SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME CINEMA CHOICEGhosts of the Deep (2003) and Aliens of the Deep
(2005). But he hadn't retired. He was just in training
for Avatar.
Back to the future
In the 10 years since that 3D blockbuster took
audiences to Pandora, he's again retreated from
view. That’s not to say Cameron hasn’t been busy.
Still a vociferous supporter of 3D cinema, as recently
as last year he was boasting during a Q&A session
at Australia’s Vivid Sydney Festival (‘where art,
technology and commerce intersect’) that his
upcoming Avatar sequels will be ‘the best 3D that’s
possible to make' – and who would bet against it?
He's also regularly espoused the idea that auto-
stereoscopic screens, with multiple discrete viewing
angles, are not only possible, but the next big
step-change for 3D cinema.
Sorry, did we say Avatar sequels? Oh yes.
Originally planned for release in 2014, the need
to develop techniques for fi lming motion capture
sequences underwater saw the release date of
Avatar 2 pushed back (a long way) to December
- And this is only the fi rst of four sequels the
fi lmmaker has planned. Avatar 3 is being produced
simultaneously with Avatar 2, and is due to hit
cinemas in December 2023, while Disney (which now
distributes the franchise, following its buyout of
Twentieth Century Fox) has set December 2025
and December 2027 dates for two further parts,
alternating them with its next trilogy of Star Wars
fl icks. Perhaps one of these will reclaim the top-of-
the-box-offi ce crown from Avengers: Endgame.
Cameron’s love aff air with 3D has also shown
itself through the conversions of Titanic (released
in cinemas in 2012) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(2017). Unlike other quick cash-in conversions (such
as the do-overs of Predator or I, Robot), a year was
spent ret-conning Titanic at a cost of $18m. The
results speak for themselves, with the 3D Blu-ray
holding up as well as any native 3D production.
Cameron’s perfectionist side also came to the fore,
as he used the re-release opportunity to digitally
correct the positions of stars seen in the sky during
the sinking of the ship, after astrophysicist Neil
deGrasse Tyson had pointed out they were wrong...
All this behind-the-scenes work meant that
another of Cameron’s long-gestating projects,
a live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese
manga Battle Angel Alita, fell by the wayside.
Yet rather than let it fade away, he found a fellow
fi lmmaker with a similar love of technology to take
the project off his hands: Robert Rodriguez. And to
ensure all the work he had put into it didn't go to
waste, Cameron sent Rodriguez some 600 pages
of notes, made over the two decades he had been
developing it. Indeed, according to Rodriguez, the
notes lay out the plan for not just this fi rst fi lm,
but an entire trilogy.
And after a string of badly reviewed sequels,
Cameron is also back onboard the Terminator
franchise with this year’s Terminator: Dark Fate. As
producer rather than director this time around, he's
reportedly been involved in developing the fi lm’s
story, which ignores everything after T2 (a trick last
seen in 2018's Halloween, which
erased decades worth of inferior
sequels). Admittedly, Cameron's
involvement is no guarantee of
success, but after the disaster that
was Terminator: Genisys it
could be the sort of course
correction the franchise so
desperately needs.
After that? Well, as Sarah
Connor told us in The Terminator,
‘There is no fate but what we
make for ourselves,’ and James Cameron’s fate
clearly lies in his own hands, courtesy of the
Avatar sequels he's committed to. For all of its
technological achievements, it’s hard to think of
another blockbuster fi lm that enjoyed as much
fi nancial success as Avatar, but had such little
cultural impact. Other than Cameron himself,
does anybody actually care what happens to
the inhabitants of Pandora? Like the fi rst fi lm, it
could be that the sequels’ technical triumphs are
the major draw for audiences. And if Avatar 2 does
live up to the director's pronouncements about
revolutionising 3D cinema, might it once again give
rise to a 3D TV revolution? QAs bizarre as it may seem, two of James Cameron’s blockbusters
are still unavailable on Blu-ray. You can spin up Piranha II:
The Spawning in HD, but anyone wanting to do the same with
The Abyss or True Lies is going to be disappointed. The reason
for this is apparently down to Cameron himself – or more
specifi cally his self-confessed lack of time to oversee and sign
off the new HD masters both fi lms require.
This may be about to change. Earlier this year Hollywood
colourist Skip Kimball posted a photo on social media of an edit
suite with The Abyss’s title logo, throwing in #the abyss, #4K, #hdr and #theabyssbluray hashtags
for good measure. Work, then, is underway on not just a Blu-ray, but also a 4K platter. Should it hit
shelves before the end of the year it would be a good way to celebrate the fi lm's 30th anniversary.
And when that is done, maybe True Lies will be next.Missing in action
Why the wait for The Abyss and True Lies?
Two Cameron-produced movies will
hit cinemas this year – Terminator: Dark
Fate (top) and Alita: Battle AngelPLAYBACK EXTRA 29