At 69 years old, James Cameron is still one of the busiest filmmakers in Hollywood. This past weekend, new details about the third film in the Avatar franchise, Avatar: Fire & Ash, debuted at Disney’s D23 conference. The details teased what’s next for the Na’vi and what wonders fans can expect when the special-effects-driven spectacle takes cinemas by storm. Miraculously, Cameron found time in his busy schedule to engage in a rapid-fire chat with The Hollywood Reporter about upcoming projects, rumors, Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, his tendency to be “overbearing,” and more.
Digging into a project that Cameron isn’t directly involved in but has his stamp of approval is Netflix’s Terminator Zero TV series. The series stars Timothy Olyphant, Rosario Dawson, Sonoya Mizuno, Ann Dowd, and André Holland. The show chronicles the rise of Skynet and Malcolm Lee’s mission to invent a counter-program to prevent the apocalypse. When asked if he’s seen Terminator Zero, Cameron said, “It looks interesting. My relationship to that is very much like The Sarah Connor Chronicles — other people spinning stories in a world I set in motion is interesting to me. What’s their takeaway? What intrigued them about it? Where are they going with it? It looks like they’re going back to the root cause of Judgment Day — the nuclear war — and whether that’s an ultimate timeline. I’d be curious to see what they’ve come up with. I’m working on my own Terminator stuff right now. It’s got nothing to do with that. Like with The Sarah Connor Chronicles, they occasionally touched on things I had been playing with completely independently. So there’s some curiosity there. It’s not a burning curiosity, but, obviously, it’d be nice to see it succeed.”
Unfortunately, Cameron says his secret Terminator project is classified, and unless we want deadly robots to extract information from our brains in an unceremonious manner, we should let him cook.
When asked about his screening of Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, Cameron seized the opportunity to set the record straight about his involvement with the film. Cameron says he saw a cut of the film six months ago and enjoyed it. He shared a few notes with Alvarez, but nothing major. He hopes Alvarez succeeds with the film and doesn’t have much else to say. Cameron stresses he was never involved with the film as much as people thought he was.
THR also touched on the rumor that James Cameron is involved with a Fantastic Voyage reboot. Roland Emmerich said he’s exiting the project at Comic-Con, going so far as to call Cameron “overbearing.” Cameron, surprised that this is even news, responded:
“I’ve never said anything negative about Roland. But anyway: Yes, I’m overbearing. Damn right. When it’s a project where I’ve contributed to the writing, I might actually have an opinion on it. I actually don’t even remember talking to Roland Emmerich about Fantastic. I remember the other directors that we worked with for months on end trying to develop that project. If I talked to Roland, it was for two minutes. I have a pretty good memory and I don’t remember that at all.”
When asked if he was still interested in exploring Fantastic Voyage, Cameron said to forget about the project and move on to another subject. The next subject is the recent 4K transfers of Aliens and True Lies, which, if you’ve been paying attention, could have been better received by fans. Cameron, always proud of his work and unafraid to ruffle feathers, thinks cinephiles obsessing about pixel-perfect transfers need to get a life. Do you think I’m being facetious? Observe:
“When people start reviewing your grain structure, they need to move out of mom’s basement and meet somebody. Right? I’m serious. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? I’ve got a great team that does the transfers. I do all the color and density work. I look at every shot, every frame, and then the final transfer is done by a guy who has been with me [for years]. All the Avatar films are done that way. Everything is done that way. Get a life, people, seriously.”
While Cameron touches on other projects in the interview, like his upcoming OceanXplorers series, the conversation eventually turns to the future of his Avatar franchise. With Avatar: Fire & Ash well on its way to theaters late next year, the question of passing the directorial torch for Avatar 4 and 5 hangs in the air.
Cameron loves the Avatar franchise and will direct the fourth and fifth chapters of the series if he has his way. He reread the scripts for both movies a month ago and thinks they’re “cracking stories.” Hollywood would have to pry the Avatar director’s chair from his cold, dead hands, it would seem. I get it. Avatar is Cameron’s baby, a powerhouse for his special effects prowess. Surrendering the reins to a film series as powerful as Avatar is unlikely, especially with so much of the filmmaker’s blood, sweat, and tears poured into every chapter. Who would want to take the franchise over? Who would be brave enough?
For more details about James Cameron’s OceanXplorers series and more, make sure you read THR‘s full interview. In the meantime, what do you think Cameron’s secret Terminator project is about? Let us know in the comments section below.