T R I V I A
*Daughter, with Hamilton, Josephine Archer Cameron born. [15 February 1993]
*Brother of Mike Cameron.
*According to Cameron, he got his big break while doing pick-up shots for Galaxy
of Terror (1981) as 2nd unit director. He was shooting scenes of a dismembered
arm teeming with maggots (actually mealworms). In order to make them move, he
hooked up an AC power cord to the arm, and an unseen assistant would plug it in
when the film was rolling. Two producers were strolling through, and when
Cameron yelled "Action!" the worms began to writhe on cue. When he yelled "Cut!"
the worms stopped. The producers were so amazed at his directing prowess that
they began talking with him about bigger projects.
*His production company is 'Lightstorm Entertainment'.
*One of the founders of visual effects company 'Digital Domain'.
*While editing Titanic (1997) Cameron had a razor blade taped to the side of the
editing computer with the instructions written underneath: "Use only if film
sucks!"
*Jokingly refers to Titanic (1997) as his 190 Million Dollar "Chick Flick".
*First director to film both a $100 million (_Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(1991)and a $200 million (Titanic (1997)) movie.
*Cameron is in talks with RKK Energia and MirCorp to pay his way on board the
Mir space station (or the ISS, should Mir be deorbited). He has been given the
medical green light, and has already ridden aboard the Ilushin-76 jet used to
train cosmonauts for space missions. [September 2000]
*Daughter Carol, with wife Suzy Amis, born. [4 April 2001]
*Has a stepdaughter, Lolita De Palma, from Gale Anne Hurd's marriage to Brian De
Palma.
*Has a stepson named Jasper, from Suzy Amis' marriage to Sam Robards.
*Went to elementary school in Chippawa, Ontario.
*His films frequently depict children in some kind of danger.
*First wife Sharon Williams got just $1,200 from Cameron in their divorce
settlement.
*The eldest of five children.
*The early script for Avatar was one off the scripts on Empire Magazine's "Twelve Greatest Unproduced Scripts In Hollywood" list.
*Security is provided by Gavin De Becker, author of "The Gift of Fear."
*He and Suzy Amis are owners of Childspot!, an early childhood center in
Wichita, Kansas which is operated by Suzy's sister, Rebecca Amis.
*Wrote a screenplay for Spider-Man (2002) movie, but was turned down by the
studios, due to the fact that his version of Spider-Man was "too violent". Sam
Raimi's version got the green light instead.
*Married one of his producers and two of his actresses.
*Has made 4 films involving water: The Abyss (1989), Titanic (1997), Expedition:
Bismarck (2002) (TV), and Ghosts of the Abyss (2003). The Dive will be his 5th movie involving water.
*His practice of testing his DPs by darkening the film originated on Aliens
(1986). Cameron wanted to use a particular type of film stock, but
cinematographer Dick Bush ignored him and used a different type. The end result
being that the footage shot ended up being unusably dark. After Bush was fired
due to an unrelated incident and Adrian Biddle took over, Cameron found some of
the film in a storage cupboard and had the camera operators use it instead of
the film Biddle had told them to use. Biddle noticed what was going on after the
first take, and compensated with extra lighting, hoping to hide his "mistake"
from Cameron, who owned up at the end of the day. Cameron later did the same to
Mikael Salomon on The Abyss (1989) and to Russell Carpenter on True Lies (1994).
*He is a huge Japanese
anime fan, and the releasing studios often uses his opinion about the film on
the DVD and VHS covers.
*On the 14 March 2004 episode of "Inside the Actors Studio" (1994), Kate Winslet
claimed her nude portrait for Leonardo DiCaprio in the Titanic (1997) was drawn
by Cameron. She also said the artist's hand shown in a close-up was Cameron's.
*The mandibles of the
Predator from Predator (1987) were his idea. One of only two people to have both
written and directed an Alien movie. The other is 'Paul W. S. Anderson' .
*Co-created the newly
high-definition video system with cinematographer Vince Pace that was recently
used to film Ghosts of the Abyss (2003).
*Got the nickname "Iron Jim" because of his stern, stubborn ways as a director.
*A magazine article written about him in the 1980s described how he had three
desks set up in his house. At one desk, he was writing the script to The
Terminator (1984), on another, he was finishing the script to Rambo: First Blood
Part II (1985) and on the third, he was writing Aliens (1986).
*Often uses a helicopter in his films.
*When he wrote an early script treatment for Spider-Man, he had the idea of
organic web-shooters. This was later included in Sam Raimi's film.
*Often likes to reuse some of his favorite actors, just like he likes to reuse the same teams for music, sci-fi and other departments. This is what you can call a "Cameron team". Some of them include
A C T O R S
BILL PAXTON
Appeared in: The Terminator (Punk), Aliens (Pvt. Hudson)
True Lies (Simon) , Titanic (Brock Lovett)
Ghosts Of The Abyss
MICHAEL BIEHN
The Terminator (Sgt. Reese), Aliens (Cpl. Hicks)
The Abyss (Lt. Coffey) , T2: Judgment Day (Sgt. Reese)
JENETTE GOLDSTEIN
Aliens (Pvt. Vasquez), T2: Judgment Day (Janelle/T-1000)
Titanic (Irish Mother)
LANCE HENRIKSEN
The Terminator (Detective Vukovich), Aliens (Bishop)
Expedition Bismarck (voiceover)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
The Terminator (Terminator) , T2: Judgment Day (Terminator T-800)
True Lies (Harry Tasker) , T2 3D: Battle Across Time (T-800)
SIGOURNEY WEAVER
Aliens (Ellen Ripley), Avatar (Grace Augustine)
F X D E P A R T M E N T
STAN WINSTON
Worked on: The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 2 3D: Battle Across Time, Avatar
VAN LING
Worked on: The Abyss, T2 (creative supervisor/visual effects coordinator), Titanic (visual effects supervisor)
Cameos in:
T2: Judgment Day (Cyberdyne Tech), Titanic (Chinese Man)
SKOTAK BROTHERS
Aliens, The Abyss, T2: Judgment Day, True Lies, T2 3D: Battle Across Time, Titanic
SHANE MAHAN AND JOHN ROSENGRANT
The Terminator, Aliens, T2: Judgment Day, Aliens
M U S I C D E P A R T M E N T
BRAD FIEDEL
The Terminator, T2: Judgment Day, T2 3D: Battle Across Time, True Lies
JAMES HORNER
Aliens, Titanic, Avatar
O T H E R
RANDALL FRAKES
The Terminator, Aliens, T2: Judgment Day, Titanic