You’ll love James Cameron when he’s the greatest most James Cameron.
The Oscar-winning writer, producer and director talks on the phone about his new National Geographic documentary ocean explorer From there we move on to discussing many other topics in Cameron’s Psalms – such as this week’s Alien: RomulusNetflix’s upcoming animated series Terminator Zero, Avatar 3 Also known as Avatar: Fire and AshesRecent 4K transfers alien and true liesViral comments by Roland Emmerich dream trip Reboot, and why Cameron doesn’t believe alien life has visited Earth.
Cameron didn’t hold back. The 69-year-old revealed his immense passion and deep knowledge of all things marine as he discussed his upcoming series ocean explorer (Trailer below) – tells the story of a group of young researchers exploring uncharted ocean territories aboard a state-of-the-art vessel. Cameron narrates the six-episode series, which has been called “one of the most ambitious ocean adventures ever filmed.” Cameron has also shown that he can be very candid when it comes to certain other subjects related to his filmography. The result was a relatively brief but intense conversation that cast Cameron as a scientific mind and explorer, as well as a legendary filmmaker who doesn’t mince words (although — and it’s hard to tell when reading the Q&A — —Cameron always retained his sense of humor and infectious landfill energy).
Hello! Thank you for doing this.
Don’t worry. Let’s jump in.
what makes you excited ocean explorer project?
One of the things that excites me is that we actually got the damn thing done. It’s been a few years since we were preempted by the pandemic and then have been at sea. with my Avatar I couldn’t actually be on the ship due to my responsibilities. So it was really cool when we were working in the editing room and seeing all the footage and the amazing things they were able to collect – like having our young researchers in the depths with animals, or in Tag hammerhead sharks from the boat or place them in the middle of a large pod of orcas.
I’ve done eight [previous] Adventure. Pulling it off always feels like a miracle. They are all carefully curated. But when you go into the ocean, the ocean isn’t reading your script – you never know what’s going to happen. You have to be very flexible and you have to be ready to move quickly. When something does manifest itself, those doors open temporarily. We have a 6,000-meter ROV. We have a 2,000-meter submarine. We have a great diving team that can do mixed gas diving, technical diving and all such activities. And then we have these young researchers and explorers who really know what they know. They’d never been aboard a vessel as well-equipped as the OceanXplorer, but no one had ever been – including myself.
There has been a lot of discussion about UAP in the past few years [Unidentified Aerial Phenomena] and USO (Underwater Submerged Object), which you brought to the forefront of pop culture abyss. You spend a lot of time on the ocean. Have you ever seen anything you couldn’t explain?
I saw some interesting geological formations that I would really like to understand better, but I don’t think they have been well observed before. I’ve photographed new species – species that are not immediately identifiable. But I’ve never seen anything that couldn’t be explained by some extraterrestrial phenomenon. Now, “faith” is a principle that I don’t have. I don’t believe thing. I acknowledge the possibilities of things because the universe is infinite and clearly stranger and more complex than we imagine – which is why science is so fascinating. But I’m not going to make broad statements like, “Well, I believe there must be alien life; the universe is so big. Yeah, it’s real Big – if life even exists there, and if that life is intelligent, getting here will be a really, really big problem. How do they travel across light years of space? Before I became a literature major, I studied physics, and from a physics perspective, people had no idea of the magnitude of this problem. I have a pretty good idea of where physics was going in 1972 – which is basically laughable at this point – but I’ll keep up.
Talk about some other things in your cinematic universe. This week we have Alien: Romulus Opening – A movie you’ve seen. What do you think? [Alverez has previously said Cameron has “seen the movie and loved it” and that he gave notes].
I saw a rough cut six months ago, so I’m sure it’s changed a lot. I watched it once. I gave some notes [director Fede Álvarez]. He and I were not close friends. I mean, I wish him the best, but I think my creative contribution to the film was overstated. I think Ridley [Scott] This was done because Ridley was the actual producer of the film. So I’m just looking at it from perspective.
Another upcoming project is a project for Netflix that will expand on your previous work Terminator Zero animated series. I’m curious if you’ve seen that by chance..
