A proposed film studio planned for Buckinghamshire, UK has sparked controversy among locals, but Piranha II director James Cameron has provided his backing for the project.
A major new UK film studio, targeting a tract of land in Buckinghamshire, has been backed by filmmaker James Cameron.
Marlow Film Studios has proven to be a controversial project so far; its proposed location on a former quarry next to the A404 near the small town of Marlow has led local councillors to argue that the development would cause traffic problems and damage green belt land.
Buckinghamshire Council failed to reach a decision on the proposals in October 2023, meaning a pivotal vote on the project has been deferred to this year. Ahead of that vote, Cameron – known for the 1981 smash Piranha II: The Spawning and his screenplay for Rambo: First Blood Part II – has written to Buckinghamshire Council, recommending that it waves through the proposed studio.
A major new UK film studio, targeting a tract of land in Buckinghamshire, has been backed by filmmaker James Cameron.
Marlow Film Studios has proven to be a controversial project so far; its proposed location on a former quarry next to the A404 near the small town of Marlow has led local councillors to argue that the development would cause traffic problems and damage green belt land.
Buckinghamshire Council failed to reach a decision on the proposals in October 2023, meaning a pivotal vote on the project has been deferred to this year. Ahead of that vote, Cameron – known for the 1981 smash Piranha II: The Spawning and his screenplay for Rambo: First Blood Part II – has written to Buckinghamshire Council, recommending that it waves through the proposed studio.
- 4/22/2024
- by Ryan Lambie
- Film Stories
What can you say about James Cameron that he hasn’t already said about himself? In all seriousness, the guy is a filmmaking legend. Starting out as a model maker for Roger Corman, Cameron worked his way up the food chain, serving as art director, production designer, and oversaw the special effects on John Carpenter’s Escape From New York before helming his 1982 directorial debut Piranha II: The Spawning. It was his sophomore feature, however, 1984’s The Terminator, that established him as one of the most exciting filmmakers of his generation.
- 12/15/2023
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
Most of the moviegoing population is probably under the assumption that "Titanic" was director James Cameron's first seafaring movie, but they'd be wrong! That honor goes to "The Abyss," the 1989 sci-fi flick that went on to garner four Academy Award nominations and win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.. The only drawback of "The Abyss," however, is that its availability has long been a matter of concern among film enthusiasts. Years ago, /Film covered the rumors that the movie would finally come to Blu-ray and 4K after only being available on DVD. Last we heard, this was still the plan ... but now we're hearing from the man, myth, and legend himself that fans will finally get the chance to watch the movie exactly the way Cameron intended it -- on the big screen and through the fabled Special Edition.
Cameron announced the news himself on Twitter to immediate celebrations on social media.
Cameron announced the news himself on Twitter to immediate celebrations on social media.
- 11/13/2023
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
Clockwise from top left: Creature From The Black Lagoon (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images); The Meg (Photo: Warner Bros.); Lake Placid (Screenshot: 20th Century Studios); Jaws (Screenshot: Universal Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club
Do you remember the first movie that made you afraid to go into the water? For many of a certain generation,...
Do you remember the first movie that made you afraid to go into the water? For many of a certain generation,...
- 8/3/2023
- by Robert DeSalvo
- avclub.com
James Cameron got his start in the film industry doing visual-effects work for low-budget sci-fi movies like “Galaxy of Terror” and “Battle Beyond the Stars,” but it didn’t take long for his wizardry to land him behind the camera. Within just a few films, Cameron put his stamp on the whole industry, crafting oft-imitated sci-fi hits on reasonable budgets before throwing huge loads of money into epic and sometimes troubled productions which, fortunately for everyone, pretty much always found an appreciative audience.
Watching Cameron’s films, from his original low-budget short to his trilogy of underwater documentaries, is a trip through his lifelong passions. You can see seeds of future blockbusters in early schlock like “Piranha II: The Spawning,” and you don’t even have to look that hard.
13. “Expedition: Bismarck” (2002)
The second film in James Cameron’s deep-sea-diving documentary trilogy is the dreariest. Cameron once again travels to the bottom of the ocean,...
Watching Cameron’s films, from his original low-budget short to his trilogy of underwater documentaries, is a trip through his lifelong passions. You can see seeds of future blockbusters in early schlock like “Piranha II: The Spawning,” and you don’t even have to look that hard.
13. “Expedition: Bismarck” (2002)
The second film in James Cameron’s deep-sea-diving documentary trilogy is the dreariest. Cameron once again travels to the bottom of the ocean,...
- 6/22/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
James Cameron is aiming to be king of Blu-ray and 4K, as word has emerged from the abyss that some of the director’s most iconic movies in his canon will be getting updated home video releases sometime this year.
The Digital Bits founder and editor-in-chief Bill Hunt had the chance to talk to producer Jon Landau about upcoming Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases of some of James Cameron’s greatest movies: The Abyss (1989), True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997), and the first Avatar (2009). As Hunt rattled off these titles, Landau replied, “2023, baby!…I would bet [they] would be [released]…But I don’t know if Disney wants me saying that yet,” followed by a laugh. You can watch the video below:
Today I had the chance to ask Avatar producer Jon Landau about the physical #4K #UltraHD & #Bluray release of James Cameron's Avatar, The Abyss, True Lies & Titanic. Here's the answer, straight from the man himself!
The Digital Bits founder and editor-in-chief Bill Hunt had the chance to talk to producer Jon Landau about upcoming Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases of some of James Cameron’s greatest movies: The Abyss (1989), True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997), and the first Avatar (2009). As Hunt rattled off these titles, Landau replied, “2023, baby!…I would bet [they] would be [released]…But I don’t know if Disney wants me saying that yet,” followed by a laugh. You can watch the video below:
Today I had the chance to ask Avatar producer Jon Landau about the physical #4K #UltraHD & #Bluray release of James Cameron's Avatar, The Abyss, True Lies & Titanic. Here's the answer, straight from the man himself!
- 3/16/2023
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
The idea for the 2009 film "Avatar" came to James Cameron in a dream. One might be able to intuit its subconscious origins, as the strange, bioluminescent flora and fauna of Pandora, without their sci-fi context, feel very surreal and dreamlike. Cameron, upon waking, found that those bizarre dream images — of alien beings traversing a glowing forest — fit perfectly with his interests in nature, conservation, and super-advanced filmmaking technology. He invented a distant planet where such forests would grow, and incorporated a conceit that would allow human characters to occupy alien bodies. The "Avatar" movies seem to be a pretty clear indicator that Cameron is all too willing to wash his hands of humanity and live on an interplanetary Eden-like world.
Of course, dreaming up his film ideas has gotten Cameron in trouble before. According to the 2009 biography "The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron" by Rebecca Keegan, Cameron...
Of course, dreaming up his film ideas has gotten Cameron in trouble before. According to the 2009 biography "The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron" by Rebecca Keegan, Cameron...
- 1/9/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Some of cinema’s most legendarily terrifying moments come from the unlikeliest of places. Whether you were inflicted with lasting trauma from a childhood favorite like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or were scarred as an adult by that infamous Trainspotting baby, there’s a decent chance that something from outside the horror genre has given you the heebie-jeebies in the past.
For whatever reason, this was a big trend in 2022, with both film and TV offering unexpected frights. To prove just how ubiquitous it was, we’ve compiled the following list of notable examples.
It should go without saying, but there are huge spoilers ahead. Without further ado, here are the year’s scariest moments from non-horror media.
Moon Knight – Tomb Raiding
Ever since Rick O’Connell proved that mummies could be gunned down by the dozen with relative ease, the Egyptian boogeymen have been unfairly side-lined in horror. Once upon a time,...
For whatever reason, this was a big trend in 2022, with both film and TV offering unexpected frights. To prove just how ubiquitous it was, we’ve compiled the following list of notable examples.
It should go without saying, but there are huge spoilers ahead. Without further ado, here are the year’s scariest moments from non-horror media.
