James Cameron has had a legendary career that includes films like Aliens, Terminator 2, and Titanic. For decades, it seemed like everything he touched turned to gold. But even Cameron isn’t immune to the whims of studio executives. His response to these same executives’ demands about Avatar was as blunt as it was true.
Cameron's career has raked in over six billion dollars at the box office. It began, humbly, with a short film in 1978 entitled Xenogenesis, and his first feature-length film as a director was 1982’s Piranha II: The Spawning. But by 1984, Cameron struck it big with his direction on The Terminator. He continued to direct hit after hit until he directed 1997’s Titanic, which became the highest-grossing film of all time for 12 years, at which point another Cameron vehicle, Avatar, surpassed it and reached the top of the list (where it sits to this day).
While working on Avatar, which is about to get a theatrical re-release on September 26, The New York Times reports that Cameron had to push back against studio demands. When executives saw the film, they requested that the film be made shorter by cutting sequences such as the ikran-riding. Cameron felt this was the wrong decision, since audiences responded well to such sequences in exit polling, and bluntly told executives, “I made Titanic. This building that we’re meeting in right now, this new half-billion dollar complex on your lot? Titanic paid for that, so I get to do this."
Cameron's response, the filmmaker explained, was borne out of a need to be firm in the editing process. He called it “intense,” stating that filmmakers must argue for every shot they want to keep in the final cut. Since Cameron wanted to hew closely to his creative decision, he simply disregarded the studio and reminded them of his value to them as a filmmaker. Cameron is also notoriously firm in his creative decisions, even recently proclaiming he doesn't want to hear any whining about Avatar: The Way of Water's runtime.
It’s a gutsy strategy, and probably something only someone of Cameron's calibre (as one of the most influential sci-fi film directors) could pull off. 20th Century Fox owed much of its success in the latter half of the 20th century to him. His commitment to his films is incredibly well known, as the recreation of the sinking of the Titanic was (at the time) as close a recreation as possible, which included actors portraying historical figures in the reported locations they were on the ship as it sunk.
Avatar: The Way of Water is coming soon and Cameron was committed to working on that film as well. It’s famously been 13 years since the release of the first film, during which time Cameron has spent refining the technology behind the creation of Pandora. Its actors learned to free dive, a technique which involves diving without an oxygen tank, for the underwater scenes in the film, and Kate Winslet even held her breath for seven minutes on set. Cameron's devotion to the craft is once again set to hit the screens for all to see.
Avatar: The Way of Water releases in theaters on December 16, 2022.
Source: New York Times