Oscar-minted director James Cameron has roughly 9,000 hours of Avatar films to churn out, but the Canadian auteur managed to find some time in his schedule to play sci-fi cinema educator too.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, AMC has ordered a new project from Cameron where he’ll explore the history and big questions attached to the genre. Seeing as the dude has The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss among other memorable sci-fi kissed fare on his résumé, there’s reason to believe the filmmaker knows what he’s talking about. Well, unless he starts going on about how the Titanic was sank by lizard people. That might throw off his credentials a bit. Has he done that yet? No? Superb.
“When I was a kid, I basically read any book with a spaceship on the cover and I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey many, many times,” said Cameron about the project. “The movie inspired me to become a filmmaker. I liked the special effects, but I really loved the ideas and the questions behind them: How will the world end? Will technology destroy us? What does it mean to be human?”
“These are subjects sci-fi has never been afraid to tackle,” noted the filmmaker. “With this series, we are going back to the origins of sci-fi, following the DNA of these ideas back to the source. Without Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, there wouldn’t have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn’t be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me. As a filmmaker who specializes in science fiction, I’m interested in exploring the struggles and the triumphs that brought these incredible stories to life and seeing how art imitates life, as well as how science fiction imitates and sometimes informs science.”
So, uh, real easy breezy stuff. Seeing as Cameron’s not one for half-assing things (including movies that aren’t everybody’s cup of tea), there’s loads of reasons to be intrigued with what the Dark Angel co-creator has planned. Currently slated for a six episode run, the tentatively titled James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction is being positioned for a 2018 release. We welcome its future existence and root for extended stretches of Sigourney Weaver talking in it, please.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