Moon Knight – Tomb Raiding
Ever since Rick O’Connell proved that mummies could be gunned down by the dozen with relative ease, the Egyptian boogeymen have been unfairly side-lined in horror. Once upon a time,...
- 1/5/2023
- by Harrison Abbott
- bloody-disgusting.com
There's an expression you may have heard about "Avatar: The Way of Water," and that expression is this: "Never bet against James Cameron."
After all, James Cameron has directed one gigantic hit film after another, ever since his modestly budgeted breakout "The Terminator" got him gigs directing the action-packed monster movie "Aliens," followed by the ambitious undersea epic "The Abyss," the groundbreaking "Terminator II," the blockbuster action comedy "True Lies," and hey, did you ever hear about "Titanic" and "Avatar?" They made quite a bit of money. Just thought you should know, in case you somehow missed that.
Although fans might be eager to paint Cameron as an infallible hit machine, his directing career actually started with a critically lambasted dud: "Piranha II: The Spawning," a 1982 sequel to Joe Dante's 1978 horror comedy "Piranha," which was itself an unapologetic rip-off of "Jaws." It was an inauspicious debut for the future Oscar-winning filmmaker,...
After all, James Cameron has directed one gigantic hit film after another, ever since his modestly budgeted breakout "The Terminator" got him gigs directing the action-packed monster movie "Aliens," followed by the ambitious undersea epic "The Abyss," the groundbreaking "Terminator II," the blockbuster action comedy "True Lies," and hey, did you ever hear about "Titanic" and "Avatar?" They made quite a bit of money. Just thought you should know, in case you somehow missed that.
Although fans might be eager to paint Cameron as an infallible hit machine, his directing career actually started with a critically lambasted dud: "Piranha II: The Spawning," a 1982 sequel to Joe Dante's 1978 horror comedy "Piranha," which was itself an unapologetic rip-off of "Jaws." It was an inauspicious debut for the future Oscar-winning filmmaker,...
- 12/18/2022
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
“Never bet against James Cameron” has been the conventional wisdom in the film industry, and the adjacent world of film criticism, for at least 25 years. It started roughly around 1997 when Titanic was delayed by six months and its budget ballooned to massive proportions. A vanity project from an auteur director with a runaway budget? It was immediately prophesied to become a box office catastrophe that could sink two major studios.
Instead it went on to become the biggest box office success of all time, a title it held for 12 years until it was defeated by… Avatar, another Cameron movie that was expected to tank and instead scaled to almost unparalleled financial heights. Titanic also won 11 Oscars, tying it for the most ever, including Best Picture and Best Director. From that point on, the idea that the man’s seemingly uncanny commercial and creative instincts, as well as his truly visionary approach to epic filmmaking,...
Instead it went on to become the biggest box office success of all time, a title it held for 12 years until it was defeated by… Avatar, another Cameron movie that was expected to tank and instead scaled to almost unparalleled financial heights. Titanic also won 11 Oscars, tying it for the most ever, including Best Picture and Best Director. From that point on, the idea that the man’s seemingly uncanny commercial and creative instincts, as well as his truly visionary approach to epic filmmaking,...
- 12/17/2022
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
40 years ago, James Cameron made his directorial debut with "Piranha II: The Spawning." Kind of. The then 28-year-old filmmaker found himself dealing with a hostile producer (Ovidio G. Assonitis) and an Italian crew that did not speak English. It's unclear how much of the film Cameron actually directed or edited (one version of the story holds that Assonitis fired him before the end of the shoot; another claims he was barred from the editing room), but lurking within this horrid sequel to Joe Dante's surprisingly nifty rip-off of "Jaws" is the germ of a theme Cameron would chew on for the rest of his career. The piranha in his film are winged mutations bred to be used as biological weapons. This, of course, backfires on the scientists, and wreaks havoc on humanity and ecology in general.
If Cameron's next eight films have taught us anything about his worldview, it's...
If Cameron's next eight films have taught us anything about his worldview, it's...
- 12/17/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
It seems that when James Cameron isn't actively making "Avatar" movies, he's thinking about "Avatar" movies. As the filmmaker admitted in an interview with ScreenRant, he wouldn't allow his co-screenwriters, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, to begin work on "Avatar: The Way of Water" without first reading a massive 800-page tome explaining the mythos and backstory of his sci-fi universe. He has already finished a great deal of work on third and fourth "Avatar" films as well, working with a team of writers. "I walked in on the first day with the whole writers room," Cameron explained, "and I plopped down 800 pages of notes, single spaced. I said, 'Do your homework, and then we'll talk.'"
Cameron is a very technical filmmaker, and has, with his last few films, become intensely interested in pushing the limits of film visuals and special effects. The "Avatar" films, however, are the first time...
Cameron is a very technical filmmaker, and has, with his last few films, become intensely interested in pushing the limits of film visuals and special effects. The "Avatar" films, however, are the first time...
- 12/16/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Say what you will about James Cameron.
There’s no “but” coming at the end of that sentence. Just say what you will. The man is apparently bulletproof. You can point out that his first “Avatar” film is a tired collection of outdated and offensive colonialist nonsense, thinly disguised by (then-) state-of-the-art visual effects, and he’d probably just sit there fanning himself with his million-dollar bills (which he probably has).
So perhaps the funniest thing about “Avatar: The Way of Water” is that his new film doesn’t double down on the flaws of the original and instead makes some attempt to address them. Jake Sully (voiced and motion-captured by Sam Worthington) may be a leader, but in some respects he’s a bigger screw-up than ever, making lots of mistakes that, this time, he can’t fix. “The Way of Water” is not about Jake Sully’s journey...
There’s no “but” coming at the end of that sentence. Just say what you will. The man is apparently bulletproof. You can point out that his first “Avatar” film is a tired collection of outdated and offensive colonialist nonsense, thinly disguised by (then-) state-of-the-art visual effects, and he’d probably just sit there fanning himself with his million-dollar bills (which he probably has).
So perhaps the funniest thing about “Avatar: The Way of Water” is that his new film doesn’t double down on the flaws of the original and instead makes some attempt to address them. Jake Sully (voiced and motion-captured by Sam Worthington) may be a leader, but in some respects he’s a bigger screw-up than ever, making lots of mistakes that, this time, he can’t fix. “The Way of Water” is not about Jake Sully’s journey...
- 12/13/2022
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
With three Academy Awards and some of the biggest box office champs of all time under his belt, James Cameron has certainly found a way to blend art and commerce to great effect. Let’s take a look back at all nine of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1954 in Ontario, Canada, Cameron cut his teeth with a variety of on-set jobs, most notably as a special effects artist. Although he technically made his directorial debut with the creature feature “Piranha II: The Spawning” (1982), he truly burst onto the scene with the sci-fi hit “The Terminator” (1982), which cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as a futuristic cyborg sent on a mission to kill a young woman (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to the messiah.
Cameron further cemented his reputation as a master of action with such adrenaline-pumping titles as “Aliens” (1986), “The Abyss” (1989), “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) and “True Lies...
Born in 1954 in Ontario, Canada, Cameron cut his teeth with a variety of on-set jobs, most notably as a special effects artist. Although he technically made his directorial debut with the creature feature “Piranha II: The Spawning” (1982), he truly burst onto the scene with the sci-fi hit “The Terminator” (1982), which cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as a futuristic cyborg sent on a mission to kill a young woman (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to the messiah.
Cameron further cemented his reputation as a master of action with such adrenaline-pumping titles as “Aliens” (1986), “The Abyss” (1989), “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) and “True Lies...
- 8/14/2022
- by Tom O'Brien, Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Long before he was an esteemed filmmaker with major titles like "Avatar" and "Titanic" to his name, James Cameron made his directorial debut with the 1982 indie horror film "Piranha II: The Spawning." Despite this, Cameron has often acknowledged "The Terminator" as the first film he directed, even though it came out in 1984, two years after the release "Piranha II." In fact, Cameron spent years disavowing the film, citing a multitude of bizarre production issues -- including a literal break-in -- as the reason why he wanted little do with the film for so many years.
