The visionary, Oscar-winning director of The Abyss, Titanic and Avatar went to the planet's deepest spot, and all we got were these lousy clips from the bottom of the sea. Don't fret, however! There is much, much more where James Cameron's preliminary submarine footage came from. For now, let the director/explorer fill you in on what he witnessed, right down to shrinking windows under 16,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.
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In a milestone of human civilization right up there with landing on the moon and eating 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes, James Cameron reached the deepest point on the planet on Sunday — the Mariana Trench, nearly seven miles below the surface of the Pacific. Naturally, upon reaching bottom, he did what any record-setting blockbuster deep-sea diver would do: Tweeted.
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Heads up, romantic drama die-hards: Movie theaters will be awash with tears in the next couple of weeks. Three epic — well, two epics and one epic-lite — love stories are being re-released for various questionable reasons, and in these challenging economic times it might not make sense to rush out and see all three. Here, then, are some points to consider before buying a ticket and travel-size tissues for Casablanca, The Bodyguard or Titanic.
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James Cameron broke a world record on Wednesday, plunging five miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and eclipsing the earlier four-mile mark held by a Japanese crew. But the filmmaker is not done: Later this month, in a 43-inch wide submersible christened Deepsea Challenger, Cameron will attempt to be only the third man to reach the deepest point on the planet — and the first to do it alone. Seems like a long way to go to promote Titanic 3D, but hey.
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I wanted to believe James Cameron — I really did! — but it turns out that the 3-D conversion of his megahit Titanic is not only the craven cash grab we all feared, but it's also a visually drab re-rendering of an otherwise extraordinary technical achievement. Womp wooomp.
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In New Zealand! And how's this for a welcome from "New Zealand First" leader Winston Peters: "'To reside in New Zealand indefinitely, well, what does that mean? Full-time, part-time? ... If someone was coming to live in New Zealand and become a New Zealander, that is a different matter.' Mr Peters criticised the decision as typical of the 'stupidity' of the Government and the 'rubber-stamp merchants' at the OIO. 'If [the applicant] was bringing some expertise to expand this country's export wealth, particularly if it was land to be developed, or better utilised, that would be a different matter.'" Seriously! It's not like Avatar sequels grow on trees. [NZ Herald]
It wasn't so long ago that I enjoyed my own reunion with Titanic, but this time, James Cameron invites everyone to Titanic 3-D, the Avatar'd-up revamp of his 1997 blockbuster. What parts are you looking forward to seeing in 3-D? Leonardo DiCaprio's shabby togs? Kate Winslet's unadorned areolas? Kathy Bates's contempt? You'll get them all in April, 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. Trailer after the jump.
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Speaking with the U.K.'s Telegraph, Angelina Jolie addressed the inevitable comparisons between her future performance as Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra and Elizabeth Taylor's iconic 1963 turn. "My performance will never be as lovely as Elizabeth's," she demurred, explaining that her David Fincher-directed version will be a more realistic biopic. For example, this Cleopatra won't be a seducer. So what can you look forward to from Jolie's Queen of the Nile?
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Director Jon M. Chu is one of the few working filmmakers with an intuitive grasp on filming in 3-D, as evidenced by his dynamic visuals in Step Up 3D and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, so the idea of a G.I. Joe sequel released in 3-D actually sounded promising. But Chu always said he'd rather go 2-D than rush a post-conversion on the action sequel, and a report today suggests that's just what will happen.
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When Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon barrels into theaters this summer in 3-D -- the first 3-D outing for the film series and for Bay himself -- you'll have one man to thank for it: James Cameron. Fittingly, Bay took the stage at a Transformers 3 footage screening Wednesday night on the Paramount Studios lot to compare notes on the format, its future, and its frustrating limitations with none other than Cameron himself.
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A week after backpedaling from the rumored threat that they'd pull major summer blockbusters (Harry Potter? The Hangover II? NO!!) from theaters to punish studios for committing to early video on demand distribution agreements, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) is taking a different tack. Meet NATOs new army of foot soldiers in the debate over VOD: 23 of Hollywood's biggest names, who signed a NATO-backed open letter pleading for the protection of "the movie-going experience."
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Writing from the set of The Hobbit, Peter Jackson took to Facebook Monday to blog his thoughts on filming at 48 frames per second -- the increased frame rate championed by folks like James Cameron, who will use it to blow minds in Avatar 2 and 3. Jackson is currently filming The Hobbit in 3-D at 48 fps instead of the industry standard 24 fps, and as a result, the Lord of the Rings follow-up will be the first wide release to pave the way into a brave new digital world of filmmaking -- whether or not theaters around the world are ready for it.
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Our own Stephanie Zacharek warned you away from the waterlogged cave-bound 3D cheese that is James Cameron's (executive-produced Avatar technology-wasting favor-to-a-friend) Sanctum, and she's not alone: many more esteemed critics made it through the Aussie survival adventure with their spirits, eyeballs, and attention spans barely intact. Some saw Sanctum's terrible B-movie dialogue as amusing unintentional camp; will you be so lucky? Rappel down to the depths of Sanctum's most scathing critiques and survey the rocky terrain ahead.
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If the breakout debuts of Ryan Kwanten, Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, and Teresa Palmer introduced a new generation of young Australian actors to Hollywood, the arrival of 22-year-old newcomer Rhys Wakefield marks the full-fledged Aussie Invasion. The young star of this week's 3D underwater actioner Sanctum, who plays a 17-year-old cave diver trying to survive and get along with his estranged father, moved to Los Angeles last week, has already worked with the highest-grossing filmmaker of all time (executive producer James Cameron), and, like a pro, has learned to keep mum on the high-profile scripts he's got piled up at home.
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