James Cameron Discusses ‘Avatar,’ ‘Alien: Romulus,’ and Whales in Spicy Chat

You gotta love James Cameron when he’s the most James Cameron.

The Oscar-winning writer-producer-director recently discussed his new National Geographic documentary, OceanXplorers. From there, the conversation branched out to other Cameron-verse topics — like this week’s release of Alien: Romulus, Netflix’s upcoming animated series Terminator Zero, Avatar 3 (a.k.a. Avatar: Fire & Ash), the recent 4K transfers of Aliens and True Lies, Roland Emmerich’s comments about a Fantastic Voyage reboot, and why Cameron doesn’t believe extraterrestrial life has visited Earth.

Cameron didn’t hold back. The 69-year-old showed his immense passion and depth of knowledge for all things oceanic while discussing OceanXplorers — a six-episode Disney+/Hulu series, narrated by Cameron, which follows a young team of researchers exploring uncharted ocean territory. Cameron called it “one of the most ambitious ocean adventures ever filmed.” He also showed he can be super candid when discussing other subjects. His distinct sense of humor and infectious energy highlighted his dual role as a scientific mind and a legendary filmmaker.

What excites you about this OceanXplorers project?

One thing that excites me is we actually got this damn thing done. It’s been several years because we got preempted by the pandemic, and then there was all the time at sea. With my Avatar duties, I couldn’t actually be on the ship. So it was great when we got to work in the cutting room and saw all the footage coming in and the amazing stuff they were able to gather — like putting our young researchers right there with the animals at depth, or in a boat tagging a hammerhead, or having them right in the middle of a huge pod of orcas.

Pulling it off always feels like a miracle. You’ve got to be very flexible and ready to move quick. We got a 6,000-meter ROV, 2000-meter subs, and a dive team that can do mixed gas, technical diving. Then we had young researchers who really knew their stuff and had never been on a ship as well equipped as the OceanXplorer. But then, nobody has — myself included.

You’ve spent so much time on and in the ocean. Have you ever seen anything you cannot explain?

I’ve seen some geological formations that were intriguing and some new species that were not immediately identifiable. But I’ve never seen anything that couldn’t be explained in the sense of some extraterrestrial phenomenon. I don’t believe things; belief is a principle I don’t subscribe to. I admit the possibility of things because the universe is infinite and obviously much stranger than we think, and much more complex — that’s what makes science so appealing. But getting here would be a really big problem if there is intelligent life out there. I studied physics, and people have no concept of the magnitude of that problem from a physics standpoint.

Touching on some other things in your filmic universe. This week we have Alien: Romulus opening. What did you think?

I saw a rough cut six months ago, so I’m sure it’s changed a lot. I gave some notes to [director Fede Álvarez]. He and I aren’t close pals. I wish him the best with it, but it’s overstated that I had some big creative input on that film. I think Ridley [Scott] did because he was an actual producer on the film. I’m just putting it in perspective.

Another upcoming project is Netflix’s Terminator Zero animated series. Have you seen it?

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. It’s intriguing to me. 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. So there’s some curiosity there.

What’s your own Terminator stuff that you’re working on?

It’s totally classified. I don’t want to have to send out a dangerous robotic agent if you were to talk about it, even retroactively.

Another potential project is the Fantastic Voyage movie. Roland Emmerich called you “overbearing.”

I’ve never said anything negative about Roland. But 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. If I talked to Roland, it was for two minutes. I have a pretty good memory and I don’t remember that at all.

So you’ve had the 4K transfers of Aliens and True Lies that came out recently. Some fans felt that the image quality wasn’t as high as they wanted it to be. What did you think?

When people start reviewing your grain structure, they need to move out of mom’s basement and meet somebody. I mean, are you 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. The final transfer is done by a guy who has been with me for years. All the Avatar films are done that way. Get a life, people.

Speaking of Avatar, you’re in post-production on Avatar 3 for a couple of years. Any updates?

Yeah. It’s really cool. You’re going to love it. And I can’t talk about it.

Do you still plan to personally direct four and five?

Sure. Absolutely. They’re going to have to stop me. I got plenty of energy, love doing what I’m doing. Why would I not? And they’re written. I just reread both of them about a month ago. They’re cracking stories. They’ve got to get made. If I get hit by a bus, somebody else is going to do it.

Hopefully that won’t happen.

Yeah, I try to avoid that kind of scenario.

Let’s end by circling back to OceanXplorers. Was there anything that came out of this that surprised even you?

It’s always a surprise. Every time you go into the deep, you never know what you’re going to see. It’s a lot of disappointment and a lot of fun surprises. Getting a camera onto a female mother Orca teaching her calf how to feed on a humpback calf when its mother is protecting him was remarkable. It’s heartbreaking, yet heartwarming. You’ve got to appreciate both sides of that equation. My editorial team initially cut it like “here come the bad guys.” I said, “Guys, this is wrong, redo it.”

I’ve done a lot of ship-based filming and put together a list of things one would want to see — dream elements from expedition work. We applied a reality TV shooting mentality to a legitimate research endeavor. We had all the tools: subs, vehicles, cameras, rigs. Some footage is quite remarkable, and hopefully some publishing will emerge from this. I don’t think the TV audience cares about that, but we do.

The six-episode OceanXplorers premieres Sunday, Aug. 18 on Hulu and Disney+.

Source: National Geographic, Disney+