According to the book "A Critical Companion to James Cameron," production...
The post The Troubled Production of James Cameron's Piranha II appeared first on /Film.
According to the book "A Critical Companion to James Cameron," production...
The post The Troubled Production of James Cameron's Piranha II appeared first on /Film.
- 11/29/2021
- by Deshawn "DeLa Doll" Thomas
- Slash Film
If anyone these days still remembers Piranha II: The Spawning, a low-budget Jaws-esque “horror for the deep” from 1981, it’s usually as the answer to the trivia question: What was James Cameron’s first film as a director?
But Somtow Sucharitkul remembers. The pioneering composer from Thailand is taking the film, or more accurately its music, as inspiration for his latest work, a “symphony of horror” that will first be performed live at this year’s Oldenburg International Film Festival.
The choice of Piranha II is no accident. Somtow’s new work is a tribute to Piranha II producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, the ...
But Somtow Sucharitkul remembers. The pioneering composer from Thailand is taking the film, or more accurately its music, as inspiration for his latest work, a “symphony of horror” that will first be performed live at this year’s Oldenburg International Film Festival.
The choice of Piranha II is no accident. Somtow’s new work is a tribute to Piranha II producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, the ...
- 9/16/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
If anyone these days still remembers Piranha II: The Spawning, a low-budget Jaws-esque “horror for the deep” from 1981, it’s usually as the answer to the trivia question: What was James Cameron’s first film as a director?
But Somtow Sucharitkul remembers. The pioneering composer from Thailand is taking the film, or more accurately its music, as inspiration for his latest work, a “symphony of horror” that will first be performed live at this year’s Oldenburg International Film Festival.
The choice of Piranha II is no accident. Somtow’s new work is a tribute to Piranha II producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, the ...
But Somtow Sucharitkul remembers. The pioneering composer from Thailand is taking the film, or more accurately its music, as inspiration for his latest work, a “symphony of horror” that will first be performed live at this year’s Oldenburg International Film Festival.
The choice of Piranha II is no accident. Somtow’s new work is a tribute to Piranha II producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, the ...
- 9/16/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading independent film fest, will honor Ovidio Assonitis, the so-called “King of the Rip-Offs,” with its 2021 retrospective.
The Egyptian-born director, who grew up in Greece and began his career in Italy, is famous (some would say infamous) for B-movie classics, including Tentacles (1977) — a low-budget Jaws rip-off starring John Huston and Shelley Winters fighting a killer octopus, the Exorcist “inspired” Behind The Door (1974), and Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), another Jaws-style horror film featuring piranhas and best known as the feature debut of Titanic director James Cameron, who Assonitis famously fired early ...
The Egyptian-born director, who grew up in Greece and began his career in Italy, is famous (some would say infamous) for B-movie classics, including Tentacles (1977) — a low-budget Jaws rip-off starring John Huston and Shelley Winters fighting a killer octopus, the Exorcist “inspired” Behind The Door (1974), and Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), another Jaws-style horror film featuring piranhas and best known as the feature debut of Titanic director James Cameron, who Assonitis famously fired early ...
- 8/31/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading independent film fest, will honor Ovidio Assonitis, the so-called “King of the Rip-Offs,” with its 2021 retrospective.
The Egyptian-born director, who grew up in Greece and began his career in Italy, is famous (some would say infamous) for B-movie classics, including Tentacles (1977) — a low-budget Jaws rip-off starring John Huston and Shelley Winters fighting a killer octopus, the Exorcist “inspired” Behind The Door (1974), and Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), another Jaws-style horror film featuring piranhas and best known as the feature debut of Titanic director James Cameron, who Assonitis famously fired early ...
The Egyptian-born director, who grew up in Greece and began his career in Italy, is famous (some would say infamous) for B-movie classics, including Tentacles (1977) — a low-budget Jaws rip-off starring John Huston and Shelley Winters fighting a killer octopus, the Exorcist “inspired” Behind The Door (1974), and Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), another Jaws-style horror film featuring piranhas and best known as the feature debut of Titanic director James Cameron, who Assonitis famously fired early ...
- 8/31/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
As South Park famously put it, James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron, James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron. And what James Cameron wants to do is apparently spend the rest of his life painstakingly churning out Avatar sequels, based on the fact that the second installment will arrive thirteen years after the original at the very earliest, and he’s still planning another three after that.
Long gone are the days when the trailblazing filmmaker used to complete movies on a semi-regular basis, with Avatar 2 set to mark just his third feature in 28 years should it stick to the current schedule and hit the big screen in December 2022, a far cry from the time of his career when he made six pics in 12 years between Piranha II: The Spawning and True Lies.
Massive Behind-The-Scenes Gallery For...
Long gone are the days when the trailblazing filmmaker used to complete movies on a semi-regular basis, with Avatar 2 set to mark just his third feature in 28 years should it stick to the current schedule and hit the big screen in December 2022, a far cry from the time of his career when he made six pics in 12 years between Piranha II: The Spawning and True Lies.
Massive Behind-The-Scenes Gallery For...
- 12/10/2020
- by Scott Campbell
- We Got This Covered
Famously, while filming his directorial debut (1982’s Piranha II: The Spawning), director James Cameron fell ill on location in Rome. That night, he had a nightmare where a knife-wielding metallic torso dragged itself desperately from an explosion. Paired with the then-recent success of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Cameron set to work on The Terminator (1984), the sci-fi slasher that would catapult him into the upper echelons of Hollywood A-List. While this may seem like an odd-digression for a review about Jordan Peele’s sophomore film, 2019’s doppelganger horror movie Us, the contexts in which both films were created and released run
31 Nights of Halloween: Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ (2019)...
31 Nights of Halloween: Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ (2019)...
- 10/8/2020
- by Brian Hadsell
- TVovermind.com
In case you hadn’t noticed, James Cameron takes his sweet time putting a movie together. It wasn’t always like this, though, and after making his directorial debut on 1982’s Piranha II: The Spawning, the filmmaker would helm five more features over the next twelve years. However, since True Lies hit theaters in the summer of 1994, the last quarter of a century has only brought a further two additions to his filmography.
Admittedly, both Titanic and Avatar were pretty successful, with each becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time as they raked in a combined total of close to $5 billion at the box office, winning fourteen Academy Awards from 23 nominations in the process. Basically, any new James Cameron movie is a landmark cinematic event these days, and Avatar 2 promises to be no different.
The original’s reputation may have taken a somewhat unfair battering over the years, but...
Admittedly, both Titanic and Avatar were pretty successful, with each becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time as they raked in a combined total of close to $5 billion at the box office, winning fourteen Academy Awards from 23 nominations in the process. Basically, any new James Cameron movie is a landmark cinematic event these days, and Avatar 2 promises to be no different.
The original’s reputation may have taken a somewhat unfair battering over the years, but...
- 9/25/2020
- by Scott Campbell
- We Got This Covered
Exclusive: When Avengers: Endgame surpassed Avatar to claim the title of the highest-grossing film in history, it ended one of the most impressive reigns in the annals of screen entertainment: James Cameron, first with Titanic (1997) and then with Avatar (2009), had owned the top spot on the all-time chart for a staggering 7,817 consecutive days — just shy of 21 1/2 years.
Cameron was busy in New Zealand working on the sequels to Avatar in late July when Avengers: Endgame (Disney/Marvel Studios) finally eclipsed the original Avatar (Fox) and its $2.79 billion benchmark. Was the ultra-competitive Cameron dejected or sour when he heard the news? Far from it, he says, his first reaction was actually relief and optimism.
“It gives me a lot of hope,” Cameron told Deadline. “Avengers: Endgame is demonstrable proof that people will still go to movie theaters. The thing that scared me most about making Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 was...
