James Cameron

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q42574: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by Wikidata joins them to Avatar: The Way of Water, which The 2022 Movie Draft credits them on.

Counted as director, the making department they hold the most credits in. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: Piranha II: The Spawning (1981); The Terminator (1984); Aliens (1986); The Abyss (1989); Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991); True Lies (1994); Titanic (1997); Avatar (2009); Avatar: The Way of Water (2022); Aliens of the Deep; Avatar and its sequels; Ghost of the Deep (Cameron documentary, as transcribed); Ghosts of the Abyss; Piranha II. Count them as writer (1 film), producer (1 film) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

The Wizard of Oz (1939): 2 lines

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: The Wizard of Oz ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar is described as a deep Wizard of Oz homage.
    “In case you were wondering, this is a deep wizard of a homage, among other things.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:42:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: The Wizard of Oz ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar is an original story but inspired by Oz and John Ford movies.
    “It's just like hugely inspired by not just the Wizard of Oz, but like lots of John Ford movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:53:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Titanic (1997): 2 lines, within their own work

  1. career (career) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar could only be made because Titanic gave Cameron the clout.
    “I'd never have gotten to make it if he hadn't made Titanic.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:09:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. verdict (verdict) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Titanic made Cameron so successful that Hollywood let him do anything.
    “needed to have this extraordinary amount of success over these decades to conceive an execute of something so crazy as Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:45:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Alien (1979): 1 line

  1. lineage (sequel / genre shift) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Alien ⇒ Aliens (the host's read). Cameron's sequel to Ridley Scott's film shifted the genre, which raised expectations for any follow-up.
    “some other fucking guy is coming in and making a sequel to Ridley Scott's movie.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien³ with Matt Singer (Ad-Free) · 0:50:21 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Aliens (1986): 1 line, within their own work

  1. craft (craft) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Making Aliens (a voiceless monster) is what let Cameron individualize the humans there and flip that in Avatar.
    “I wonder if he hadn't made aliens if he could have arrived at that.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:04:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Edgar Rice Burroughs: 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: Edgar Rice Burroughs ⇒ Avatar (the maker said so: Cameron's 1994 80-page treatment). Cameron's Avatar treatment drew on childhood sci-fi reading, Burroughs and Haggard.
    “drawing inspiration from, quote, every single science fiction book that he had read in his childhood, and also Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)

John Carter of Mars: 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: John Carter of Mars ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar reads like a John Carter of Mars style story.
    “Yeah, it's very like John Carter of Mars or whatever.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

John Ford: 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: John Ford ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Same line: Avatar draws on John Ford films and the history of movies.
    “lots of John Ford movies and you can see like the history of movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:53:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Twister (1996): 1 line

  1. industry (industry) · through Titanic (1997), which they directed: Twister ⇒ Titanic (the host's read). Twister started a playbook of putting not-yet-A-list leads in a spectacle, which Titanic and later Star Wars followed.
    “It became a playbook for it.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:54:01 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Avatar (2009): 3 lines, within their own work

  1. craft (craft) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Making Aliens (a voiceless monster) is what let Cameron individualize the humans there and flip that in Avatar.
    “I wonder if he hadn't made aliens if he could have arrived at that.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:04:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. career (career) · through Titanic (1997), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar could only be made because Titanic gave Cameron the clout.
    “I'd never have gotten to make it if he hadn't made Titanic.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:09:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. verdict (verdict) · through Titanic (1997), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Titanic made Cameron so successful that Hollywood let him do anything.
    “needed to have this extraordinary amount of success over these decades to conceive an execute of something so crazy as Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:45:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Alien 3 (1992): 2 lines

  1. lineage (sequel) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Alien 3 (the host's read). Alien 3 opens by wiping out the status quo that ended Aliens.
    “Seconds of this movie, it literally just burns the status quo established at the end of the last one.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien 3 · 0:21:41 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (sequel) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Alien 3 (the host's read). Alien 3 follows Aliens; watched back to back, Aliens ends on a new family that Alien 3 then kills.
    “you watch aliens and that has this ending of, you know, this new family that has been created.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien³ with Matt Singer (Ad-Free) · 0:30:17 · Matt Singer (0.40 sure it was them)

Alien: Covenant (2017): 2 lines

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Alien: Covenant (the host's read). The shoulder-mounted GoPro cameras are carried over from the Marines in Aliens.
    “which the Marines all have in aliens”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:40:52 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Alien: Covenant (the host's read). The loader and airlock set piece homages the power loader fight in Aliens.
    “But something about this feels closer to the power loader fight.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:55:53 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Black Adam (2022): 1 line

