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Wide ScreenJames Cameron making only ‘Avatar’ movies going forward
Director James Cameron wears many hats these days. When he's not making feature films or documentaries, he can often be found in submersibles exploring the deepest parts of Earth's oceans or helping fund revolutionary asteroid-mining startups. He's a busy guy, and as a result, Cameron recently said he would be focusing his filmmaking efforts going forward. In an interview with the New York Times, the director said that from now on, it's "Avatar" or nothing.
"I'm in the 'Avatar' business. Period. That's it," Cameron told the Times. "I'm making 'Avatar 2,' 'Avatar 3,' maybe 'Avatar 4,' and I'm not going to produce other people's movies for them."
As part of that move, Cameron recently shuttered the production arm of his company.
Cameron's comments have left many scratching their heads. Why would such a multitalented, award-winning filmmaker limit himself? Cameron admits his plan sounds a little restrictive on paper, but he said he believes that he can tell any story he needs to using "the 'Avatar' landscape." That could be bad news for people anticipating Cameron's long-gestating "Battle Angel" film -- which, unless he plans to transplant the story into the world of "Avatar," sounds like it won't be happening anytime soon.
But it's not going to be all "Avatar," all the time. Cameron says he'll always have documentary filmmaking as an out. "Anything I can't say in that area ['Avatar'], I want to say through documentaries."
In the past decade, Cameron has been far more prolific as a documentarian than a feature filmmaker. While "Avatar" is the only feature film he's made since "Titanic" in 1997, Cameron has either directed or produced a total of nine documentaries in that same time frame. Big-budget spectacles such as "Titanic" and "Avatar" (and their equally big box-office takes) have given Cameron the freedom (and funds) to make his documentaries, which usually chronicle his own expensive underwater expeditions to various shipwrecks and other deep, dark places.
Sure, it's disappointing to see the guy who made classics such as "The Terminator," "Aliens," and "True Lies" pigeonhole himself into just one franchise (Cameron is sounding more like George Lucas by the day), but you can't fault the man for doing what he loves -- and for making millions in the process.
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