Cameron was busy in New Zealand working on the sequels to Avatar in late July when Avengers: Endgame (Disney/Marvel Studios) finally eclipsed the original Avatar (Fox) and its $2.79 billion benchmark. Was the ultra-competitive Cameron dejected or sour when he heard the news? Far from it, he says, his first reaction was actually relief and optimism.
“It gives me a lot of hope,” Cameron told Deadline. “Avengers: Endgame is demonstrable proof that people will still go to movie theaters. The thing that scared me most about making Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 was...
- 9/11/2019
- by Geoff Boucher
- Deadline Film + TV
James Cameron celebrates his 65th birthday on August 16, 2019. With three Academy Awards and some of the biggest box office champs of all time under his belt, the director has certainly found a way to blend art and commerce to great effect. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at all eight of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1954 in Ontario, Canada, Cameron cut his teeth with a variety of on-set jobs, most notably as a special effects artist. Although he technically made his directorial debut with the creature feature “Piranha II: The Spawning” (1982), he truly burst onto the scene with the sci-fi hit “The Terminator” (1982), which cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as a futuristic cyborg sent on a mission to kill a young woman (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to the messiah.
SEEArnold Schwarzenegger movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best
Cameron further cemented...
Born in 1954 in Ontario, Canada, Cameron cut his teeth with a variety of on-set jobs, most notably as a special effects artist. Although he technically made his directorial debut with the creature feature “Piranha II: The Spawning” (1982), he truly burst onto the scene with the sci-fi hit “The Terminator” (1982), which cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as a futuristic cyborg sent on a mission to kill a young woman (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to the messiah.
SEEArnold Schwarzenegger movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best
Cameron further cemented...
- 8/16/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
"Who the fuck is Jim Cameron? I've never heard of him."
It was a fair question. Almost no one had heard of Jim Cameron, the young director whose most notable credit was being fired from 1981's Piranha II: The Spawning a few years earlier. But Jim Cameron had written a new script, about a cyborg from the future trying to kill a young woman, and apparently it was pretty good.
Actor Michael Biehn, the guy who'd never heard of Jim Cameron, was a good-looking kid from Nebraska. He was intense, the type of person who took ...
It was a fair question. Almost no one had heard of Jim Cameron, the young director whose most notable credit was being fired from 1981's Piranha II: The Spawning a few years earlier. But Jim Cameron had written a new script, about a cyborg from the future trying to kill a young woman, and apparently it was pretty good.
Actor Michael Biehn, the guy who'd never heard of Jim Cameron, was a good-looking kid from Nebraska. He was intense, the type of person who took ...
"Who the fuck is Jim Cameron? I've never heard of him."
It was a fair question. Almost no one had heard of Jim Cameron, the young director whose most notable credit was being fired from 1981's Piranha II: The Spawning a few years earlier. But Jim Cameron had written a new script, about a cyborg from the future trying to kill a young woman, and apparently it was pretty good.
Actor Michael Biehn, the guy who'd never heard of Jim Cameron, was a good-looking kid from Nebraska. He was intense, the type of person who took ...
It was a fair question. Almost no one had heard of Jim Cameron, the young director whose most notable credit was being fired from 1981's Piranha II: The Spawning a few years earlier. But Jim Cameron had written a new script, about a cyborg from the future trying to kill a young woman, and apparently it was pretty good.
Actor Michael Biehn, the guy who'd never heard of Jim Cameron, was a good-looking kid from Nebraska. He was intense, the type of person who took ...
The Terminator has been one of the iconic movies of all time. The movie consisting of the lead role played by Arnold Schwarzenegger still remains one of the movies of all time. There has been overall five installments in the Terminator and now would be having a sixth installment named Terminator: Dark Fate.
But before we go ahead let's take a look at some interesting facts on Terminator.
Terminator was born out of a dream
James Cameroon, the director of the movie was ill during the production of his low-budget movie Piranha II: The Spawning. After a restless sleep, he dreamt of a robot having a metallic body and crawling across the floors. That's when Cameroon made up a story of a robotic assassin and the rest?became history.
The character selection
When we say terminator, the first thing that comes into our mind is Arnold Schwarzenegger. But what many...
But before we go ahead let's take a look at some interesting facts on Terminator.
Terminator was born out of a dream
James Cameroon, the director of the movie was ill during the production of his low-budget movie Piranha II: The Spawning. After a restless sleep, he dreamt of a robot having a metallic body and crawling across the floors. That's when Cameroon made up a story of a robotic assassin and the rest?became history.
The character selection
When we say terminator, the first thing that comes into our mind is Arnold Schwarzenegger. But what many...
- 7/30/2019
- GlamSham
Piranha 2: The Spawning (1982) has been called by its director, “the best flying piranha movie ever made.” Since no other films about flying piranhas have been produced (to this writer’s knowledge anyway), it’s a statement that’s hard to dispute. There are at least two different edits known to exist of the movie, and it has also gone by a variety of names worldwide (Piranha II: Flying Killers, Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, The Spawning, Piranha Paura). Unfortunately, regardless of the name, all versions of the film are indisputably awful.
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- 1/16/2018
- by Nathan Sanders
- CinemaNerdz
*Updated* Scream Factory has been revealing anticipated upcoming Blu-ray releases all year long, including James Cameron's Piranha II: The Spawning, but it's now been revealed that the Collector's Edition release of the 1981 horror sequel has been placed on hold.
Scream Factory made the announcement about the delay on Facebook, revealing that the Blu-ray will be "placed on hold until further notice" due to "unexpected issues" that have come about since the initial announcement last week.
Scream Factory still hopes to release Piranha II: The Spawning on a Collector's Edition Blu-ray sometime in 2018, and we'll be sure to keep you updated as more details are revealed.
From Scream Factory: "We sincerely regret to report today that our planned release of Piranha II: The Spawning is being placed on hold until further notice. This is prompted by some unexpected issues that arose from the project after we announced it last Friday.
Scream Factory made the announcement about the delay on Facebook, revealing that the Blu-ray will be "placed on hold until further notice" due to "unexpected issues" that have come about since the initial announcement last week.
Scream Factory still hopes to release Piranha II: The Spawning on a Collector's Edition Blu-ray sometime in 2018, and we'll be sure to keep you updated as more details are revealed.
From Scream Factory: "We sincerely regret to report today that our planned release of Piranha II: The Spawning is being placed on hold until further notice. This is prompted by some unexpected issues that arose from the project after we announced it last Friday.
- 10/4/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
There are certain words and phrases you don’t expect to find yourself ever writing. For example, “Scream Factory will release a collector’s edition Blu-ray of Piranha II: The Spawning.” Yet, here I am writing just that. Scream Factory will release a… Continue Reading →
The post Scream Factory Spawning a Blu-Ray of James Cameron’s Flying Piranha Epic Piranha II: The Spawning Next Year appeared first on Dread Central.
The post Scream Factory Spawning a Blu-Ray of James Cameron’s Flying Piranha Epic Piranha II: The Spawning Next Year appeared first on Dread Central.
- 9/29/2017
- by Foywonder
- DreadCentral.com
Yes, James Cameron directed the Piranha sequel in 1981. Swimming to Blu-ray next year from Scream Factory is Piranha II: The Spawning, James Cameron’s debut feature that starred Lance Henriksen as a police chief trying to link a series of bizarre deaths to a mutant strain of piranha fish off a Caribbean resort. Extras and […]...
- 9/29/2017
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
From his directorial debut on Piranha Part Two: The Spawning to The Terminator to Aliens to The Abyss to Terminator 2: Judgment Day to True Lies to Titanic, James Cameron made seven increasingly ambitious movies over a period of 16 years. After the monstrous success of Titanic, he took time off, made a few docs, explored television and then returned with the groundbreaking 3D adventure Avatar, which was another huge success. We've heard that four sequels to Avatar are on their way, with the first due in 2020. While preparation is being made to start production on those movies next year, Cameron has been busy with other projects too, such as producing Alita: Battle Angel, a movie he long hoped to direct himself, but finally hired Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) to helm a couple of...
