JAMES CAMERON

Started by modage, June 19, 2003, 01:30:18 PM

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MacGuffin

EXCLUSIVE: 'Fantastic Voyage' Is The Secret James Cameron/Shane Salerno Collaboration You've Been Hearing About
Source: MTV

In the early AM hours on December 9, an attention-grabbing tweet popped up in the Twitter feed for Production Weekly: "James Cameron is developing a Shane Salerno-scripted sci-fi action script for Fox, described as an "event" film set in the future." Speculation immediately ran wild that said project was "Doomsday Protocol," a pitch Salerno sold to Fox last year that was described as being a sort of space-based take on Akira Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai."

It turns out that this is not the case. MTV News' Josh Horowitz spoke with Cameron and producer Jon Landau on the red carpet at the London premiere of "Avatar," and the project in question has nothing to do with space-age samurai. The actual plan is to remake sci-fi classic "Fantastic Voyage," in 3-D, with Cameron taking on the role of producer.

In the original, a small team attempts to save the life of a nearly-assassinated diplomat through a uniquely invasive surgical procedure. The magic of science allows the doctors to be shrunken down to microscopic size and injected into the ailing diplomat's body. Piloting a specialized submersible craft -- also tiny -- the team attempts to repair with the diplomat's condition -- a blood clot in his brain -- on a cellular level.

The original hit theaters in 1966, long before digital effects were a factor in Hollywood filmmaking. One can only imagine how cool (and gooey) the diplomat's computer generated innards could be made to look with today's techniques. Add 3-D to that mix and... well... count me as excited. Stay tuned to MTV.com for additional updates... more to come when the Movies team returns from their trip across the Atlantic.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

James Cameron Options The Last Train From Hiroshima
Source: Variety

Avatar director James Cameron has optioned Charles Pellegrino's upcoming nonfiction novel "The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back."

On the promo tour in Japan for Avatar in December, Cameron visited Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the last survivors of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. Yamaguchi died Monday at the age of 93.

The following is a description of the book:

Drawing on the voices of atomic-bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices detonated over Japan changed life on Earth forever

Last Train from Hiroshima offers readers a stunning "you are there" time capsule, gracefully wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb's survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.

At the narrative's core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground and the American flyers in the air. Thirty people are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of the cataclysm at ground zero both times. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell in which Yamaguchi had been standing, placing him and a few others in a shock coccoon that offered protection, while the entire building disappeared around them.

Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the "official report," showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Pubrick

Quote from: MacGuffin on January 08, 2010, 12:39:38 AM

At the narrative's core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground and the American flyers in the air. Thirty people are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of the cataclysm at ground zero both times. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell in which Yamaguchi had been standing, placing him and a few others in a shock coccoon that offered protection, while the entire building disappeared around them.


oh my god.

and the fact that James Cameron spoke to the dude a month before he died just makes it even more amazing. like a real life Titanic story but with the old japanese dude playing the old woman and then she dies after she told the story to the one person who would make sure it gets told to the whole world.

this is just the most absolutely unique story, up there with being the first man on the moon but i would say better. it's so good i almost wish a better director was doing it. and by better i mean cameron just makes too many mistakes and squanders otherwise brilliant ideas -- he has GREAT taste in ideas, and this could be the very best he has ever stolen. it not only MUST be told, it feels like he's the perfect person for it because it follows the themes he has been developing since he began his messiah phase. those being:

the creation of myth: the idea of the story being told, period, is the great idea of Titanic beyond the spectacle: the bringing to life of something that existed only briefly but whose existence can be used as a great metaphor for great concepts. in the backstory that i explained above, meeting the old dude RIGHT before he croaked must be compelling enough to push this to cameron's top-of-the-pile in his upcoming projects and it's real world urgency will have to make him get his shit together.

