But we have to give each film a certain amount of closure … so there’s a delicate creative balance across these four movies,” he says.
I wanted every choice the actors made, every design choice we made in Movie 2 or Movie 3, to resonate in Movie 4 or Movie 5, and to not paint ourselves into a corner. I think the job is recognizing when lightning has struck, and protecting and preserving that.”Īpart from overseeing the “T2” conversion and hammering out new stories for a possible “Terminator” franchise return, Cameron has a day job - making four sequels to “Avatar.” He says working on them simultaneously allows the movies to shape each other. You come prepared, but you never know what the actor’s going to do in the moment. “Everyone sort of thinks of directors as these puppeteers … but that’s not what it is at all. “She takes one step back and holds up her hand and says, ‘Shhh …’ - it’s such an amazing choice she made in that moment,” says Cameron. Cameron was struck by Hamilton’s unscripted reaction. In one “T2” scene, star Linda Hamilton, as woman warrior Sarah Connor, stops herself from murdering a still-innocent man, though it would fulfill her ultimate mission. That’s a big part of what the 3-D adds to the film.”Ĭameron’s previous 3-D conversion, of “Titanic,” cost $18 million. “So being in that room when Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) is processing the fact that his work is directly responsible for 3 billion deaths, you feel like you’re there. My friend Guillermo del Toro, when he talks to me about my movies, says, ‘There’s no irony.’ And there isn’t.”
It’s played as if it’s really happening and the consequences are dire. “There’s a certain earnestness to my films in general,” says Cameron, “and to that film - there’s no wink and nod. But he points to another quality he thinks the 3-D enhances: They feel lucid.”Ĭameron’s films were originally noted as sci-fi thrill rides, visually rich and stunningly ambitious. “But what was revelatory to me is how much more the dramatic scenes feel real. “The T-1000’s blade arms and pointy spikes are more threatening there’s a heightened sense of jeopardy,” Cameron says of the ultra-high-definition transfer, in theaters now.