With extra resources, Cameron goes bigger and deeper

Imagine that you suddenly have great gobs of money and resources. What’s next?
Some people buy an island or a movie studio or Twitter or trouble. James Cameron dives deeper (literally and figuratively) into his work.
“They’re going to have to drag me out kicking and screaming,” he told the Television Critics Association.
Cameron turns 70 on Aug.16; two days later, he debuts an ambitious project. For three Sundays (Aug. 18 through Sept. 1), “OceanXplorers” (shown here) will have episodes at 9 and 10 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel, probing unseen parts of the world.
The result, said Chris Albert of Nat Geo, is “one of the most ambitious scientific adventures ever filmed.”
That’s where the gobs of resources were helpful. A crew of scientists had a high-tech ship, plus two mini-subs and a helicopter.
“You’re going to see the kind of bucks-up, big-budget, big-science approach,” Cameron said, because people need “a certain degree of technology to go deep.”
It’s a huge jump from his early days of working cheap.
A Canadian native, Cameron had moved with his family to California at 17.He went to college briefly, worked as a truck-driver and bus-driver and obsessed on movies.
He was self-taught and “totally reckless,” Marc Shapiro wrote in “James Cameron” (2000, Renaissance Books). He tried to make micro-budget films, then worked for low-budget producer Roger Corman, compensating with sheer effort. “I don’t think I ever saw Jim walk,” Corman wrote in his memoir. “He was always running.”
And he was improvising. “He had everyone collecting Sytrofoam containers from McDonald’s,” Beverly Gray wrote in “Roger Corman” (also 2000, Renaissance). “When spray-painted silver, these looked impressive lining the walls of a spaceship.”
Cameron directed one Corman cheapie (“Piranha II”) and helped on others. Then he showed what he could do with a full budget – “”Terminator” films, “”The Abyss,” “Aliens,” “True Lies” and “Titanic,” which won 11 Oscars and broke box-office records.
The 27 years since then have been when Cameron has had extra resources. He’s done fictional work – two “Avatar” films, with a third set for Dec. 16 – but has spent much of his time on non-fiction. “I always say the deep ocean is my church,” he told the TCA..
He’s produced three documentary mini-series, each timed to Earth Day. “Secrets of of the Whales,” in 2021, was followed by elephants in 2023 and octopuses this year. (All are at Disney+, as “OceanXplorers” will be.) More are coming. “If you can get people to fall in love with these animals, … maybe they’ll fight harder “ for the environment.
Now “OceanXplorers” goes bigger and deeper, tracing whales, sharks and more to unseen parts of their lives. The goal, he said, is “to apply what I’ve learned in 40 years (of) storytelling … reminding people how connected we have to be to nature.”