When it comes to action in cinema, James Cameron helped set the template for female action heroes with the iconic performances of Sigourney Weaver in “Aliens” and Linda Hamilton in “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”.
He was also married at one time to Kathryn Bigelow, the first female director to win an Oscar for her work on 2009’s “The Hurt Locker”. Bigelow of course directed her own template-setting feature with 1991’s male-driven action feature “Point Break”.
In a recent interview with TIME, Cameron reflected on some of his past criticism of some aspects of Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” film in 2017, a movie he says he loved and felt was a positive step forward: “It was necessary to have a female director own a major action movie, though Kathryn Bigelow had been doing that for a while.”
He then says he believes Bigelow would not have chosen to direct “Wonder Woman” if she were given the opportunity: “She would have turned down any superhero movie she was offered if it was a female lead, and that’s the healthier perspective, I think, personally.”
Cameron then goes on to combat the thinking that female directors should be limited to directing female-led superhero movies: “Why not have women direct male characters? Have a woman direct Batman. Now, you’re talking.”
Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” recently passed his “Titanic” to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time. There’s no shortage of “Avatar” content on the way either with three more films due out in the coming years, not to mention a high-profile video game release in the works.
One thing you won’t be seeing though, unlike so many other Disney properties, is spin-offs for the Disney+ service. While speaking with The Los Angeles Times the other week, the director says the financial side of the equation just doesn’t make sense at this time – but as tech advances that could change:
“Right now, the economics don’t make sense to spin off any of our CG main characters onto TV. But the cost of these things will progressively come down as we introduce machine deep learning into the processes and make them more automated. Ask me again in five years.”
Three additional “Avatar” films are planned for 2024, 2026 and 2028 respectively.
