One of the rules that we all should have learned by now is to never bet against James Cameron. Although we’ve had to deal with criticism, parody, and commentary surrounding the original Avatar for over a decade, the early word of mouth surrounding Avatar: The Way of Water has confirmed that the long wait was worth it. Detractors may claim that Avatar left no cultural impact, but based on the excitement that audiences have shown so far about returning to Pandora, it doesn’t seem like Cameron has anything to worry about.
Considering that Cameron created two of the greatest science fiction sequels of all-time, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the good buzz for The Way of Water isn’t all that surprising. Cameron may be opinionated and blunt in his interviews, but he’s also one of the most influential filmmakers of the past several decades. Cameron has revolutionized the way visual effects are used. While there are films from only a few years ago that haven’t aged well, something like The Abyss looks just as stunning now as it did during its initial release.
With this level of innovation comes many false starts; Cameron has teased, developed, and worked on several film projects that never saw the light of day. The road to the Avatar franchise was not a quick one, so check out some of these intriguing Cameron films that never made it to the screen.
Alien Nation
Graham Baker’s Alien Nation has inspired a cult following, and has been the subject of some critical reappraisal recently as a result of the passing of its star, James Caan. The film deals with some weighty themes of discrimination and police culture, so it certainly would have been interesting to see Cameron’s version of the universe. Although Cameron initially wrote a draft of the script, the writing credit was given solely to screenwriter Rockne S. O'Bannon, who changed the story radically from what Cameron had envisioned.
Wolverine and the X-Men
Although Marvel films are more popular than ever now, the brand was struggling in the late 1980s thanks to the failure of George Lucas’ investment in Howard the Duck. Cameron had approached Stan Lee and Chris Claremont about an X-Men adaptation; he planned to have his then-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, serve as a director, and cast Bob Hoskins as Wolverine with Angela Bassett as Storm. However, the project languished in development hell around the time that Cameron took an interest in another Marvel property.
Jurassic Park
If you had to name the two most important films in the development of modern CGI, you’d probably name Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park. Cameron nearly landed the chance to direct both, but Steven Spielberg managed to nab the rights to the novel only a few hours before Cameron could claim it. He would subsequently refer to Jurassic Park as “the one that got away.”
The Crowded Room
After the success of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron decided to take a departure from science fiction and attempted to acquire the rights to Daniel Keyes' non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan. The novel dealt with the concept of multiple identity disorder, and Keyes even published a sequel titled The Milligan Wars that was intended to coincide with Cameron’s film. Cameron eventually left his adaptation, titled The Crowded Room, which would have starred John Cusack. However, next year Apple TV+ will release its series adaptation of The Crowded Room starring Tom Holland.
Terminator 3
If the first rule of Hollywood is to never bet against Cameron, the second rule is that no Terminator sequel works without him. Cameron had begun developing ideas for a third film in the series, but ultimately left the project in order to start production on Titanic. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to convince him to stay as a producer, but Cameron declined in favor of focusing on his ambitious historical epic.
Project 880
Avatar was something that Cameron had on his mind for a long time. After the success of True Lies, Cameron completed his draft of a script entitled Project 880, which focused on the soldier Jake Sully and his adventures on the planet Pandora. While Jon Landau was attached as a producer with the intent of putting it into production after Titanic, Cameron decided that the technology did not exist at the time to properly realize his vision. Project 880 served as inspiration for what would eventually become the script for Avatar.
Spider-Man
After flirting with the X-Men series, Cameron sent a screenplay to Carolco Pictures for the first theatrical Spider-Man film. He planned to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Peter Parker and Schwarzenegger as Doctor Octavius, but his version was significantly darker than the film that Sam Raimi ended up developing. Cameron’s Spider-Man would have been R-Rated, and featured both graphic violence and heavy sexual content. Due to conflicts with Carolco, Cameron eventually abandoned his ambitious project, and signed a deal with 20th Century Fox instead.
The Mummy
The Mummy has had a second life as a cult favorite thanks to the growing love for Brendan Fraser, but Cameron nearly directed the 1990s reboot of the classic monster story. Although 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to Anne Rice’s novel with the intention of having Cameron direct, they eventually lapsed.
Fantastic Voyage
Long before Cameron began revolutionizing visual effects, Richard Fleischer's 1966 science fiction adventure Fantastic Voyage was a game changer in the genre. It makes sense that Cameron would want to add his interpretation of the film that laid the groundwork for his career, but he eventually left his intended remake in order to focus on Project 880. Cameron’s script was passed to Roland Emmerich, Paul Greengrass, Shawn Levy, and eventually Guillermo del Toro, who delayed production in order to work on The Shape of Water.
True Lies 2
True Lies was essentially Cameron’s version of James Bond, and the film set up the perfect sequel that would feature Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis teaming up. Although plans for a second True Lies film were developed and Cameron intended to work on the project after Titanic, he felt after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that he was no longer comfortable pursuing the series.
Alien 5
Following the disappointing reaction to Alien: Resurrection, Ridley Scott planned to return to direct a fifth film in the Alien series with Cameron producing. Although Cameron briefly considered directing it himself, he stayed on as a writer, as Sigourney Weaver had issues with the original script by Joss Whedon. 20th Century Fox ultimately decided that a straight Alien sequel wasn’t viable, and decided to move forward with their crossover with the Predator franchise. Although Weaver and Michael Biehn hoped that the project could be revived by District 9 director Neill Bolmpkamp, a new Alien film will be coming to Hulu directed by Fede Álvarez.
Bright Angel Falling
Remember 1998, the year that dueling asteroid movies Armageddon and Deep Impact squared off against each other? Cameron nearly got in on the action with his collision course movie, Bright Angel Falling. Unfortunately, the script was leaked before production began, leading Cameron to abandon it.
Dungeons & Dragons
Next year we’ll be getting a new Dungeons & Dragons film with Chris Pine, but Cameron briefly considered directing an adaptation of the classic game around the time of Titanic. However, disagreements about the film's finances with Paramount Pictures and Lightstorm Entertainment led to the project’s abandonment.