James Cameron only wants to make Avatar movies from now on
By James Brady RyanMay 7th, 2012, 12:15 pmComments (10)
When you get as rich and as famous as director James Cameron, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want for the rest of your life. (Maybe not serial murder. But I bet you could get away with just one.) That's why, for example, Cameron was able to take time away from the movie business to take a self-financed solo jaunt to the deepest part of the ocean. This also means Cameron has the freedom to stick to passion projects for at least a little while; this is the time in a famous director's life when he can do all the weird stuff that was kicking around in his brain for years while he directed action movies about killer robots/aliens/chunks of ice.
(Think Francis Ford Coppola and Youth Without Youth. I never said these weird things would be good.)
And now that Cameron has this incredible freedom, he's decided to spend the rest of his directing career... making Avatar sequels. Like, a lot of Avatar sequels. Please don't ask him to do anything else, all he cares about is Avatar. Avatar Avatar Avatar:
Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the “Avatar” business. Period. That’s it. I’m making “Avatar 2,” “Avatar 3,” maybe “Avatar 4,” and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts. And that all sounds I suppose a little bit restricted, but the point is I think within the “Avatar” landscape I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it.
Cameron's actually exaggerating a bit, here: for one thing, he's attached to direct the film adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita. For another, he's still going to make documentary features. (My guess is that they will be about the deep ocean. I know I'm going out on a limb there, but I like to take risks with my prognosticating.) But rest assured that Cameron will still have freedom when it comes to narrative filmmaking, because every story can be told using ten-foot-tall blue-skinned cat aliens and hackneyed noble-savage archetypes. That's Screenwriting 101, pretty much.
Commentarium (10 Comments)
Alternate title: "James Cameron plans on becoming the richest man in the world"
As much as i despise the man for making this decision, it doesn't surprise me in the least bit. Albeit Avatar was a good movie, I'm not sure if people will continue to shell out 10+ dollars to see the special effects that made the movie so popular 2 or 3 more times. The sequel will naturally make a killing, but Cameron will have to pen one hell of a story line for people to want more past A2. Let's see what you're made of JC.
cameron is sticking to the crapatar mode because going outside of it would mean cameron would have to engage originality and that is one thing that is absolutely impossible for cameron.
I sort of second what Archie said, although I think Cameron has amassed a nice filmography. But it's not like he was competing with Coppola or Scorcese or Kubrick before Avatar.
Just a thought, but Cameron’s comments sound like those of a frightened man. He is afraid his subsequent work will not be as well received as Avatar; still he can’t bring himself to stop making films. So he chooses to do the safe thing and refuses to attempt anything new. It's kind of sad when you think about it.
If he can say everything he needs to say within "the Avatar landscape" then there are severe limitations on what he wants to say
The world in the Avatar movie was just as fully fleshed out as Middle Earth in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books. It is no easy task to create something like that. Add to that the fact that the only reason we're getting all of these 3D movies that have great effects is because James Cameron helped develop the technology that makes them possible.
Tolkien did 4 Middle Earth books. I think James Cameron should make more movies using the same back drop as Avatar.
Lord of the Rings looks great, is well-written, and has a depth aesthetically and emotionally. Avatar looks shallow and has a weak story, with no likable characters. The dead-eye CGI effects really take a toll.
It looks pretty, I guess. Yeah basically equivalent to one of the greatest pieces of modern literature, and the life's work of one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century.
Too bad. At the end of the day, Avatar is just a really terrible movie.
Now you say something