on a related a side note, in this article the japanese dude is quoted as saying this after meeting Cameron and the author of the book: "I think it's Cameron's and Pellegrino's destiny to make a film about nuclear weapons,". my other minimal research about the dude (there's lots of obituary articles out there), reveals that he was happy to be recognized as a Nagasaki survivor and didn't care about getting Hiroshima recognition until last year when he applied and got the government to acknowleged he was a twofer -- the reason being he is consciously aware that official recognition means his story MUST be told and the inherent lesson MUST be passed on as a matter of public record. the idea i'm hammering is the storytelling aspect is huge, and that's what the dude was, the mayor of nagasaki said that they'd lost a great storyteller when he passed.

nuclear-disarmament: the beauty of this story is that this person (and 164 others apparently, but it's important that he's the only officially recognized survivor of both bombs) lived basically the existence of the modern world over a three day period. that is he felt the first bomb and did not think of the possibility of getting hit again. the modern world has forgotten, since the end of the cold war, the reality of nuclear war. we all live in the shadow of it, but we've seriously forgotten what nuclear annihilation could be. the human cost of war will always be abstract in the modern televised warfare era, since vietnam basically, but it's still possible to understand the concept from a more common/likely role of the civilian casualty.

RIGHT NOW i think is the best time to strike with this message, since the whole world has gone soft.

Cameron's judgment day: a great theme to tackle now is the apocalyptic vision, see The Road, Book of Eli, 2012, anything like that. Avatar assumes a post-apocalyptic background of earth, it assumes the world has gone to shit, but it wasn't the main point and in fact kind of suffered because of the naive view it take as a necessity to push the reality and utopia of Pandora. this could be a great maturation for JC (still in messianic phase, of course, this film is once again about a resurrection/redemption).

pro-human: but through a foreign avatar! another great possibility is the modern lack of instant antagonism against the japanese, but also the fact that historically they have always been one of the most harcore xenophobic nations in the world. in this sense Cameron would be telling a hugely relevant human story through a foreign former war enemy (ideologically speaking more than anything.) so play that against avatar, we're rooting for the enemy, that's one thing, but not for a cute role reversal -- and more important unlike avatar -- not to defeat OUR KIND, but to survive against our own evil (ideologically and historically speaking). dropping the bomb was a war crime, clear and simple, it was a crime against humanity, but we won so who gives a shit.

well the winner needs to be our humanity, i think that's why this film is important.
under the paving stones.

Stefen

You said it. It's so good a better director should be doing it. Cameron will make it a spectacle but his dumbass will add a love story, Billy Badasses and Rock Em' Sock Em' robots, probably.

A story like this should go to someone who will put the amazing story of this man at the forefront and not let tinkering with new toys take overall precedence. Unfortunately, I feel Camerons meeting with the man ties him as the only person allowed to touch this for the rest of it's life.

You listed great reasons why Cameron could fit but who else would fit?
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

RegularKarate

Cameron optioned it, but do we know he doesn't just want to produce it?

Pubrick

Quote from: RegularKarate on January 08, 2010, 10:51:01 AM
Cameron optioned it, but do we know he doesn't just want to produce it?

seriously doubt it.

that would be a great shame. he might hav to end up palming it off to some other douche bag if he keeps taking forever with projects. but the only real reason i can see that he wouldn't direct is if he respected the story too much to make it 3D and if that clashed with some rule he made for himself that he could only ever make films if they were in 3D, like the foolish pact lynch made with prosumer-level video equipment.

on the other hand, it could still work out if he did have a stupid rule like that. he's pretty much the only person with the clout right now to try to push 3D in a way that still hasn't been considered, and that's to use it on a serious subject. if he really believes that 3D can represent reality in a more vivid way than ever before then it makes sense that this subject (most serious ever, sorry holocaust) would be the top candidate to bring an actual new consciousness to the reality of nuclear war.
under the paving stones.

Alexandro

sounds like an awesome film. cameron can do it and i think he may want to try a different approach this time, as in "not dumbed down for the masses".

Gold Trumpet

In the hands of any other major filmmaker, I would have been disgusted with the idea, but Cameron had both the pull and conscience to make this something epic and thoroughly honor history and artistic recreation, but all of that may be in doubt because this could be the beginning of what will be a controversy that not even Cameron wants to deal with.

