Titanic Director steps behind Camera after 10 Years

After the huge success of ‘Titanic’ in 1997, filmmaker James Cameron has not made a film since then. But the wait is over and he is all set to get behind the camera again after 10 years.

Cameron, a leading advocate for 3D stereo films, is one of the ace directors who believe in making “great” films, even if that takes time to come down the pipeline.

He is very much excited about his new project “Avatar”, which is a 3D science fiction adventure set about 150 years in the future. The production will begin in spring this year, and is scheduled for a summer 2009 release by 20th Century Fox.

Cameron actually outlined "Avatar" before he made "Titanic" but didn't have the filmmaking tools to make it. "It was just too ambitious," Cameron said. "But now the technology has caught up."

After flip-flopping between "Avatar" and "Battle Angel," Cameron said he decided to proceed with the former film after completing a five-day camera test a year ago. "I could vividly picture how we would shoot the film," the writer-director said.

Those in the know how revealed that the film will star Australian newcomer Sam Worthington in a new digital 3D format and his love interest will be played by Zoe Saldana.

Cameron said that the movie will combine live action and animation, and will be made with same breath taking techniques used in movies like “Monster House” and “The Polar Express”. He also said that his film would have many refinements in regard to facial expressions of characters and physical action.

He also said that the film will be shot with digital cameras and be shown in 3D theaters.

"The fundamental difference between the way we're doing [performance capture] and the way it's been done is that it's really director-centric now," Cameron said.

The movie is based on the life of a wounded ex-marine Jack Sully, who is unwillingly sent to settle and exploit a far away planet ‘Pandora’. He gets caught up in the battle for endurance by the planet's people, called Na'vis, and falls in love with one of them.

Cameron said that 95% of the film would be based in Pandora, a moon of a giant gas planet, which is rich in plant and animal species.

The Oscar winning filmmaker also said that ‘Avatar’, along with digital action, will feature live action, and the two will be mingled in such a way that audience will not come to know where one ends and the next starts.

Cameron’s films deal with the relationship between humans and technology. His film ‘Titanic’ became the highest grossing film in Hollywood history, with a worldwide gross of over US$1.8 billion.

He has also produced notable films like ‘The Terminator’, ‘Rambo: First Blood Part 2’, ‘Alien’, ‘The Abyss’, ‘Terminator 2’, ‘True Lies’ and ‘Dark Angel’. In both ‘Ghosts of the Abyss’ and ‘Aliens of the Deep’, Cameron experimented with 3D camera systems, new versions of which will be employed in ‘Avatar.’

Cameron’s notable contribution to the entertainment industry has garnered him with a number of prestigious awards. He received the ‘Bradbury Award’ from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1991.

However, he did not receive any major mainstream filmmaking awards prior to ‘Titanic’. After the huge success of the movie, Cameron received the Academy Awards for Best Editing (shared with Conrad Buff 4 and Richard A. Harris), Best Picture (shared with John Landau), and Best Director.