James Cameron
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Why Was 'The Abyss' a Flop? April 05, 2024
“Welcome to my nightmare!” This was how James Cameron greeted his cast when they first arrived on the Gaffney, South Carolina, set of The Abyss. The director has said that’s how he always welcomes his actors, but in the case of his 1989 film, the sal...
What You’re Still Getting Wrong About 'Titanic' December 11, 2023
In 1997, when James Cameron was finishing the most expensive film of his or anyone else’s career to date, he had a sharp reminder taped up to the screen in the edit bay. Next to a straight blade razor was a note bristling with sardonic humor: “Use in...
Revisiting James Cameron’s 'The Abyss' November 30, 2023
During the 2009 Oscar campaign, James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino took part in a roundtable discussion during which the latter pledged to retire from filmmaking when he turned 60. Tarantino, 46 at the time, has often likened filmmakers to athletes ...
What 'Titanic' Foresaw February 24, 2023
The Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, has a very good gift shop. Among its wares are sparkling replicas of the Heart of the Ocean necklace, T-shirts that read He’s my Jack → and She’s my Rose →, and, for the kids, tubs of electric-blue “iceb...
'Titanic' Is Still the Purest Expression of Who James Cameron Is February 20, 2023
As you might have heard, James Cameron’s Titanic reopened in theaters this past weekend. It even made some more money. This is a 3-D rerelease of the Oscar-winning 1997 epic, and what sets it apart from the previous 3-D rerelease (back in 2017) is th...
The Beautiful and Useless Return of 'Avatar' February 13, 2023
When Avatar premiered, in December 2009, I remember that it was a film everyone had to see, recommended less for its plot or characters than for the experience: being immersed in the realer-than-real CGI jungles of Pandora, riding along with a nine-f...
The Documentary World’s Identity Crisis February 08, 2023
When Dan Cogan co-founded Impact Partners in 2007 with the goal of making good documentaries that also did good for the world, it was the beginning of what he and others now look back on as the golden age of the form. After decades of relegation to a...
Reality Check February 02, 2023
When Dan Cogan co-founded Impact Partners in 2007 with the goal of making good documentaries that also did good for the world, it was the beginning of what he and others now look back on as the golden age of the form. After decades of relegation to a...
A Second Plunge Into Pandora December 23, 2022
In an era in which theatrical motion pictures prize spectacle above all else, James Cameron has once again out-spectacled them all. With “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Mr. Cameron reaffirms himself as the blockbuster director of his generation—still the...
Avatar 2: A Three-Hour-Plus Video Game Cutscene December 22, 2022
Afew years ago, someone on Twitter brought up the fact that Avatar, despite being a massive hit, left little to no cultural imprint on American pop culture. I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but after December 2009, all I ever heard about the ...
James Cameron & Denis Villeneuve on 'Avatar', 'Dune', and Pioneering CGI December 19, 2022
James Cameron and Denis Villeneuve discuss the upcoming ‘Avatar’ films, the influence of ‘Dune’, creating worlds within films, the future of streaming and movie theaters, and Timothée Chalamet....
'Avatar' Puts Most Modern Blockbusters to Shame December 14, 2022
James Cameron has always been a director who harnesses the latest CGI advances to whip up thrills, but with Avatar: The Way of Water, his first film in 13 years, he faces an undeniable challenge. Can audiences still be wowed, given the constant torre...
Doubt James Cameron at Your Own Risk December 13, 2022
You don’t need to be a studio executive to know that green-lighting a sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time is a sound business decision, but as James Cameron told GQ, his long-awaited Avatar follow-up, The Way of Water, is “very fucking” ...
Hollywood Learned All the Wrong Lessons From 'Avatar' September 30, 2022
When the director James Cameron was working on Avatar, he was holding the biggest bargaining chip imaginable. His last major feature, 1997’s Titanic, was the most successful film in Hollywood history, overcoming its budgetary woes and behind-the-scen...
Sorry, But 'Avatar' Still Rules September 26, 2022
For all his technical expertise and storytelling prowess, James Cameron might well be cinema’s master of the vibe shift. I still remember the week in 1997 when Titanic went from being thought of as an incoming disaster, one that was going to take two...
Why 'Avatar: The Way of Water' Took So Long to Make September 13, 2022
When James Cameron's Avatar was released in 2009, it took the world by storm. Audiences everywhere (and we mean everywhere) sped to theaters and made this sparkling sci-fi epic nearly $3 billion at the box office. To date, it's the highest-grossing m...
