James Cameron gets salty about Alien Covenant
Necronom 4
MemberNeomorphFebruary 26, 2017James Cameron, patron saint of sci-fi sequels, is weighing in on a sci-fi sequel. Speaking in an expansive, otherwise excellent interview with Vulture, Cameron was asked about Ridley Scott's upcoming Alien: Covenant, and had this to say (emphasis my own):
"The franchise has kind of wandered all over the map. Ridley (Scott) did the first film, and he inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and science-fiction fans with that one movie and there have been so many films that stylistically have derived from it, including my own Aliens, which was the legitimate sequel and, I think, the proper heir to his film."
Shit, dude. "The legitimate sequel"? That's pretty rich. Aliens was wonderful, but replaced the vibe of Scott's tightly-wound horror with an all-action badass adventure movie. Both are masterpieces in their own right, but the middling Prometheus is still more thematically linked to Alien.
Like any good aging, increasingly out-of-touch filmmaker who doesn't know what's good for them, Cameron went on:
"It's like, okay, we've got it, we've got the whole Freudian biomechanoid meme. I've seen it in 100 horror films since. I think both of those films stand at a certain point in time, as a reference point. But is there any validity to doing another one now? I don't know. Maybe. Let's see, jury's out. Let's see what Ridley comes up with."
Let us not forget James Cameron is the dude in the midst of making four consecutive Avatar movies, passing judgment on what counts as a "legitimate sequel". In the coming decade we will be getting, presumably, over six hundred minutes of more Avatar, and, according to Cameron, all of it apparently vital.
What an arrogant dick.
Source : GQ online
The poster was good though!
James Cameron is a dick, and the first person to agree with you on that point would be James Cameron himself.
During the production of Avatar, he is rumored to have nail gunned someones Mobile/Cell Phone to the set because the owner kept getting text messages. Like Michael Bay, James Cameron is a "no-nonsense director" that can be seen as blunt, cold and callous to those more sensitive thespians. Actors like Michael Biehn, the sadly late Bill Paxton, and Lance Henriksen have commented repeatedly on Camerons on set brashness. Sigourney Weaver originally felt Cameron was too brash during the production of Aliens, but has since u-turned on her opinion and is one of Camerons many supporters.
In terms of his off-set behavior, not signing a child's autograph is but the smallest of his sins - During the production of Terminator 2 Cameron started an affair with its star Linda Hamilton, behind his wife's back, filed for divorce and subsequently married Hamilton. His wife at the time was Gale Anne Hurd, producer of AMC's The Walking Dead.
James Cameron is a dick, but he is also possibly one of Hollywoods greatest directors. Not only are Avatar and Titanic the two biggest grossing films of all time, Aliens and Terminator 2 are generally considered the best sequels of all time.
Cameron and Ridley had once planned on returning together to the Alien franchise, but the release of the AvP movies saw Cameron instead concentrate on Avatar while Ridley developed what would become Prometheus. Yes, Cameron, as have we all, has criticized Prometheus' narrative and characterization, but that is his right as a fellow director and fan, like all of us. And like a select few of us, Cameron is more anxious about Alien Covenant, which is unsurprising given Ridley Scotts directing history.