Looks like fun. I have a similar relationship with it. The Sarah Connor Chronicles – It’s fun for me for other people to make up stories about the worlds I launch. What was their gain? What makes them interested? Where are they going? It looks like they’re going back to the root cause of Judgment Day – nuclear war – and whether that’s the final timeline. I’d love to see what they come up with. I’m currently working on my own Terminator piece. Nothing to do with this. Like with The Sarah Connor Chroniclesthey occasionally touch on stuff I’ve been playing completely independently. So there is some curiosity. It’s not a huge curiosity, but obviously, it’s nice to see it succeed.
what is your own Terminator What are you doing? I don’t know this.
This is completely confidential. If you’re going to talk about it, even retroactively, I don’t want to send out a potentially dangerous robot agent.
Fair enough. But it’s fun. Another potential project for you is dream trip Movie. Roland Emmerich says he’s quitting at Comic-Con.
How did this become a headline?
Well, he called you “overbearing””.
I’ve never said anything negative about Roland. But anyway: yes, I am domineering. Damn right. When it’s a project that I’m writing for, I might actually have an opinion about it. In fact I don’t even remember talking to Roland Emmerich Excellent. I remember we worked with other directors for several months trying to develop this project. If I talk to Roland, it’s two minutes. I have a good memory, but I don’t remember it at all.
Is that project still in progress?
Go ahead, this is not a story.
So you’ve also done a 4K transfer recently alien and true lies That came out. It certainly sparked a strong reaction among the fanbase, with some feeling that the image quality wasn’t as high as they’d like. Obviously your standards are very high. So I’m wondering what you think?
When people start looking at your grain structure, they need to move out of their mom’s basement and meet someone. Correct? I’m serious. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? I have a great team working on transfers. I do all the color and density work. I look at every shot, every frame, and then the final transfer is done by the person who’s been with me the whole time [for years]. all Avatar That’s how movies are made. This is how everything is done. Get serious about your life, people.
speaking of Avataryou are doing post-production Avatar 3 It’s been a few years. How’s it going? Any updates for those fans?
Yes. It’s really fucking cool. You will love it. I can’t talk about it.
Are you still planning to direct Episodes 4 and 5 yourself? [It was previously reported Cameron might not].
certainly. Absolutely. I mean, they’re going to have to stop me. I have lots of energy and enjoy doing what I’m doing. Why wouldn’t I? By the way, they are written down. I just reread these two books about a month ago. They are telling stories. They have to be made. Look, if I get hit by a bus and I get stuck in an iron lung, someone else is going to do it.
Well, hopefully that won’t happen.
Yes, I try to avoid that.
Finally let us return to ocean explorer. In terms of your experience and exploration, is there anything that has surprised you?
It’s always a surprise. You never know what you’ll see every time you delve into the depths. There was a lot of disappointment, a lot of fun surprises, and a lot of luck. The camera is trained on a female orca mother trying to teach her one-year-old male calf how to eat a humpback calf as the mother protects her. We turned the camera on her and observed her movements during long, repeated attacks underwater. It’s so heartbreaking. At the same time, it’s heartwarming because she’s taking care of her baby and the poor humpback mom is trying to take care of her baby, but it doesn’t work out well for the humpback whale. But you have to appreciate both sides of this equation. My editing team, when they were cutting the footage for the first time, the orchestra [music was like] “Oh, here comes the bad guy.” I said, “Guys, this is completely wrong. Go back and do it again.”
I also did a lot of onboard photography and made a list of all the things I thought people wanted to see – all the dreamy elements that come from expedition work. This is what I recommend [billionaire investors] Ray and Mark Dario are assembling and refitting the boat. I brought in a Hollywood-style production designer and said, “Let’s make it look like it’s actually a state-of-the-art research platform. Let’s make it one where you can walk into the room, turn on the camera and start Where it rolls, because all the lighting is built in, you don’t ruin the spirit and momentum of the moment by having to manipulate the lights and do all that kind of stuff. We apply the reality TV filming mentality to legitimate research work. Have all the tools available, submarines, vehicles, cameras, camera gear.
Some of the footage is very eye-catching, with a lot of new science that people don’t know about. Hopefully some actual publishing will come out of this. I don’t think TV viewers care about that, but we do.
The six-episode OceanXplorers will premiere on Sunday, August 18, and will be available on Hulu and Disney+.
