James Cameron is a Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer who has had an extensive career in film and television. Cameron's debut was the 1978 science fiction short Xenogenesis , which he directed, wrote and produced. [1] [2] In his early career, he did various technical jobs such as special visual effects producer, set dresser assistant, matte artist, and photographer. His feature directorial debut was the 1982 release Piranha II: The Spawning . [2] [3] The next film he directed was the science fiction action thriller The Terminator (1984) which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg assassin, and was Cameron's breakthrough feature. [4] [5] [6] In 1986, he directed and wrote the science fiction action sequel Aliens starring Sigourney Weaver. [7] He followed this by directing another science fiction film The Abyss (1989). In 1991, Cameron directed the sequel to The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with Schwarzenegger reprising his role), [8] and also executive produced the action crime film Point Break . Three years later he directed a third Schwarzenegger-starring action film True Lies (1994). [9]
In 1997, Cameron directed, wrote, and produced the epic romantic disaster film Titanic which grossed over $1.8 billion [11] [a] at the worldwide box-office and became the highest grossing of all time. [b] He received the Academy Award for Best Director, the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with the other producers. It had a total of 14 Oscar nominations (tying the record set by the 1950 drama All About Eve ) and won 11 (tying the record set by the 1959 epic historical drama Ben-Hur ). [16] Cameron also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and shared the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama with the other producers. [17] He followed this by directing, and producing two underwater documentaries: Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), and Aliens of the Deep (2005). He returned to directing features in 2009 with the 3D science fiction film Avatar . It grossed over $2.9 billion at the worldwide box-office and became the highest grossing of all time surpassing Titanic. [c] [15] [20] Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three in technical categories. [21] Cameron also earned a second Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and Best Motion Picture – Drama. [22] He followed this by executive producing two 3D films, Sanctum (2011) and Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012), as well as the documentary Deepsea Challenge 3D (2014).
Cameron made his television debut in 1998 playing himself in the sitcom Mad About You . Two years later he executive produced the science fiction television series Dark Angel (2000) starring Jessica Alba. In 2005, he appeared in two documentaries about the sinking of the RMS Titanic: Last Mysteries of the Titanic, and Tony Robinson's Titanic Adventure. He also made appearances as himself on the comedy-drama television series Entourage that same year. Cameron followed this by executive producing two biblical documentaries, The Exodus Decoded (2006) and Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007). He executive produced and appeared in a third Titanic related documentary, Titanic: Final Word with James Cameron, in 2012. Two years later, Cameron executive produced the climate change documentary television series Years of Living Dangerously (2014) which received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. [23]
† | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Other | ||||
1978 | Xenogenesis | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Short film Co-directed and co-written with Randall Frakes Also visual effects producer | [1] |
1979 | Rock 'n' Roll High School | No | No | No | No | Yes | Uncredited production assistant | [24] |
1980 | Happy Birthday, Gemini | No | No | No | No | Yes | Set dresser assistant | [25] |
1980 | Battle Beyond the Stars | No | No | No | No | Yes | Photographer, art director and miniatures designer | [26] |
1981 | Escape from New York | No | No | No | No | Yes | Special visual effects photographer and matte artist | [27] |
1981 | Galaxy of Terror | No | No | No | No | Yes | Second unit director and production designer | [28] |
1982 | Android | No | No | No | No | Yes | Design consultant | [29] |
1982 | Piranha II: The Spawning | Yes | Yes [d] | No | No | No | Co-written with Charles H. Eglee and Ovidio G. Assonitis (uncredited) | [30] |
1984 | The Terminator | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Co-written with Gale Anne Hurd | [31] |
1985 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | No | Yes | No | No | No | Co-written with Sylvester Stallone | [32] |
1986 | Aliens | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | [33] | |
1989 | The Abyss | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | [34] | |
1991 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Co-written with William Wisher Jr. | [35] |
1991 | Point Break | No | Uncredited rewrites [e] | Executive | No | No | Co-written with W. Peter Iliff | [39] |
1994 | True Lies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Uncredited | No | [40] | |
1995 | Strange Days | No | Yes | Yes | Uncredited | No | Co-written with Jay Cocks Also uncredited editor | [41] |
1997 | Titanic | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also director of photography: Titanic deep dive | [42] |
2002 | Solaris | No | No | Yes | No | No | [43] | |
2009 | Avatar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | [44] | |
