Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
He’s brought us two of the highest grossing films of all time and revolutionized cinema.
Today, WatchMojo.com will be presenting you with the story of director James Cameron:
James Cameron was born in Ontario, Canada on August 16th, 1954. In his youth, he was drawn to reading and writing science fiction, while building model rockets from whatever scrap he could find. Later, he went on to study Physics at California State University Fullerton.
Merely a year into his studies, he dropped out to marry a waitress and drive a truck. However, he underwent a life altering moment of clarity when he saw Star Wars in 1977. As a result, Cameron left his job and wife to pursue a career in Los Angeles in the hopes of creating his own sci-fi epics.
Some time after arriving in Los Angeles, Cameron got his start as the art director for Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond The Stars (1980). The job had been given to him following a screening of his own 12-minute film Xenogenesis (1978), which showcased his ability to produce stunning visual effects.
In 1981, Cameron worked his way up to the director’s chair for the film Piranha 2: The Spawning. The shoot was a terrible experience for the new director, as the film had an extremely low budget and a crew that only spoke Italian.
Due to the stress he was under, Cameron experienced a nightmare about a robot assassin from the future. This inspired him to write the screenplay for The Terminator (1984), which he brought to life with the help of friends from the marketing department at Corman’s production studio.
The film became an unprecedented success, which instantly revolutionized the action movie genre and propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger into Hollywood stardom. This caused the 20th Century Fox to pursue him as the writer and director for Aliens (1986), the high profile sequel to Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking sci-fi horror film Alien (1979). Despite friction caused by a crew that constantly stopped to take breaks, Cameron managed to defy expectations and was rewarded at the box office for producing a strong narrative, characters and unparalleled visual effects.
Due to this financial and critical success, Cameron was given an enormous vote of confidence from 20th Century Fox, as he was again pursued to direct The Abyss (1989). However, cost over-runs due to his elaborate set pieces and three cancelled release dates caused the film to fail financially. The tense underwater shooting and severe shouting matches Cameron had with his actors, which resulted in their refusal to participate in promotional events, did not help the project either.
In the wake of this setback, Cameron formed Lightstorm Entertainment so that he could retain full creative control of his projects without studio intervention. His first order of business was to create his impressive sequel to The Terminator. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) instantly became Cameron’s biggest success up to that point, as the movie drew in audiences, while claiming numerous awards for industry leading effects, all made possible by the technology that Cameron’s crew had begun pioneering during the production process of The Abyss, such as the liquid effects that were central to the movie.
Cameron then followed-up with various projects that were uncharacteristic for the director, such as his spy film True Lies (1994), and the futuristic film noir production, Strange Days (1995), which he co-wrote and co-produced.
These projects helped him bide his time until he could truly position himself as one of cinema’s most iconic directors with Titanic (1997). The film became one of the most visually stunning, expensive and profitable pieces of celluloid ever produced. It was made possible by the technological contributions of Digital Domain, the second company Cameron had founded strictly to produce ground breaking computer generated imagery. The demands he placed on his talent and crew were so high that he drove them to the brink of exhaustion during their 2-year filming schedule. His budget also kept ballooning until it reached a record breaking 200 million dollars. As a result, Cameron decided to forgo his own paycheck in order to ensure that he maintained full creative control.
In the wake of Titanic, he took a ten-year absence from feature filmmaking. During that time he served as the producer for both the television show Dark Angel (2000) and Steven Soderberghs film Solaris (2002).
Cameron then ventured back to the themes of his previous films by directing the documentaries Ghost of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005) for Imax. These projects allowed him to satisfy his fascination surrounding the mysteries hidden in the ocean’s depths.
With a vocal audience that clearly wanted James Cameron to create yet another cinematic epic, he finally returned to feature filmmaking with his sci-fi masterpiece Avatar (2009), a movie that has become the highest grossing film of all time. Interestingly, he had been envisioned the project over a decade earlier, but was unable to make it due to limitations in technology.
Currently, Cameron is in pre-production of his highly anticipated sequel to Avatar.
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Did you enjoy 2008’s Rambo? Did it bring back your childhood hero?
If the answer to the second question is yes, then your parents clearly didn’t care what you watched, as long as you were preoccupied… And that was certainly the case in my household! See my parents owned a video store/bakery. So not only did I get my Rambo on, but I ate pastries while trying to decipher Stallone’s “English”. Good times!
Anyways, last night I re-watched a majority of Rambo before passing out.
What I like about the film is that it doesn’t hold any punches. Sure it’s short at only an hour and a half, but the “realism” far exceeds the “realism” of parts II and III. In fact, this film is my favorite after their original. In fact, Rambo 4 would have been rated higher if Stallone gave another sobbing speech at the end.
In fact, Rambo was supposed to commit suicide at the end of his first flick (and did so in a deleted scene)…now that’s hardcore.
So while the original dealt with how Vietnam vets have trouble returning to society, Rambo 4 was about how “When you’re pushed, killing is as easy as breathing”. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a profound phrase…however the change in Michael (the aid worker) from pacifist do-gooder to guy desparetly killing a Burmese soldier with a rock for his own survival gave the whole thing meaning. Plus, Rambo totally killed 236 people (more then the other 3 films combined).
Also, I can confidently tell you that John Rambo had a much smoother/better return then Bruce Willis in “Live Free or Die Hard” (crap) or Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull” (they had me until the fridge).
If anything, Rambo was a much more mature character in his old age and much more violent. And man did he cling to that jeep mounted Gatling gun for half an hour at the end! My point is that Rambo retained his fierce on-screen presence, and in certain scenes was far more intense then he had ever been in his youth….and they say people mellow with age!
Now, does Rambo deserve or need another sequel? I really can’t imagine why…the series started with him heading home, and ended with his arrival. I call that full circle. However, a well received sequel will always spawn another…
As such, you can expect Rambo 5: The Savage Hunt to arrive late next year. What’s known about the plot centers on John Rambo heading to a violent city where many young women have vanished….think that’s bad? Here’s the original concept: “The aging Vietnam veteran must survive against a feral beast… [an] amalgamation of fury and intelligence and pure, unadulterated rage… the product of a failed government experiment.”
Basically its a total rip on Predator, but with no Arnie.
All I can say is that this feral beast “plot” must be a joke. That is beyond jumping the shark. However I wouldn’t mind seeing it…just not as an official film in the franchise.
For your pleasure, here is a chart of all of Rambo’s Kills (for some reason they count his topless kills as well). Without a doubt, Rambo 5 will seek to decimate the charts, and perhaps add the series first sex scene?
And here is the deleted suicide scene (in case you haven’t seen it):
