There are plenty of reasons to not takeJames Cameronseriously. He’s known for having a pretty enormous ego and his films, though often breathtaking to watch, are consistently betrayed by hokey, uncomplicated writing in his screenplays. He is a visionary, without question, but no one said that someone with a distinct vision also has the tools to write in a way that gives a proverbial backbone to his wondrous images. Not everyone can beWes Anderson, everybody.
Still, Cameron is someone whose outspoken nature and ambition within the blockbuster system have always brought me back to him and his artistry. Though the script sounded like a speech written for the EPA by that “Leave Britney Alone” girl,Avatarwas revelatory to behold on the big screen, and few movies since have had such colorful bombast to them. And then there are the myriad pleasures and technical accomplishments strewn throughoutThe Abyss,Aliens, and the first twoTerminatorfilms, four of the greatest big-studio sci-fi works of the 1980s and 90s. Right now, however, all attention is on theAvatarsequels, and Cameron took toThe Daily Beastthis weekend to give an update. Here’s what he said:
This is a pretty big milestone for Cameron, who has been working on theseAvatarscripts since he came down fromAvatar’s Oscar high and probably even before. Now, we’ll just have to wait to see how the movies themselves come out over the next few years.
Avatar, mind you, wasn’t the only thing Cameron was talking about in this interview. He addressed the rumors of him possibly directing a Star Wars or Marvel movie, to which he said that he wouldn’t want to work in someone else’s “house,” which makes complete sense. He talked about his upcoming NatGeo doc,Atlantis Rising, which will premiere on the network soon and looks pretty engrossing from what’s been released of it. And, finally, he came to the topic of famed angry baby and President of these United StatesDonald Trump, whose war against the environment and human decency has made Cameron particularly furious, cynical, and bewildered. “These people are crazy,” Cameron said when speaking of Trump andScott Pruitt, while also referring to our current society as “the biggest freakin' idiot civilization in history” in relation to how we treat Earth. It’s hard to argue about that reasoning but…oh, who am I kidding? There’s no arguing that reasoning at this point.