  1. lineage (ripoff) · through Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which they directed: Terminator 2: Judgment Day ⇒ Black Adam (the host's read). The Black Adam kid is called a straight John Connor ripoff, down to the skateboard and the catchphrase coaching.
    “It is a straight up John Connor ripoff.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Doctor Sleep · 1:18:46 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): 1 line

  1. craft (craft) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Captain America: The First Avenger (the host's read). The frozen-find cold open structurally echoes the discovery sequence that opens Aliens.
    “this is also actually very similar to is the opening of aliens.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Captain America: The First Avenger · 0:10:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023): 1 line

  1. lineage (callback) · through Titanic (1997), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Killers of the Flower Moon (the host's read). The car make-out scene is a funny Titanic callback.
    “I thought there was a really funny callback to Titanic when they're making out in the car.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Is Astounding · 0:35:48 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)

Leonardo DiCaprio: 1 line

  1. theme (rejects persona) · through Titanic (1997), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Leonardo DiCaprio (the host's read). His broken, dim characters read as a rejection of Jack in Titanic and the matinee-idol image.
    “maybe all of this is a one long rejection of Jack from Titanic”
    The Big Picture · ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Is Astounding · 0:27:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003): 1 line

  1. unmapped (shared-technology) · through Titanic (1997), which they directed: Titanic ⇒ Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (the host's read). The film exists because James Cameron's Mexican Titanic tank, with a gimbal, was still usable for the ship set.
    “James Cameron had done the legwork to build out the system to be able to basically shoot this on a gimbal in a tank of a proper set.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 1:30:47 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)

Neill Blomkamp's unmade Aliens sequel: 1 line

  1. lineage (unmade sequel) · through Aliens (1986), which they directed: Aliens ⇒ Neill Blomkamp's unmade Aliens sequel (the host's read). Blomkamp's unmade film would have followed Aliens directly.
    “an alien sequel that was a direct aliens sequel and ignoring everything that came after it”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien 3 · 0:32:21 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)

RoboCop (1987): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Avatar (2009), which they directed: Avatar ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read). The robot-waking sequence is beat for beat the first act of Avatar, down to testing the new body's powers.
    “It is crazy actually how much this sequence is like beat for beat, the Avatar, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:38:34 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Shazam! (2019): 1 line

  1. craft (craft) · through Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which they directed: Terminator 2: Judgment Day ⇒ Shazam! (the host's read). Fennessey asks whether an effects shot echoes the T-1000 reassembling in Terminator 2; Sandberg agrees he references other films.
    “this is basically that shot in Terminator 2, when the T 1000 gets, you know, comes back together and rises up”
    The Big Picture · 'Shazam!’ and the Future of the DCEU With David F. Sandberg | Interview · 0:26:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Directing (39) everyone in directing

Other (7) everyone in other

Writing (1) everyone in writing

Producing (1) everyone in producing

What was said about them, by kind

career (8)

  1. career (career): James Cameron → George Lucas. Blank Check got started trying to make sense of Lucas and what success did to him.
    “we realized what was really interesting to us was trying to make sense of George Lucas”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:03:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): James Cameron → M. Night Shyamalan. Blank Check's first three series were Shyamalan, the Wachowskis and Cameron Crowe, all with a rise and expensive follies arc.
    “And we did, the 1st 3 series we did were Shyamalan, the Wachowskis, and Cameron Crowe.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:05:04 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): James Cameron → Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick, Blank Check's current series, is most like Cameron in not missing when he gets going.
    “Who's more similar to Cameron and like when he gets going, he pretty much doesn't miss.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:06:00 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. career (career): James Cameron → Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cameron iconographed Arnold, among other leading players he elevated.
    “this is the man who portrayed Ripley and the Terminator and who increasingly iconographed Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:12:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. career (career): James Cameron → Leonardo DiCaprio. Cameron helped launch Leo.
    “he helped launch Leo.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:21:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. career (career): James Cameron → Sigourney Weaver. Cameron elevated Sigourney Weaver.
    “He elevated Sigourney, even.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:21:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. career (career): James Cameron → Linda Hamilton. Cameron is credited with elevating Linda Hamilton too.
    “Yeah, and Linda Hamilton.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:21:14 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  8. career (career): James Cameron → Francis Ford Coppola. Cameron's long-gestating Avatar is compared to Coppola's Megalopolis.
    “It's very similar Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola vibes”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:27:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

contrast (1)

  1. contrast (contrast): James Cameron → Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino promised early retirement; Cameron said he would never retire and was spending his prime years diving.
    “But Tarantino was talking about his long promise thing of, you know, I'll retire when I'm 50.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:28:23 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

industry (2)

