Why is James Cameron perhaps the main director of our time?

James Cameron studied physics at the University of California, but, fortunately, did not agree with the exact sciences, and now three films in the top five highest-grossing films in history (Avatar, Titanic, Avatar: The Way of Water) were shot by him. And this makes him, if not the greatest director of our time, then the most commercially successful - for sure. Some dry facts: Titanic was the first film to break the billion-dollar mark at the box office and held the title of the highest-grossing film of all time for 12 years until it was overtaken by Avatar. The latter, by the way, held the palm for ten years, then briefly give way to the final "Avengers", but soon return to the top of the pedestal. And when, 13 years later, the second part of the revolutionary for its time "Avatar" came out on the screens, a new race for records began for James Cameron, in which he continues to succeed. And given the director's plans for three more sequels, it is quite possible that by the end of the decade, the top-grossing films in the history of cinema will consist of at least half of his projects.

In an interview with IndieWire, James Cameron said that before starting work on the Avatar sequels, he forced the writers to look for the secret to the success of the first film in the franchise under the threat of being fired. He shared: “They did what writers do, which is to try to create new stories. I said, "We have to understand what the connection was with the audience and protect it, protect this ember and this flame." In fact, with such awe and love, more reminiscent of his father's, the director, perhaps, applies to each of his projects.

8 PHOTOS

1. Shot from the movie "Titanic"

2. James Cameron is just one of those who are trying to reinvent the wheel, and therefore often personally takes part in writing the script, editing, inventing new technologies, and, as a result, doing what no one has done before him - and exactly the way he wanted it.

https://youtu.be/qFjyxJ21VJY

3. "Avatar", for example, could see the light of day as early as 1999, but the director was not satisfied with the level of technology development, and he devoted several years to improving special effects - as a result, the film was released ten years later than originally planned, but it was from him in the 3D world a fundamentally new era began.

4. It was also here that we saw incredibly realistic facial animation, for which James Cameron was personally responsible on-set, watching in real-time how the characters would look after software processing. Subsequently, for example, Thanos from The Avengers will be made according to the same principle.

https://youtu.be/M8Mi0elohJw

5. Such meticulousness haunts the director everywhere: four years before the premiere of Titanic, he personally made 12 dives to the liner with an underwater camera system created by his brother, during the filming of The Abyss, the film crew had to undergo a course of professional divers, and the actors who played in " Strangers" paratroopers were sent to training in a military camp.

6. What can I say, if for the sake of the second "Avatar," the cast also had to try, and Kate Winslet, for example, learned to hold her breath underwater for 7 minutes 14 seconds?

https://youtu.be/8dFID4Kzcd4

Yes, James Cameron is not afraid to take risks, but if now the studios take this risk with him, knowing that it will pay off, and giving the director full carte blanche, then at the dawn of his career, the still aspiring author had to agree to compromise himself.

7. Shot from the movie "Terminator"

8. He sold the script for The Terminator - his own, in fact, breakthrough - for a symbolic one dollar, on the condition that he personally takes on the production, and with a modest budget of six million and special effects, made mostly by hand, he created a film that became the standard of the genre.

https://youtu.be/QIcomuI1j7I

And when he took on Avatar, he agreed to give up part of his fee in the event of a commercial failure of the film in order to convince Fox to give the filming a green light. Then one of the heads of the studio said: “Maybe we are crazy for letting you do this, or you are crazy for thinking you can do it.” Did it work? James Cameron from time to time continues to prove that if he is in the director's chair, then there can be no answer other than positive. And his attention to detail and, it seems, the absolute absence of fear of the unknown, only confirm this.