Bang Goes Cameron's Hiroshima Plan
Book pulled, author's facts in question
Source: Variety


Fate has just chucked a rather large spanner in the works of James Cameron's future plans, not to mention the past associations he's had with author Charles Pellegrino. What's the problem? Pellegrino's historical tome The Last Train From Hiroshima is now being seriously disputed - and yanked from publication.

Despite gathering great reviews and healthy early sales, Pellegrino's publishers, Henry Holt, have decided to halt the book's run after questions were raised by the Associated Press about one of his interview subjects, who falsely claimed to have been on board the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic weapon on Hiroshima. That has led to a deeper investigation into the two main figures in the book, Father Mattias, who allegedly lived in the city at the time of the bombing and John MacQuitty, who oversaw his funeral.

Plus, doubts are beginning to arise over Pellegrino's own veracity, with claims to him receiving a PhD from Victoria University in New Zealand also seeming to lack proof.

"It is easy to understand how even the most diligent author could be duped by a source, but we also understand that opens that book to very detailed scrutiny," said the publisher's statement. "The author of any work of nonfiction must stand behind its content. We must rely on our authors to answer questions that may arise as to the accuracy of their work and reliability of their sources. Unfortunately, Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction."

Which brings us to James Cameron, who has collaborated with Pellegrino on Titanic projects and a controversial claim in 2007's The Jesus Famly Tomb that a burial site for Christ and some family members had been found in Jerusalem. Cameron wrote the introduction to the Tomb book and for Last Train, which he'd announced he was considering as a future film project. Yeah... We don't see that happening now.

This is one that will run and run – but given Cameron's usual smarts, we wonder how he fell for Pellegrino's seemingly bogus research.

Finally, Pellegrino worked as an "advisor" on Avatar. Which makes us seriously re-think our idea that the Na'vi are a real people. We feel so betrayed...

MacGuffin

Debunked atom bomb book selling on Amazon

NEW YORK - The debunking of a book about the atomic bombing of Japan seems to have made it more popular.

As of Tuesday morning, Charles Pellegrino's "Last Train from Hiroshima" ranked No. 78 on Amazon.com . It was in the 200s on Monday when Henry Holt and Company, responding to questions raised by The Associated Press, halted publication.

While the book continues to sell on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Inc. said Tuesday it was pulling all its copies. Holt is no longer printing or shipping "Last Train," but said it was leaving the decision to retailers whether to sell existing books.

Film rights for the book, released in January, have been acquired by "Avatar" director James Cameron. Pellegrino served as an adviser for "Avatar," the box-office champ that has been nominated for nine Academy Awards.

According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks around 75 percent of industry sales, Pellegrino's book has sold 7,000 copies, including 1,000 in the week leading up to Monday's announcement. Pellegrino acknowledged a week and a half ago that he had been misled by a source who claimed to have flown on a plane accompanying the Enola Gay, from which an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. He apologized and promised to correct the text.

When first released, "The Last Train from Hiroshima" received high praise from The New York Times' Dwight Garner, who called it a "sober and authoritative new book" and a "gleaming, popular wartime history." Pellegrino first acknowledged flaws in the book when he told the Times last month that he had been misled by Joseph Fuoco, who had claimed he was a last-minute replacement for flight engineer James R. Corliss.

"Charlie's faulty source clearly used elaborate deception to create a false account," Cameron said in an e-mail to the AP.

But the AP raised additional questions, including one about the existence of a Father Mattias (the first name is not given), who supposedly lived in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing and committed suicide, and John MacQuitty, identified as a Jesuit scholar who presided over Mattias' funeral. Holt said Monday that Pellegrino did not offer a satisfactory answer.

Pellegrino, in an e-mail sent to the AP on Monday night, said he had used pseudonyms to protect the identity of the men.

Holt publicist Nicole Dewey declined comment Monday on whether "Last Train" had been fact-checked. Publishers traditionally review manuscripts for possible legal problems, but have resisted calls to fact-check nonfiction works, saying the process is too expensive and time-consuming.

