In 2009, to come out”Avatar”With the final cut he wanted, director James Cameron had to do battle with 20th Century Fox. So he came up with the best possible argument to impose his ideas and have the last word.
James Cameron fought for the final cut on Avatar
No matter how genius of the 7th art you may be, nothing is ever certain. There are thus many examples of filmmakers having had to fight with their production studios to complete a project and impose their views. And one of the most striking examples concerns James Cameron, engaged in difficult negotiations with 20th Century Fox when releasing the final cut ofAvatar.
We must measure the absurd nature of the situation. Before Avatarreleased in 2009 and still lgreatest success of all time in cinema with $2.85 billion at the global box office, James Cameron wasn’t really a new kid on the block. We owe him since terminator box office hits like Aliens, the return ($131 million in worldwide box office receipts), Terminator 2 ($520 million), True Lies ($378 million), and obviously the phenomenal Titanic ($2.2 billion).
Titanic becomes in time the greatest success in historya record only beaten by… Avatar. But this success, despite its unprecedented scale, did not give carte blanche to James Cameron. Indeed, while he is in post-production ofAvatar, the executives of 20th Century Fox want to shorten the film, and remove certain sequences. James Cameron does not agree at all, and lets them know bluntly.
“You know what? I did Titanic.”
In a great interview given to New York TimesJames Cameron discusses the release ofAvatar at the cinema (the September 21 in our theaters), in anticipation of the release of the second opus Avatar : The Way of the Water. He returns in particular to a conflict he had with 20th Century Fox when finalizing Avatar.
I remember that, at the time, we clashed on certain points. For example, the studio thought the movie needed to be shortened, and there was too much aerial footage with the Ikran – who humans call the Banshees. In short, in the end it turned out that it was what the public preferred, according to the polls at the exit of the film and the data that we recovered… And that’s where I really set a limit. I said :
“You know what? I did”Titanic”. The building we’re meeting in right now, this new half-billion-dollar complex on your land? It’s “Titanic”Who paid for it, so we’ll do as I say.”
Following this argument which must have sent its interlocutors into the ropes, 20th Century Fox yielded to the demands of James Cameron. For the better, sinceAvatar thus became, eleven years later Titanic, the new world box office record holder. A record that a single film and a single director can break in the short term: Avatar 2, the new realization of James Cameron. Never two records without three? It will be necessary to wait for the first months of 2023 to verify the adage, since the new opus of the saga arrives in cinemas on December 14, 2022.