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- 7/26/2017
- by Peter Martin
- Movies.com
Ryan Lambie Jul 14, 2017
A cult gem in its own right, 1981's Galaxy Of Terror also gave James Cameron his start in big-screen filmmaking...
In most respects, it's pure Roger Corman: low-budget, swiftly made, and loaded with gratuitous gore and bare flesh. But take a closer look at Galaxy Of Terror, the amiably tawdry sci-fi horror flick released by Corman's New World in 1981, and you'll see the creative fingerprints of one James Cameron.
See related 8 Star Wars games we'd like to see
Directed by Bruce D Clark - who also co-wrote - Galaxy Of Terror slams together the plots of Ridley Scott's Alien and the 50s classic, Forbidden Planet. A group of explorers land on the planet Morganthus, where they discover a huge ancient pyramid; one by one, the visitors are terrorised and killed by monsters from their subconscious. One luckless character is torn apart by claws and tentacles...
A cult gem in its own right, 1981's Galaxy Of Terror also gave James Cameron his start in big-screen filmmaking...
In most respects, it's pure Roger Corman: low-budget, swiftly made, and loaded with gratuitous gore and bare flesh. But take a closer look at Galaxy Of Terror, the amiably tawdry sci-fi horror flick released by Corman's New World in 1981, and you'll see the creative fingerprints of one James Cameron.
See related 8 Star Wars games we'd like to see
Directed by Bruce D Clark - who also co-wrote - Galaxy Of Terror slams together the plots of Ridley Scott's Alien and the 50s classic, Forbidden Planet. A group of explorers land on the planet Morganthus, where they discover a huge ancient pyramid; one by one, the visitors are terrorised and killed by monsters from their subconscious. One luckless character is torn apart by claws and tentacles...
- 6/23/2017
- Den of Geek
Ryan Lambie Jun 22, 2017
Making a Hollywood film is a huge opportunity. But for some filmmakers, it can also represent years of compromise and disappointment...
The course of Hollywood filmmaking never did run smooth, but the news recently emerging from the production of next year's A Star Wars Story spin-off is dramatic stuff even by blockbuster movie standards.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were first hired to direct the film about a young Han Solo in the summer of 2015, have abruptly departed the project, with the movie-making duo and Lucasfilm both citing “creative differences” in their respective statements.
Now, directors, writers and other crew may come and go on movies of all sizes, but seldom this far into production. The core cast of Alden Ehrenreich (as Solo), Donald Glover (as a young Lando) had already been put in place, while filming began in late January of this year under the production title Star Wars: Red Cup. This means that Lord and Miller - whose previous films include Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, 21 Jump St and The Lego Movie - had been shooting for approximately five months before their involvement abruptly ended.
A number of reports have emerged about what went on behind the scenes; The Hollywood Reporter, for example, suggests that longtime Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote the Solo script with his son, Jon) disapproved of Lord and Miller’s loose, improv-heavy style of filmmaking, and wanted them to stick to the letter of his text. Variety, on the other hand, says it was producer and Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy who butted heads with the directors, with one of the outlet’s sources quoted as saying that the “culture clash” between the two parties was such that Kennedy “Didn’t even like the way they folded their socks.”
Whatever the truth is, the Solo movie is now in a highly unusual position of being in the midst of full-scale production without a director to guide it. Now, you might think that, in such an scenario, an experienced producer like Kathleen Kennedy or even Kasdan, who’s called the shots on movies in the past, could simply fill the empty seats left by Lord and Miller.
There is, however, a problem: the Directors Guild of America’s rules plainly state that someone already involved with a movie production can’t replace an outgoing director. “Except in an emergency,” the DGA’s website states, “no director already assigned to the production may replace you”.
From a director’s standpoint, it’s easy to see why this rule’s in place: it protects them from those nightmare scenarios where a power-hungry director wants to push the director out and take over the picture. (According to James Cameron, this is pretty much what happened to him on his ill-fated debut, Piranha II: The Spawning.)
As the DGA says in that quote above, a producer like Kathleen Kennedy can take over the directing duties on a Hollywood movie in the event of an emergency, but even here, there’s a catch: if the producer created that emergency in the first place - in other words, if Lord and Miller were fired, as Variety claims they were - then Kennedy can’t take over. In any event, an emergency director can only assume the role for a maximum of five days, and by that point, the producers are back to where they started: the person who permanently takes over as director has to hired from outside the production.
This is why, within hours of the Lord and Miller news breaking, further stories have emerged that a replacement is already being sought; Ron Howard and Joe Johnston are reportedly being considered, as is Lawrence Kasdan - though as we’ve already seen, hiring Kasdan could land Disney-Lucasfilm in some legally murky waters.
In the meantime, production on the Solo movie has been shut down until a new director’s found - a process that could take weeks, according to THR sources. While the new crop of Star Wars movies have had their production difficulties before, this is undoubtedly the most serious so far - and getting the production back on course will almost certainly prove costly.
There’s the question, too, of just what other directors will make of the whole affair, given the stories that have emerged from behind the scenes of last year’s Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One. Director Gareth Edwards’ vision of a harsh war film was retooled late in the film’s making, with Tony Gilroy brought in to conduct reshoots and change the film’s tone to something more approaching a typical Star Wars movie.
These production stories provide a useful illustration of where major films from the likes of Marvel, Warner and Lucasfilm are today; the producers behind them may want directors who have their own style and ideas, but only if those things fit within the closely-guarded framework dictated by either a space opera or a superhero movie. Indeed, with Kennedy stating that the directors and studio had “different creative visions” for Han Solo, it leaves us wondering why Lord and Miller were hired in the first place. One look at their body of work, whether it’s animated or live-action, will give you an indication of their very successful style: shoot-from-the-hip, fast and loose.
From an outside standpoint, it appears as though directors are being hired for their enthusiasm and the personality of their filmmaking, albeit with the hope that their edges can be sanded down to fit what the producers think will please its ticket-buying audiences. In many instances, a happy medium is found, of a sort: Suicide Squad, which was heavily re-edited before release, was critically panned, but the box office receipts were huge. Rogue One’s production was difficult, but the resulting film was well-received and a similarly big success.
When those uneasy partnerships break down, though, the results are plain to see: Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four, which went so sour that the director effectively disowned the movie via social media. Ant-Man, which lost co-writer and director Edgar Wright after years of development. And, of course, the whole Lord and Miller situation.
Behind-the-scenes dramas are as old as Hollywood itself, but the ever-increasing cost of mainstream filmmaking and the bizarre paradox created by the movie universe paradigm - where audience expectations have to be catered to and upended at the same time - appear to be making the life of a director increasingly difficult.
Taking on the biggest movies in modern pop culture - Star Wars, Marvel, DC - gives filmmakers the chance to tell huge stories on an epic canvas. They have the opportunity to reach global audiences of millions, and potentially, make a lot of money in the process. But as the Han Solo story proves, there’s also the possibility that a director can sink years of their lives into one of these projects, only for it all to fall apart. What is on one hand a huge opportunity could also be regarded as a poisoned chalice.
Making a Hollywood film is a huge opportunity. But for some filmmakers, it can also represent years of compromise and disappointment...
The course of Hollywood filmmaking never did run smooth, but the news recently emerging from the production of next year's A Star Wars Story spin-off is dramatic stuff even by blockbuster movie standards.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were first hired to direct the film about a young Han Solo in the summer of 2015, have abruptly departed the project, with the movie-making duo and Lucasfilm both citing “creative differences” in their respective statements.
Now, directors, writers and other crew may come and go on movies of all sizes, but seldom this far into production. The core cast of Alden Ehrenreich (as Solo), Donald Glover (as a young Lando) had already been put in place, while filming began in late January of this year under the production title Star Wars: Red Cup. This means that Lord and Miller - whose previous films include Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, 21 Jump St and The Lego Movie - had been shooting for approximately five months before their involvement abruptly ended.