The author also responded to questions about his education. Pellegrino's Web site, http://www.charlespellegrino.com , lists him as having a Ph.D. from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The school said it has no such record. Pellegrino said that his degree was revoked over a dispute on evolutionary theory.

Pellegrino's Web site also says he was a "founding member" of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, an organization started soon after the 1986 shuttle tragedy. Center spokesman Rob Cork said Tuesday that Pellegrino has never served on the board of directors and that there is no record of his giving money.

"Now, we have been in existence for nearly 24 years, and we do have nearly 50 Challenger Learning Center locations around the world, and he may have made a donation at some point," Cork said.

Cameron wrote introductions for Pellegrino's "Ghosts of the Titanic," published in 2000, and for the controversial 2007 release "The Jesus Family Tomb," co-authored by Pellegrino and strongly questioned by scholars for its assertion that a tomb discovered in Jerusalem contained the remains of Jesus and possible family members.

"All I know is that Charlie would not fabricate, so there must be a reason for the misunderstanding," Cameron said.

Cameron said he does not have a shooting script for the Hiroshima film project and "no decision has been made to proceed in the short term." He added that his decision about the project would not be influenced "by the issue of a single flawed source," and when he does move forward, he "would be a fool to ignore the rich vein of eyewitness testimony, so painstakingly gathered, that exists in 'Last Train from Hiroshima.'"

Pellegrino, 56, has also written science fiction and magazine articles. A piece he wrote for Omni magazine in 1985 is widely credited as an early examination of whether the DNA of flies preserved from prehistoric times might include information about dinosaurs, a theory amplified in Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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hedwig

this afternoon in a thrift store, i came across an expensive out-of-print book called 3 Dimension Sound Motion Pictures: Wide Film Motion Pictures. it's a booklength love-letter to 3D film technology, published in 1953. oddly enough, it was written by a dude named JAMES CAMERON. due to the uncanny resemblance, it's nearly impossible to yield search results on the 50s Cameron. i could not find any pics or information online apart from a mention on this website. who knew?

Neil

Quote from: hedwig on March 02, 2010, 09:58:30 PM
this afternoon in a thrift store, i came across an expensive out-of-print book called 3 Dimension Sound Motion Pictures: Wide Film Motion Pictures. it's a booklength love-letter to 3D film technology, published in 1953. oddly enough, it was written by a dude named JAMES CAMERON. due to the uncanny resemblance, it's nearly impossible to yield search results on the 50s Cameron. i could not find any pics or information online apart from a mention on this website. who knew?

Sounds like an episode of Lost.
it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

MacGuffin

'Avatar' sequel could be Cameron's next film
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

James Cameron expects to release his next film in three to four years, and it may be the "Avatar" sequel that News Corp. executives have previously said they have discussed with him.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Cameron told the All Things Digital conference on Wednesday that his next movie could also be "some other big film" that uses 3D. He wants to push 3D technology to new levels with whatever project is next.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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The Perineum Falcon

The U.S. Government Is Running Short On Ideas: James Cameron Asked For Advice On How To Clean Up The Oil Spill
via: The Playlist

While gallons upon gallons of oil continue to wash up on shore, leak into the ocean and pretty much destroy everything in its path, Washington is busy meeting with Academy Award winning directors.

In what is being described as "part of the federal government's ongoing efforts to hear from stakeholders, scientists and experts from academia, government and the private sector as we continue to respond to the BP oil spill," director James Cameron took part in a meeting with "more than 20 top scientists, engineers and technical experts" on Tuesday to talk about ideas to help plug the oil. But, c'mon, seriously?

Is it just us or does Cameron's involvement just make things more worrying that no one has a goddamn clue how to minimize the damage and stop the oil from continuing to empty in the Gulf. We're sure there are other serious, real deal engineers, environmental experts and other scientist types whose input would be far more valuable than whatever Cameron has to add to the conversation. Not to slag Cameron -- because he's a very intelligent, tech savvy guy who has spent more time than most people below sea level -- but we don't think the solution in either the short or long term is going to be coming from him.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Pas

Haha this is ridiculous. Have they asked Rihanna, she comes from some island so she knows a lot about the ocean and swimming and shit.

