As of late, James Cameron has had enough opinions to make up for the delays that have caused news to dry up in the Avatar 2 camp. Not only has he put the Alien series on blast, but he's also called out the Mythbusters on their analysis of the ending of Titanic. But surely Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe would hold some sort of sway with the legendary director's creative energies, right? As it turns out, that's not happening anytime soon, as Cameron has dismissed that notion soundly.
During his recent interview with The Daily Beast, Cameron gave a huge cross-section of his hot takes, with a variety of topics in play. Yet for all of the huge quotes that he gave the publication on the previously mentioned subjects, his response to merely the questioning of such prospects is a short and not-so-sweet rejection that goes something like this:
I'm not the slightest bit interested in laboring in someone else's house.
In the context of his recent focus on his Avatar series, this isn't a surprise. With four sequels in the queue, waiting to come to life in front of the cameras of Cameron's motion capture volume, there's not exactly room at the inn for the man who brought us The Terminator, Aliens and Titanic to take up any space in another universe. Although, it's funny that he'd make a remark that talks about "someone else's house" not being his cup of tea, as looking really carefully at his past career, he's built a lot of credibility on doing just that.
You can take your pick of Cameron's writing gigs, which contained both sequels to Alien and First Blood, or his directing credits, which not only saw Aliens come into play again, but also saw him make his debut as a director with Piranha II: The Spawning. But let's not leave the world of comic books out, as James Cameron would have been the first director to bring Spider-Man to the big screen. That is, if the 1992 incarnation of the film he was attached to had made it out of development hell, which would have also seen Arnold Schwarzenegger following him into comics much earlier as his potential Doctor Octopus.
Either way, the Cameron Canon has plenty of work that's connected to someone else's franchise, and that's without recalling Harlan Ellison's contractually obligated credit as the genesis of The Terminator's story. But maybe that's why James Cameron isn't interested in dealing with superheroes or Jedi. With Avatar, he looks to have found a series that's not only captivated his imagination, but also feeds into his environmentally conscious side. To Cameron, his idyllic Pandora-esque paradise is to work on the continuing adventures of Jake Sully and the Na'vi. Say what you will about that, but when a creator is happy, the possibilities for entertainment are endless.
Let's hope those endless possibilities start to make their way to the big screen soon, as Avatar 2 is slated to hit theaters in December 2018. That is, if no further delays strike the creative process.
