James Cameron: “Avatar” and “Titanic” creator turns 70

“I am the king of the world!” declared the legendary filmmaker James Cameron (70) when he received the Oscar at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998. With his mammoth work, which was the first film to break the magical barrier of one billion US dollars in box office revenue, the cinema titan had finally climbed to the top of Hollywood’s Olympus at the end of the 1990s.

Top position in all-time rankings

But “Titanic” also marked a change of direction in many ways in the oeuvre of the filmmaker, who was particularly innovative in technical terms. Before “Titanic”, Cameron made almost exclusively sci-fi action films such as “Terminator” and “Aliens”, which were aimed primarily at a younger male audience. Since “Titanic”, and continuing with “Avatar” and the sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water”, Cameron has made blockbusters with strong, sometimes too clear messages and sincere, stirring and completely irony-free love stories.

With the last three works, Cameron has conquered the list of the highest-grossing films in cinema history to date. “Titanic” is in fourth place with a box office take of over 2.25 billion US dollars, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is in third place with over 2.32 billion dollars. “Avatar” holds the top spot with over 2.92 billion dollars. Cameron’s films have grossed a total of over eight billion US dollars worldwide. The director is therefore undoubtedly the current king of Hollywood.

“I’m not good at relaxing”

For many years, Cameron was considered a bit of a dictator on the set, for example when filming “Avatar” he would call his crew’s cell phones if they rang during shots. During the production of his deep-sea film “Abyss”, Cameron’s first foray into underwater worlds, his film crew is said to have worn T-shirts that read: “You can’t scare me, I work for Jim Cameron.”

The Canadian filmmaker is considered a perfectionist who invents technology that he needs for his films if it doesn’t already exist. Cameron’s penchant for technical gadgets was already evident in his early directorial work.

Breakthrough with “Terminator”

He wrote the perfect role for Arnold Schwarzenegger (77) in “Terminator”, one that was taciturn but extremely physical. The innovative sci-fi dystopia, in which Schwarzenegger strictly follows the tradition of the slasher killers of the 1980s, grossed a gigantic sum of over 78 million US dollars on a production budget of six and a half million US dollars, founded a franchise that still exists today, and launched James Cameron’s global career.

“Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, his second collaboration with Schwarzenegger, followed in 1991 and was not only the most expensive film in cinema history at the time, but also a milestone in the development of special effects. No one who saw “T2” in the cinema at that time has ever forgotten the “liquid Terminator” T-1000 played by Robert Patrick (65).

“Avatar” until the end of life?

Cameron then made another film with Schwarzenegger, the action comedy “True Lies,” and then made his aforementioned shift to material like “Titanic” and a larger, more heterogeneous audience.

The director and three-time Oscar winner is currently planning three more “Avatar” films. “Avatar 5” is set to hit theaters in December 2031 and will be set on Earth, not Pandora’s moon. If the planned release date is met, Cameron would be 77 years old when the film is released.

Cameron says he has also already drawn up plans for a potential sixth and seventh “Avatar” installment. However, he would no longer be able to direct them himself. “I would have to train someone to do that,” he revealed.

There is no reason to fear that Cameron will ever find a professional rest. “I look for things that haven’t been done yet. I like to find the gap between everything that hasn’t been done and what I think can be done. Everything I’ve ever done has been based on that little gap,” explained the star director, adding: “I’m not good at relaxing.”