of James Cameron
E-online
Internet Movie Database


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