2011 | Sanctum | No | No | Executive | No | No | [45] | |
2012 | Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away | No | No | Executive | No | No | [46] | |
2019 | Alita: Battle Angel | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Co-written with Laeta Kalogridis | [47] |
2019 | Terminator: Dark Fate | No | Story | Yes | No | No | Story co-written with Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, David Goyer and Justin Rhodes | [48] |
2022 | Avatar: The Way of Water | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Co-written with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver | [49] [50] |
2024 | Alien: Romulus | No | No | No | No | Yes | Uncredited creative consultant | [51] |
2025 | Avatar: Fire and Ash † | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Co-written with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver Post-production | [49] |
2029 | Avatar 4 † | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Filming | [49] |
Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Director | Producer | Himself | ||||
2003 | Ghosts of the Abyss | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also Reality Camera System designer | [52] [53] |
Volcanoes of the Deep Sea | No | Executive | No | IMAX only | [54] | |
2004 | The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing | No | No | Yes | [55] | |
2005 | Aliens of the Deep | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-directed with Steven Quale Also cinematographer | [56] [57] [58] |
2006 | Explorers: From the Titanic to the Moon | No | No | Yes | [59] | |
2012 | Side by Side | No | No | Yes | [60] | |
2014 | Deepsea Challenge 3D | No | Executive | Yes | [61] | |
2016 | Score: A Film Music Documentary | No | No | Yes | [62] | |
2018 | The Game Changers | No | Executive | No | [63] | |
2020 | Akashinga: The Brave Ones | No | Executive | No | [64] | |
2021 | The Six | No | Executive | Yes | [65] | |
2024 | Modern Masters: S. S. Rajamouli | No | No | Yes | [66] | |
Year(s) | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Mad About You | Himself | Episode: "The Finale" | [67] |
2000–2002 | Dark Angel | — | Executive producer Episode: "Pilot" (writer) Episode: "Freak Nation" (director and writer) | [68] |
2005–2006 | Entourage | Himself | 4 episodes | [69] |
2023 | True Lies | — | Executive producer Characters | [70] |
Year(s) | Title | Director | Producer | Himself | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | Expedition: Bismarck | Yes | Yes | No | Co-directed with Gary Johnstone | [71] |
2005 | Last Mysteries of the Titanic | Yes | Yes | No | [72] [73] | |
Tony Robinson's Titanic Adventure | No | No | Yes | [74] [75] | ||
2006 | The Exodus Decoded | No | Executive | No | [76] | |
2007 | The Lost Tomb of Jesus | No | Executive | No | [77] | |
2010 | Avatar: Creating the World of Pandora | No | No | Yes | [78] | |
2012 | Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron | No | No | Yes | [79] | |
James Cameron: Voyage to the Bottom of the Earth | No | No | Yes | [80] | ||
2013 | A New Age of Exploration: National Geographic at 125 | No | No | Yes | [79] [81] | |
2017 | Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron | No | No | Yes | [82] | |
2023 | Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron | No | Executive | Yes | [83] | |
Modern Masters: S. S. Rajamouli | no | no | yes | [84] | ||
Year(s) | Title | Executive Producer | Host | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Years of Living Dangerously | Yes | No | [85] |
2018 | James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction | Yes | Yes | [86] |
2021 | Secrets of the Whales | Yes | No | [87] |
2023 | Secrets of the Elephants | Yes | No | |
2024 | Secrets of the Octopus | Yes | No |
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a classical filmmaking style. He first gained recognition for writing and directing The Terminator (1984), and found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and True Lies (1994), as well as Avatar (2009) and its sequels. He directed, wrote, co-produced, and co-edited Titanic (1997), winning Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing. He is a recipient of various other industry accolades, and three of his films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, it is based on accounts of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as members of different social classes who fall in love during the ship's maiden voyage. The film also features an ensemble cast of Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton.
True Lies is a 1994 American action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron, based on the 1991 French comedy film La Totale! The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a U.S. government agent, who struggles to balance his double life as a spy with his familial duties. Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Art Malik, and Tia Carrere star in supporting roles. True Lies was the first Lightstorm Entertainment project to be distributed under Cameron's multimillion-dollar production deal with 20th Century Fox, as well as the first major production for the visual effects company Digital Domain, which was co-founded by Cameron. It was also the first film to cost $100 million.
James Roy Horner was an American film composer and conductor. He worked on more than 160 film and television productions between 1978 and 2015. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside traditional orchestrations, and for his use of motifs associated with Celtic music.