A number of reports have emerged about what went on behind the scenes; The Hollywood Reporter, for example, suggests that longtime Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote the Solo script with his son, Jon) disapproved of Lord and Miller’s loose, improv-heavy style of filmmaking, and wanted them to stick to the letter of his text. Variety, on the other hand, says it was producer and Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy who butted heads with the directors, with one of the outlet’s sources quoted as saying that the “culture clash” between the two parties was such that Kennedy “Didn’t even like the way they folded their socks.”
Whatever the truth is, the Solo movie is now in a highly unusual position of being in the midst of full-scale production without a director to guide it. Now, you might think that, in such an scenario, an experienced producer like Kathleen Kennedy or even Kasdan, who’s called the shots on movies in the past, could simply fill the empty seats left by Lord and Miller.
There is, however, a problem: the Directors Guild of America’s rules plainly state that someone already involved with a movie production can’t replace an outgoing director. “Except in an emergency,” the DGA’s website states, “no director already assigned to the production may replace you”.
From a director’s standpoint, it’s easy to see why this rule’s in place: it protects them from those nightmare scenarios where a power-hungry director wants to push the director out and take over the picture. (According to James Cameron, this is pretty much what happened to him on his ill-fated debut, Piranha II: The Spawning.)
As the DGA says in that quote above, a producer like Kathleen Kennedy can take over the directing duties on a Hollywood movie in the event of an emergency, but even here, there’s a catch: if the producer created that emergency in the first place - in other words, if Lord and Miller were fired, as Variety claims they were - then Kennedy can’t take over. In any event, an emergency director can only assume the role for a maximum of five days, and by that point, the producers are back to where they started: the person who permanently takes over as director has to hired from outside the production.
This is why, within hours of the Lord and Miller news breaking, further stories have emerged that a replacement is already being sought; Ron Howard and Joe Johnston are reportedly being considered, as is Lawrence Kasdan - though as we’ve already seen, hiring Kasdan could land Disney-Lucasfilm in some legally murky waters.
In the meantime, production on the Solo movie has been shut down until a new director’s found - a process that could take weeks, according to THR sources. While the new crop of Star Wars movies have had their production difficulties before, this is undoubtedly the most serious so far - and getting the production back on course will almost certainly prove costly.
There’s the question, too, of just what other directors will make of the whole affair, given the stories that have emerged from behind the scenes of last year’s Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One. Director Gareth Edwards’ vision of a harsh war film was retooled late in the film’s making, with Tony Gilroy brought in to conduct reshoots and change the film’s tone to something more approaching a typical Star Wars movie.
These production stories provide a useful illustration of where major films from the likes of Marvel, Warner and Lucasfilm are today; the producers behind them may want directors who have their own style and ideas, but only if those things fit within the closely-guarded framework dictated by either a space opera or a superhero movie. Indeed, with Kennedy stating that the directors and studio had “different creative visions” for Han Solo, it leaves us wondering why Lord and Miller were hired in the first place. One look at their body of work, whether it’s animated or live-action, will give you an indication of their very successful style: shoot-from-the-hip, fast and loose.
From an outside standpoint, it appears as though directors are being hired for their enthusiasm and the personality of their filmmaking, albeit with the hope that their edges can be sanded down to fit what the producers think will please its ticket-buying audiences. In many instances, a happy medium is found, of a sort: Suicide Squad, which was heavily re-edited before release, was critically panned, but the box office receipts were huge. Rogue One’s production was difficult, but the resulting film was well-received and a similarly big success.
When those uneasy partnerships break down, though, the results are plain to see: Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four, which went so sour that the director effectively disowned the movie via social media. Ant-Man, which lost co-writer and director Edgar Wright after years of development. And, of course, the whole Lord and Miller situation.
Behind-the-scenes dramas are as old as Hollywood itself, but the ever-increasing cost of mainstream filmmaking and the bizarre paradox created by the movie universe paradigm - where audience expectations have to be catered to and upended at the same time - appear to be making the life of a director increasingly difficult.
Taking on the biggest movies in modern pop culture - Star Wars, Marvel, DC - gives filmmakers the chance to tell huge stories on an epic canvas. They have the opportunity to reach global audiences of millions, and potentially, make a lot of money in the process. But as the Han Solo story proves, there’s also the possibility that a director can sink years of their lives into one of these projects, only for it all to fall apart. What is on one hand a huge opportunity could also be regarded as a poisoned chalice.
- 6/21/2017
- Den of Geek
Review by Roger Carpenter
In his heyday, director/producer Ovidio Assonitis was affectionately known as “The Rip-Off King” due to his blatant copying of popular, more expensive hit films. Thus, we have Beyond the Door (1974), an Exorcist-style film; Tentacles (1977), a killer octopus film in the vein of Jaws; and even the sequel Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), which he famously directed after firing James Cameron shortly after filming commenced. Always on the lookout for the next big idea in exploitation, it isn’t surprising that he would also jump on the slasher bandwagon as well. Madhouse is Assonitis’ entry into that particular subgenre of film.
Though produced in late 1980 or early 1981 in Savannah, Georgia, Madhouse wasn’t released stateside until 1983. So while the film bears more than a passing resemblance to the classic slasher Happy Birthday to Me (also made in 1981), it is unclear how much of a direct rip-off one film is of the other.
In his heyday, director/producer Ovidio Assonitis was affectionately known as “The Rip-Off King” due to his blatant copying of popular, more expensive hit films. Thus, we have Beyond the Door (1974), an Exorcist-style film; Tentacles (1977), a killer octopus film in the vein of Jaws; and even the sequel Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), which he famously directed after firing James Cameron shortly after filming commenced. Always on the lookout for the next big idea in exploitation, it isn’t surprising that he would also jump on the slasher bandwagon as well. Madhouse is Assonitis’ entry into that particular subgenre of film.
Though produced in late 1980 or early 1981 in Savannah, Georgia, Madhouse wasn’t released stateside until 1983. So while the film bears more than a passing resemblance to the classic slasher Happy Birthday to Me (also made in 1981), it is unclear how much of a direct rip-off one film is of the other.
- 6/19/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
We have another busy week of home entertainment releases on the horizon, as there are over two dozen titles making their way to Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. For those of you cult film enthusiasts, you have a lot of options when it comes to adding items to your collections, as Alienator is being resurrected by Scream Factory, Arrow Video is unleashing a special edition set for Madhouse, and Mondo Macabre has given Paul Naschy’s Inquisition an HD overhaul as well.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new releases for The Hound of Baskervilles, Medusa, and Nicholas Ray’s classic noir They Live By Night to look forward to as well. For you TV lovers out there, the box sets for the final season of both The Vampire Diaries and Grimm are being released Tuesday, and for those who are on the hunt for some new action cinema,...
As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new releases for The Hound of Baskervilles, Medusa, and Nicholas Ray’s classic noir They Live By Night to look forward to as well. For you TV lovers out there, the box sets for the final season of both The Vampire Diaries and Grimm are being released Tuesday, and for those who are on the hunt for some new action cinema,...
- 6/12/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Directors’ trademarks is a series of articles that examines the “signatures” that filmmakers leave behind in their work. This month, we’re looking at the trademark style and calling signs of James Cameron as director.
In college, James Cameron decided that he wanted to be a screenwriter. He switched from majoring in Physics to majoring in English, before eventually deciding to drop out and raise money to start his career. During that time, he worked many odd jobs, until he was finally inspired by Star Wars in 1977 to start his career in the film industry. In the early 1980’s he first worked as a miniature model builder at Roger Corman studios, demonstrating a talent for creating innovative special effects. Over time, he became a production designer, and special effects director. In 1981, he was a special effects director for the film Piranha II: The Spawning. Numerous production delays cost the original director his job,...