  1. industry (industry): Avatar: The Way of Water → James Cameron. Doubters were wrong about Cameron with Titanic and Avatar, so don't count him out.
    “But underestimate James Cameron at your peril, because this is what happened with Titanic, and this is what happened with Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:09:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. industry (industry): Stanley Kubrick → James Cameron. Kubrick, like Cameron, would rather lose a film than lose control of how he makes it.
    “It's it's sort of the Cameron thing of like, what's a worse fate for him than not being able to make a movie is not being able to make a movie the way he wants to.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Paths of Glory with Sarah Marshall (Ad-Free) · 0:44:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

lineage (3)

  1. lineage (lineage): James Cameron → George Lucas. Cameron, like Lucas, conceived a new way to make movies and took years doing it.
    “and not unlike Lucas, another lodestar for your show.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:27:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage): James Cameron → Cecil B. DeMille. Cameron is called a domineering DeMille-style filmmaker yet made an anti-imperialist movie.
    “a classical, domineering, Cecil B. DeMille style megalomaniacal filmmaker.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:14:34 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (parallel origin story): James Cameron → David Fincher. Both lost control of a first film and reacted by vowing never to lose again; Cameron became a tyrant, Fincher says he will quit.
    “He like, I'm never fucking losing an argument ever again.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien 3 · 0:28:14 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

people (1)

  1. people (producer): Alita: Battle Angel → James Cameron. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by James Cameron, yet it is the least-discussed successful film of 2019.
    “It's a movie directed by Robert Rodriguez produced by James Cameron.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:39:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

unmapped (5)

  1. unmapped (action direction): Buster Keaton → James Cameron. As an action director Keaton is likened to James Cameron.
    “he's also like fucking James Cameron as an action director.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:51:04 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (development timing): James Cameron → Titanic. Cameron considered Apes before Titanic and lost interest when Titanic succeeded.
    “But it was one of those things where, like, Cameron was thinking about doing it before Titanic than when he thought Titanic was going to bomb.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Planet of the Apes with Matt Singer · 0:47:37 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. unmapped (4K controversy): True Lies → James Cameron. The new Cameron 4Ks frustrate people; True Lies and The Abyss look off.
    “the bigger controversy around this is the 4K, all the James Cameron movies.”
    The Big Picture · Physical Media Strikes Back With Tim Simons · 0:34:32 · Tim Simons (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. unmapped (time and resources): James Cameron → Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Van says Cameron spends 13 years on one franchise, so his film will look better than a Marvel release.
    “one movie, this guy's working 13 years on it.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:49:41 · Van Lathan (0.70 sure it was them)
  5. unmapped (hiring pattern): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → James Cameron. Jeunet was the Cameron-style pick of a director fresh off a breakout, unlike Scott or Fincher.
    “Janae is like the Cameron pick of like someone who just had a major breakout movie”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien 3 · 0:49:24 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)

verdict (1)

  1. verdict (verdict): James Cameron → M. Night Shyamalan. Avatar is a cilantro movie like late-period Shyamalan: you either get it or cannot stand it.
    “where it's like he's kind of become a cilantro filmmaker”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:24:06 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

what-if (1)

  1. what-if (what-if): James Cameron → Rocky. A joke that James Cameron could stop making Avatar movies and populate Rocky's crowd.
    “Maybe James Cameron could stop making Avatar movies and instead single-handedly populate the story.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:13:36 · Chris Ryan (0.35 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about James Cameron: Chris Ryan nicknamed Cameron Big Jim; the sea is dope.
    “As Chris once said, he thinks the sea is dope.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:28:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about James Cameron: Cameron said his gap was his prime deep-sea years and he will never retire.
    “I plan to die making films.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:28:38 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about James Cameron: Cameron got $10 million from Fox in 2005 to run R&D on Avatar and could have walked away.
    “Give me a year to just do R&D.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:29:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about James Cameron: Speaker calls Cameron the ultimate con artist whose con is real.
    “Like, he is the ultimate, like, con artist whose con is real.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:30:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about James Cameron: Told as a parallel: during Titanic, Cameron reportedly refused studio cuts.
    “the only way to change my movie is to fire me and the only way to fire me is to kill me.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Paths of Glory with Sarah Marshall (Ad-Free) · 0:42:51 · Sarah Marshall (0.50 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about James Cameron: Cameron required Avatar actors to hold their breath for five-minute takes.
    “I want to do 5 minute unbroken takes for things that are going to be entirely digital anyway because he's a lunatic.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 1:12:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)