This Obama administration is OBSESSED with celebrities. Everyday you see some fucking news about Obama meeting XYZ actress/singer/band. Obama comments on LeBron James free agency, Obama comments on the Tiger Woods scandal, Obama jokes about the Jonas Brothers. Just go to work man.

Alexandro

This is a more accurate report of what happened.

James Cameron's Oil-Spill Brainstorming Session: "It Was Time to Sound the Horn"
by Rebecca Keegan June 3, 2010, 10:25 AM

The natural reaction to hearing that Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron is helping stanch the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history is to contemplate just how screwed we really are. Blasting mud and garbage into the Gulf of Mexico didn't plug BP's leak, and the diamond-saw wielding underwater robots are having trouble, so we're turning to... Hollywood?

But this crisis casting is not as ludicrous as it sounds. Cameron, an aquatic gearhead with more than 2,500 hours logged underwater, owns his own fleet of submersibles and ocean-ready robots. This week, drawing on his contacts in the deep-sea science world, the director convened a meeting of more than 20 scientists and engineers in Washington to brainstorm fixes for the leak.

"I know a lot of smart people who regularly work a whole lot deeper than that well," says Cameron, referring to BP's 5,000-foot gusher. "I figured this group of top sub guys and deep-ocean scientists and engineers could maybe come up with something constructive." The director did not, as many news outlets reported, respond to a call from the Environmental Protection Agency, but rather organized the meeting himself, and invited government bodies including the E.P.A., the Department of Energy, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coast Guard to participate.

Cameron says he first contacted BP a month ago, but was told they had the crisis handled. "I didn't want to be another well-meaning idiot with a bunch of suggestions," Cameron says. "But when the situation went on without a resolution, I figured the guys I knew had to be as smart as the engineers at BP, so it was time to sound the horn."

Tuesday's 10-hour engineering brainstorming session included representatives from the federal agencies, as well as Anatoly Sagalevich, the Russian Mir sub pilot who first took Cameron to the Titanic; oceanic explorer Joe MacInnis, who participated in Cameron's deep-sea documentary Aliens of the Deep; professors from the Universities of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara; Navy salvage contractors; and Cameron's brother, Mike, an engineer with whom the director built a pair of mini remotely operated underwater vehicles (R.O.V.) that explored the Titanic wreck. The group made recommendations to various agencies, which will funnel them to BP. "It was fertile," Cameron says.

The director's diving hobby first took on a professional seriousness during the filming of his 1989 movie The Abyss, which takes place, coincidentally, on an underwater oil-drilling rig. For that film, he built the world's largest underwater set in a flooded nuclear reactor in South Carolina, and he and Mike earned patents for underwater equipment. For Titanic, Cameron dove down to the real wreck, and returned later, with his mini R.O.V.'s, to shoot the documentary Ghosts of the Abyss. Subsequent deep dives included trips to the wreck of the German World War II battleship Bismarck, at more than 15,000 feet, and to the deep ocean's hydrothermal vents. Cameron has recently been at work on a one-man submersible designed to take him to the deepest point in the world's oceans, the Mariana Trench. The last manned vessel to reach the 36,000-foot abyss was a U.S. Navy boat, in 1960.

Cameron's fictional ideas have eerie parallels to the current environmental crisis caused by BP's oil leak. In Avatar, which takes place in the year 2154 on the alien moon Pandora, the evil RDA Corporation is ruinously mining the lush jungle environment for a precious mineral called unobtainium. Cameron says he plans to set his Avatar sequel primarily in Pandora's oceans. If the director is looking for a nice, man-made catastrophe to motivate his hero, there's always the possibility of a leak of RDA's offshore unobtainium mine. For that disaster at least, Cameron could guarantee a happy ending.

—Rebecca Keegan is the author of The Futurist, The Life and Films of James Cameron

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/06/james-camerons-oil-spill-brainstorming-session-it-was-time-to-sound-the-horn.html