In college, James Cameron decided that he wanted to be a screenwriter. He switched from majoring in Physics to majoring in English, before eventually deciding to drop out and raise money to start his career. During that time, he worked many odd jobs, until he was finally inspired by Star Wars in 1977 to start his career in the film industry. In the early 1980’s he first worked as a miniature model builder at Roger Corman studios, demonstrating a talent for creating innovative special effects. Over time, he became a production designer, and special effects director. In 1981, he was a special effects director for the film Piranha II: The Spawning. Numerous production delays cost the original director his job,...
- 6/5/2017
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (G.S. Perno)
- Cinelinx
Many People Visit … No One Ever Leaves!
Ovidio Assonitis’ Madhouse (1981) will be available on Blu-ray June 12th From Arrow Video
Helmed by legendary producer/director Ovidio Assonitis, the man behind such cult favourites as The Visitor and Piranha II: The Spawning, Madhouse is a crimson-soaked tale of sibling rivalry taken to a terrifying and bloody extreme.
Julia has spent her entire adult life trying to forget the torment she suffered at the hands of her twisted twin Mary… but Mary hasn’t forgotten. Escaping hospital, where she’s recently been admitted with a horrific, disfiguring illness, Julia’s sadistic sister vows to exact a particularly cruel revenge on her sibling this year – promising a birthday surprise that she’ll never forget.
An Italian production shot entirely in Savannah, Georgia, Madhouse (aka And When She Was Bad and There Was a Little Girl) fuses slasher elements with the over-the-top excess of...
Ovidio Assonitis’ Madhouse (1981) will be available on Blu-ray June 12th From Arrow Video
Helmed by legendary producer/director Ovidio Assonitis, the man behind such cult favourites as The Visitor and Piranha II: The Spawning, Madhouse is a crimson-soaked tale of sibling rivalry taken to a terrifying and bloody extreme.
Julia has spent her entire adult life trying to forget the torment she suffered at the hands of her twisted twin Mary… but Mary hasn’t forgotten. Escaping hospital, where she’s recently been admitted with a horrific, disfiguring illness, Julia’s sadistic sister vows to exact a particularly cruel revenge on her sibling this year – promising a birthday surprise that she’ll never forget.
An Italian production shot entirely in Savannah, Georgia, Madhouse (aka And When She Was Bad and There Was a Little Girl) fuses slasher elements with the over-the-top excess of...
- 5/31/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Horror Channel has eight prime-time weekend film premieres in June including the UK premieres of Retreat, Carl Tibbets’ ‘ménage a trois of terror’ starring Thandie Newton, Cillian Murphy and Jamie Bell and R.D. Braunstein’s smartly gripping I Spit On Your Grave 3: Vengeance Is Mine – widely seen as the best of the series.
There are also network premieres for Jennifer Lynch’s uncompromising and dark chiller Chained, William Malone’s gruesome cyber thriller Feardotcom, starring Stephen Dorff and Natascha McElhone and Michael Reeves’s highly acclaimed Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price.
In a deadly virus catching month, other highlights are first channel showings for John Pogue’s [Rec] inspired scareline Quarantine 2: Terminal, Breck Eisner’s critically-acclaimed remake of George Romero’s 1973 movie, The Crazies and James Cameron’s directorial debut Piranha 2: The Spawning starring Lance Henriksen and plenty of flying killer fish.
Fri 2 June @ 21:00 – Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) *Network Premiere*
A bizarre disease,...
There are also network premieres for Jennifer Lynch’s uncompromising and dark chiller Chained, William Malone’s gruesome cyber thriller Feardotcom, starring Stephen Dorff and Natascha McElhone and Michael Reeves’s highly acclaimed Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price.
In a deadly virus catching month, other highlights are first channel showings for John Pogue’s [Rec] inspired scareline Quarantine 2: Terminal, Breck Eisner’s critically-acclaimed remake of George Romero’s 1973 movie, The Crazies and James Cameron’s directorial debut Piranha 2: The Spawning starring Lance Henriksen and plenty of flying killer fish.
Fri 2 June @ 21:00 – Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) *Network Premiere*
A bizarre disease,...
- 5/18/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Arrow Video is already looking to make this a summer to remember for fans of Italian horror, as they recently revealed that their June Blu-ray / DVD releases will include Ovidio Assonitis' Madhouse (1981) and Dario Argento's first feature film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
From Arrow Video: "New UK/Us Title: Madhouse (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD)
Fuses slasher elements with the over-the-top excess of ‘80s Italian terror.
Pre-order your copy in the UK: http://bit.ly/2nN0nOK
North American pre-orders links should be live soon!
Release Dates: 12/13 June 2017
Many People Visit … No One Ever Leaves.
Helmed by legendary producer/director Ovidio Assonitis, the man behind such cult favourites as The Visitor and Piranha II: The Spawning, Madhouse is a crimson-soaked tale of sibling rivalry taken to a terrifying and bloody extreme.
Julia has spent her entire adult life trying to forget the torment she suffered at...
From Arrow Video: "New UK/Us Title: Madhouse (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD)
Fuses slasher elements with the over-the-top excess of ‘80s Italian terror.
Pre-order your copy in the UK: http://bit.ly/2nN0nOK
North American pre-orders links should be live soon!
Release Dates: 12/13 June 2017
Many People Visit … No One Ever Leaves.
Helmed by legendary producer/director Ovidio Assonitis, the man behind such cult favourites as The Visitor and Piranha II: The Spawning, Madhouse is a crimson-soaked tale of sibling rivalry taken to a terrifying and bloody extreme.
Julia has spent her entire adult life trying to forget the torment she suffered at...
- 3/24/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Released when he was just 32, James Cameron's The Terminator immediately established him as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. The sci-fi thriller, made for an estimated $6.4 million, earned more than $80 million worldwide, an enviable return on investment for a movie that wasn't made for a major studio. Cameron, who worked initially as an art director, production designer and special visual effects artist before making his directorial debut on Piranha II: The Spawning, quickly lined up a big-budget sequel, Aliens, which took the horror premise of the original and transformed it into a rockin' action movie that made more than $131 million worldwide, a huge figure at the time. Terminator 2: Judgment Day flipped the original's premise by making Arnold...
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- 1/23/2017
- by Peter Martin
- Movies.com
Released when he was just 32, James Cameron's The Terminator immediately established him as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. The sci-fi thriller, made for an estimated $6.4 million, earned more than $80 million worldwide, an enviable return on investment for a movie that wasn't made for a major studio. Cameron, who worked initially as an art director, production designer and special visual effects artist before making his directorial debut on Piranha II: The Spawning,...
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- 1/23/2017
- by affiliates@fandango.com
- Fandango
James Cameron's superb spacemen vs. monsters siege battle epic is back in a reissue with an extra collector goodie or two, still looking good on Blu-ray for its 30th Anniversary. And that heroine Ripley is still the most combat-worthy space cadet in the galaxy. Aliens 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Fox Home Entertainment 1986 / Color / 2:35 1:85 widescreen 1:37 flat full frame / 137, 154 min. / Street Date September 13, 2016 / 24.99 Starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, William Hope, Jenette Goldstein, Al Matthews, Mark Rolston, Ricco Ross, Colette Hiller, Daniel Kash, Cynthia Scott. Cinematography Adrian Biddle Film Editor Ray Lovejoy Original Music James Horner Written by James Cameron, story by Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill from characters by Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett Produced by Gale Ann Hurd Directed by James Cameron
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I know I'm in a minority when I confess that I had little use...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I know I'm in a minority when I confess that I had little use...
- 9/17/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Before crafting a sequel to his own The Terminator, writer/director James Cameron made a career out of making sequels to other filmmakers’ projects. The man who would brings us Avatar, True Lies and Titanic began his career as the writer/director of Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, but he would follow it by having the same […]
The post James Cameron Explains How He Wrote ‘Aliens’ and ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’ At The Same Time appeared first on /Film.
The post James Cameron Explains How He Wrote ‘Aliens’ and ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’ At The Same Time appeared first on /Film.
