James Cameron's Movieline Interview: Cameron Takes on Bad 3D, Inception, and Spider-Man

Last Thursday, I had a lengthy, terrific interview with James Cameron in advance of the special edition of Avatar (rereleased to theaters August 27), and all this week, Movieline will bring you pieces of that wide-ranging talk.

Before its release last December, Avatar was touted as a 3D game-changer, and it certainly has been -- though not always in ways James Cameron intended. What does he think of the trend of post-conversion 3D, the push for 3D television sets, and mega movies like Inception (which resisted a 3D conversion) and the Spider-Man reboot (which will be shot natively in 3D)? Cameron told Movieline.

In the wake of Avatar, we've seen a lot of post-production conversions to 3D, and some of it has been subpar.

Some of it?

OK, almost all of it. Do you feel like it tarnishes the format at all?

I think it's a short-term problem. 3D's here, and it's got an enormous amount of momentum. Hopefully, the best outcome is that the audience is smarter and they know to be discriminating, and the studios are smarter and they know not to abuse the market. I'd like to think that's the case, going forward.

One of the reasons that 3D excites someone like Jeffrey Katzenberg is that it provides an experience that can't be replicated in your living room. Won't the sudden push for 3D televisions undercut that?

I don't know if it's coming too early. I think initially, 3D sets at home are going to be fed by a handful of movies, which isn't going to fill those screens for very long. [The bulk of the content] is really going to come from live production, which means sports -- broadcast is going to fill that. I think that by the time it gets fully entrenched, 3D is going to be so commonplace in movie theaters and the home that it's not going to be that special anymore.

It's like color, and color initially was not something you could have at home. Back then, you could only have it in the movie theater, but it doesn't mean that we don't go see movies now even though we have color TV. I mean, I'm going back to the dawn of time now -- my childhood -- but I remember the transition from black and white to color: Everybody talks about this stuff when it's new, and then afterwards, it just finds its own level. But with 3D, you can't go backwards. If you're watching programming in 3D at home, you can't go to a movie theater and watch it in 2D. You see what I mean? So it's moot: Everything's going to be in 3D.

Have you seen Inception? Christopher Nolan has been likened to you as a very classical filmmaker working at these big budgets.

Yeah, I'm very curious about Inception. I haven't seen it yet, because I've been so busy getting this rerelease ready and all the special edition DVD stuff ready. We're like "deadline, deadline, deadline" right now.

Have you been advising other directors on how to use 3D -- like Marc Webb, for instance, who's directing the Spider-Man reboot?

I haven't talked to Marc. I want to, though. I think that there's no reason for them to make the same mistakes that I've made over the years. I want to do whatever I can to help other filmmakers adopt 3D and do good work right out of the gate so that they don't have to complain, "Oh, the camera's slowing me down," or whatever. There are ways around that stuff.

At one point, Spider-Man was a project you wanted to make.

Oh yeah, that was way back, though. I developed it when it was nowhere, just lying fallow. I brought it to Carolco's attention, got them to buy the property, and did the original treatment. Then, when Carolco collapsed in the early 90s, it fell apart and I didn't continue with it.

MONDAY: Cameron on the Avatar Rerelease and That Sex Scene

TODAY: Cameron Takes on Bad 3D, Inception, and Spider-Man

WEDNESDAY: Cameron on Avatar 2

THURSDAY: Cameron on the Titanic Rerelease and Future Projects

FRIDAY: Cameron on His Long-Lost Music Video and Falling in Love with Kathryn Bigelow



Comments

  • Biff Bronson says:

    "Cameron takes on Inception" - very interesting headline. "Cameron says he hasn't seen Inception" - very uninteresting fact. Nice bait-and-switch there.

  • Jean-Sébastien Dussault says:

    Totally agreeing with Biff, here, except for the "nice" part.

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