Jon Landau was an American film producer, who won an Academy Award for Best Picture for producing James Cameron's epic romantic disaster film Titanic (1997). He was also nominated for producing Cameron's epic science fiction films Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). As of 2024, these are three of the four highest-grossing films of all time.
Avatar is a 2009 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, written, and directed by James Cameron. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It is the first installment in the Avatar film series. It is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the valuable unobtanium, a room-temperature superconductor mineral. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi, a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The title of the film refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc. is an American independent production company founded in 1990 by filmmaker James Cameron and producer Lawrence Kasanoff. The majority of its films have been distributed and owned by 20th Century Fox, now known as 20th Century Studios. It has produced several films including Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Titanic, Alita: Battle Angel and the Avatar film series; Cameron has employed other filmmakers to produce and direct films under the Lightstorm banner.
Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama Endless Love. Two years later, he made his breakthrough by starring in the romantic comedy Risky Business (1983), which garnered his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1986, Cruise played a naval aviator in the Tony Scott-directed action drama Top Gun which was the highest-grossing film of the year, and also appeared with Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama The Color of Money. Two years later, he starred with Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (1988). His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the film adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a 2022 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, and directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver from a story the trio wrote with Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second installment in the Avatar film series. It features Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao and Matt Gerald reprising their roles from the first film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in an additional role and Kate Winslet joining the cast. It follows a blue-skinned humanoid Na'vi named Jake Sully (Worthington) as he and his family, under renewed human threat, seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina clan of Pandora, a habitable exomoon on which they live.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is an upcoming American epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, co-written, and directed by James Cameron. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and the third installment in the Avatar film series.
Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who began his career performing as a child on television. He appeared on the shows The New Lassie (1989) and Santa Barbara (1990) and also had long-running roles in the comedy-drama Parenthood (1990) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1991). DiCaprio played Tobias "Toby" Wolff opposite Robert De Niro in the biographical coming-of-age drama This Boy's Life in 1993. In the same year, he had a supporting role as a developmentally disabled boy Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, which earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 1995, DiCaprio played the leading roles of an American author Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. The following year he played Romeo Montague in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Romeo + Juliet (1996). DiCaprio starred with Kate Winslet in the James Cameron-directed film Titanic (1997). The film became the highest grossing at the worldwide box-office, and made him famous globally. For his performance as Jack Dawson, he received the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance and his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Sandra Bullock is an American actress and producer who made her film debut with a minor role in J. Christian Ingvordsen's thriller Hangmen in 1987. She made her television debut in the television film Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) and played the lead role in the short-lived sitcom Working Girl (1990) before making her breakthrough starring in Jan de Bont's action film Speed (1994). In 1995, Bullock founded her own production company, Fortis Films, and starred in the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. Her performance in the film earned her first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. In 1996, Bullock starred in the film adaptation of John Grisham's novel A Time to Kill. In 1998, Bullock starred in the romantic comedy Practical Magic, voiced Miriam in the DreamWorks animated film The Prince of Egypt, and executive produced her first film, Hope Floats.
Julia Roberts is an American actress and producer who made her debut in the 1987 direct-to-video feature Firehouse. She had her breakthrough the following year by starring in the coming-of-age film Mystic Pizza (1988). For her supporting role in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias (1989), she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Roberts' next role was opposite Richard Gere in the highly successful romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. In 1991, she appeared in the psychological thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, and played Tinker Bell in the Steven Spielberg-directed fantasy adventure Hook. Two years later, Roberts starred in the legal thriller The Pelican Brief, an adaptation of the John Grisham novel of the same name. During the late 1990s, she played the lead in the romantic comedies My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Notting Hill (1999), and Runaway Bride (1999).
Darius Fisher is a British film producer, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and visual effects engineer. He is most well known for his work on the 2008 Sundance award-winning film Fuel, and also for The Aviator, Bhutto, The Big Fix, Kiss the Ground and the trailer that helped secure funding for Avatar. He is also the founder of Digital Neural Axis, a production company.
Bryan H. Carroll is an American director, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is best known for his award winning documentary Why We Ride, his distinctions from the American Motorcyclist Association and contributions to Titanic, Public Enemies, Die Hard, Predator, Collateral, Miami Vice, Ali, Skid Row and The Phantom.
The following is a list of unproduced James Cameron projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, Canadian film director James Cameron has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell or are officially cancelled.
Avatar 4 is an upcoming American epic science fiction film co-written, co-edited, co-produced and directed by James Cameron. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it will be the sequel to Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) and the fourth installment in the Avatar film series.