- 9/16/2016
- by Ethan Anderton
- Slash Film
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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aliens, we look at one of its very best performances - Lance Henriksen’s gentle android, Bishop...
When cinema-goers queued up to see Aliens in 1986, seven years had already passed since its predecessor, Alien. While a follow-up to the 79 hit had been discussed at Fox for years, it took James Cameron to finally bring it to fruition - and it’s fair to say that he created something far more than a typical sequel of the era.
Where franchises like Halloween, Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street largely followed the template established by the first film, Cameron attempted something vastly more ambitious: a continuation and expansion of Ridley Scott’s classic, a second chapter in its resourceful heroine Ripley’s story - one where she’s transformed from traumatised survivor to avenging warrior.
Much has been written about the brilliance of Aliens,...
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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aliens, we look at one of its very best performances - Lance Henriksen’s gentle android, Bishop...
When cinema-goers queued up to see Aliens in 1986, seven years had already passed since its predecessor, Alien. While a follow-up to the 79 hit had been discussed at Fox for years, it took James Cameron to finally bring it to fruition - and it’s fair to say that he created something far more than a typical sequel of the era.
Where franchises like Halloween, Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street largely followed the template established by the first film, Cameron attempted something vastly more ambitious: a continuation and expansion of Ridley Scott’s classic, a second chapter in its resourceful heroine Ripley’s story - one where she’s transformed from traumatised survivor to avenging warrior.
Much has been written about the brilliance of Aliens,...
- 6/20/2016
- Den of Geek
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It’s 6 years since the release of Avatar, and still no sequel. Ryan considers the disappearance of a great mainstream filmmaker.
James Cameron was just 24 years old when he borrowed a small sum of money from a bunch of dentists and made his first film, Xenogenesis. Just 12 minutes long, the 1978 movie was a humble yet significant beginning for the young filmmaker.
The sci-fi short landed Cameron's first job in the film industry: devising practical effects for Roger Corman. Xenogenesis was the first proper collaboration between Cameron and Willliam Wisher, who’d later write the screenplay for Terminator 2. About a battle between man and giant killing machine, Xenogenesis contained numerous elements that Cameron would revisit in his subsequent movies. The giant killer robot looks uncannily like a Hunter Killer from The Terminator. Xenogenesis’s tough heroine bears more than a passing resemblance to one Ellen Ripley, whose fate...
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It’s 6 years since the release of Avatar, and still no sequel. Ryan considers the disappearance of a great mainstream filmmaker.
James Cameron was just 24 years old when he borrowed a small sum of money from a bunch of dentists and made his first film, Xenogenesis. Just 12 minutes long, the 1978 movie was a humble yet significant beginning for the young filmmaker.
The sci-fi short landed Cameron's first job in the film industry: devising practical effects for Roger Corman. Xenogenesis was the first proper collaboration between Cameron and Willliam Wisher, who’d later write the screenplay for Terminator 2. About a battle between man and giant killing machine, Xenogenesis contained numerous elements that Cameron would revisit in his subsequent movies. The giant killer robot looks uncannily like a Hunter Killer from The Terminator. Xenogenesis’s tough heroine bears more than a passing resemblance to one Ellen Ripley, whose fate...
- 4/15/2016
- Den of Geek
James Cameron might not be the most prolific of the kings of big screen spectacle, but his filmography is certainly among the highest grossing of all time. Heck, as of right now, the top two highest grossing films at the domestic box office (discounting inflation) are his. “Avatar” remains firmly secure in the number one spot with $760.5M, a full $100M more than his second place “Titanic.” (Because it’s always fun to look at numbers, if you adjust for inflation, “Avatar” drops to 14th, while “Titanic” actually surges ahead of it, coming in at fifth.) A new four-minute supercut from Vimeo user Martin Kessler showcases why Cameron’s films are so successful, a collective achievement made doubly impressive by the fact that the writer-director has only eight narrative features under his belt, dating way back to “Piranha Part Two: The Spawning” in 1981 (and who could forget that?). Watching the video,...
- 8/14/2015
- by Zach Hollwedel
- The Playlist
With Terminator Genisys on the way, Ryan analyses what might just be the most powerful shot in James Cameron's The Terminator...
"...the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight..."
You can tell a lot about how effective a movie scene is by watching it again with the sound turned off. Stripped of its dialogue, sound effects and music, can the sequence still communicate its message?
James Cameron's The Terminator, blessed though it is with a superb score by Brad Fiedel and numerous quotable lines, could work almost as well as a silent movie. So much of Cameron's feature debut (discounting Piranha II: The Spawning, from which he was fired after just two weeks) is told through body language and skilful shot composition.
Watch The Terminator's opening again without sound, and you'll see just how effective and lean its visual storytelling is.
"...the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight..."
You can tell a lot about how effective a movie scene is by watching it again with the sound turned off. Stripped of its dialogue, sound effects and music, can the sequence still communicate its message?
James Cameron's The Terminator, blessed though it is with a superb score by Brad Fiedel and numerous quotable lines, could work almost as well as a silent movie. So much of Cameron's feature debut (discounting Piranha II: The Spawning, from which he was fired after just two weeks) is told through body language and skilful shot composition.
Watch The Terminator's opening again without sound, and you'll see just how effective and lean its visual storytelling is.
- 6/29/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
From his psychological thriller to Spider-Man to Battle Angel, here's a look at the James Cameron-directed projects that never happened...
In the summer of 1977, James Cameron, like lots of other people that year, went to the cinema and watched Star Wars. But unlike so many others, Cameron didn't feel elation as the room went dark and the first space ship soared overhead - he felt a shiver of mild panic.
"My reaction to it was not, 'Oh, wow, that's cool. I want to see more,'" he later recalled. "It was, 'Oh wow, I better get off my butt because somebody is doing this stuff, you know, and they're beating me to it.'"
Within one year, the 24-year-old Cameron had borrowed some money from a consortium of dentists looking for a tax break, and with it, made the short film Xenogenesis. That film and its title (which could...
In the summer of 1977, James Cameron, like lots of other people that year, went to the cinema and watched Star Wars. But unlike so many others, Cameron didn't feel elation as the room went dark and the first space ship soared overhead - he felt a shiver of mild panic.
"My reaction to it was not, 'Oh, wow, that's cool. I want to see more,'" he later recalled. "It was, 'Oh wow, I better get off my butt because somebody is doing this stuff, you know, and they're beating me to it.'"
Within one year, the 24-year-old Cameron had borrowed some money from a consortium of dentists looking for a tax break, and with it, made the short film Xenogenesis. That film and its title (which could...
- 2/3/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
20th Century Fox
Love or hate his movies, no-one could argue that James Cameron is anything but ambitious. Cameron has directed cinematic classics like The Terminator, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, along with record-breaking blockbusters such as Titanic and Avatar. Not everything he undertakes turns out to be a critical success, but it’s hard to deny the man’s vision.
Cameron worked as a truck driver in the ’70s, but quit his job after watching the original Star Wars, in order to work in the film industry. He’d become passionate about special effects during his truck driving days, often going to the USC library in order to read papers about film technology.
James Cameron’s very first foray into cinema was a short, low budget film called Xenogenesis, where he acted as the writer, director and producer. Soon after, he gained a number of jobs as an...
Love or hate his movies, no-one could argue that James Cameron is anything but ambitious. Cameron has directed cinematic classics like The Terminator, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, along with record-breaking blockbusters such as Titanic and Avatar. Not everything he undertakes turns out to be a critical success, but it’s hard to deny the man’s vision.
Cameron worked as a truck driver in the ’70s, but quit his job after watching the original Star Wars, in order to work in the film industry. He’d become passionate about special effects during his truck driving days, often going to the USC library in order to read papers about film technology.
James Cameron’s very first foray into cinema was a short, low budget film called Xenogenesis, where he acted as the writer, director and producer. Soon after, he gained a number of jobs as an...
- 12/19/2014
- by Tom Butler
- Obsessed with Film
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