Exclusive Info: Hold Your Breath - THE DIVE Will Be Up Next!!

Jim here. According to one of my sources it is looking like a foregone conclusion that THE DIVE will be Jim Cameron's next directorial project. We were speculating that there would be time and sufficient will to get AVATAR 2 out there as his next movie, but obviously that is going to be a very complex film and the estimate for its release is in the 3.5 years range.

Cameron is also producing SANCTUM.

So what about THE DIVE? It will be an exciting piece of work. I have learned that a particular company (I am not naming names at this point) has secured business to produce set pieces for the movie using what sounds to be a 3D prototype system. How is that done? You create a 3D model with a CAD program, feed the information into this machine and it spits out a prototype quality item - great for movie props!

Further, it seems Jon Landau is the man pulling the trigger on these deals - so it IS happening right now.

THE DIVE is based on a true story of a Cuban free diver Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras and his love affair with a French woman - Audrey Mestre. Mestre perishes while in competition after being trained by her lover.

THE DIVE is going to be a spectacular movie! It should be the pinnacle of everything that Cameron has achieved with underwater work in his career because now he is using 3D. Yes, THE ABYSS was a staggering accomplishment, but I look for realism, elegance and of course that relationship between Pipin and Audrey to be front and center.

Cameron told me that THE DIVE would most likely be the next movie - this information underscores it! We also have photos from 2003 that Cameron took while planning for the movie.

Jon Landau On James Cameron's Next Project (Showest 2010)

Michael here. Jon Landau made a surprise appearance at the ShoWest press conference, and Jim asked him whether he might have time to do a project like The Dive before making Avatar 2.

Watch below:



So it looks like Cameron and Landau's next project will depend on how quickly a great script for Avatar 2 comes in. I love hearing that to make Avatar 2, they would have to be confident that it would be "as good or better" than the first. In any case, we should know their next project within six months.

Want To See Photos Of Cameron Prepping For THE DIVE From 2003?

Jim here. Thought you would be interested in seeing some photos that James Cameron took back in 2003 while thinking about doing THE DIVE! UW Presse has the shots.

In these photos, Pipin set a new world record in free diving to honor the passing of his late wife Audrey Mestre who died while attempting this same depth a year prior. Pipin dove to an amazing 174 meters and was underwater for 2 minutes, 38 seconds.

Who was he thinking of using to play the Mestre role? Salma Hayek it seems!

These photos should help you place THE DIVE on your perceived list of what Cameron has next up his sleeve. Cameron told me during the premiere of AVATAR in London that it will most likely be the next movie he makes - but of course that was before AVATAR went on to make $2.6b+!

Be sure to check out all the photos right here. Thank you dvdvision for the heads up.

EXCLUSIVE: James Cameron Interview! Talks AVATAR, BATTLE ANGEL, THE DIVE And More!!

Jim here. I had the great pleasure to speak with James Cameron today! I can hear in his voice that he is so pleased to have AVATAR delivered to the fans - and he let us in on a few news items too...

We have been waiting a long time for this movie and the light is at the end of the tunnel. Stereoscopic 3D will never be the same again. Hollywood will never be the same again!

Cameron is a class act. Can you believe I haven't see it yet? He couldn't believe it either, but I do not live in a major center so... I will be seeing it with you guys at the midnight showing on the 17th :-) Michael gets the goods this time around!

Lets go through the interview and I will give you a brief explanation at various points:



1:15 Cameron had only seen AVATAR end to end in 3D at a screening just before this press tour! He had some questions in his mind: Did it even work? Eyestrain? :-)

5:35 Performance Capture - some directors treat it as a stage play, which does not work for him. Cameron worked out coverage blocks at the moment of shooting - master, etc. He figured out angles later. Up to 12 HD cameras for reference. Wide shots for placement and editing.

10:00 When Cameron gave Weta the edited template (his cameras cut together with stereo space) - the stereo space numbers never changed! (the numbers that make up where convergence is, etc). Weta used them exactly - "...that's what really saved us" - they had a 1000 shots come in the door in the last 2 or 3 months of post. There was absolutely no time to re-render all that for stereo. All the stereo was worked out a year earlier! "Worked flawlessly".
I find this amazing! Cameron has pulled off a shrewd trick here saving time and money by thinking ahead.

10:35 Cameron addresses why some directors are hesitant to jump into 3D and why they can and should. He talks about the culture of 3D and getting the right S3D people to surround you on a project. Cameron's crew was able to take the stylistic cues from the first half of AVATAR's templates and simply apply them to the second half - makes it much easier on him who then just does stereo reviews and signs off on them - or with minor tweaks.

12:45 The critical thing with AVATAR was to make sure the live action was going to cut well (as opposed to the CG). Just thinking in 3D - you can change the stereo space in CG at any time, but you can't change it once you have shot it with a S3D camera rig. The trick is to make sure "anything will cut with anything" - and he means anything and anywhere in ANY shot.

13:50 Cameron throws out all the stereo rules that have ever been used! He came up with a whole new "stereo aesthetic" for AVATAR: "You put the convergence where you are looking. Period". This is an entirely new way of shooting 3D and it enables effective cutting. What it does NOT do is put the convergence at the screen plane where objects come flying out at you. That, is "bullshit".

15:10 Cameron avoids discussing whether AVATAR 2 and 3 takes place on or off Pandora. :-)

15:40 Sam Worthington is signed up for sequels "by his excitement; he wants to do another one". Zoe Saldana wants to do another one too. Cameron realizes option deals are subject to many conditions.

16:20 On BATTLE ANGEL: "I am not even sure that I am going to do that film". And he has no one in mind for casting.
Oh well - that is disappointing news. However maybe it is because AVATAR 2 and 3 are heating up big time now! :-)

16:50 On THE DIVE: "As a next film, THE DIVE is a more likely candidate". He doesn't want to do another 4 year movie right away and this drama is more immediate.
Can't wait this project! Huge potential here.

17:00 On SANCTUM AND FANTASTIC VOYAGE and anything else he wants to produce: "I am kinda out of the producing business. I don't like that - it is just not satisfying enough." SANCTUM is being done to illustrate the power of 3D in a modestly budgeted drama. Only 10% of SANCTUM will be underwater with much of it in caves and it is a survival drama.
Looking forward to this!

18:00 Cameron is still co-investigator on the MARS ROVER mastcam and will become more active on that after AVATAR. Also, his work on that doesn't really start in earnest until it is on the surface of Mars and sending back imagery.
This last one (amongst others) was Michael's and we both share an intense interest in astronomy!

Special thanks to Jim Cameron and Fox for setting this up. Looking forward to more! :-) I wish I had more time for this call. I was supposed to keep it to 15 minutes but as you can see 18 minutes came and went like it was nothing. I had many more questions for him but I think I hit the more pressing ones for us :-)

Wayfare Breathes Life Into 3D Underwater Survival Drama SANCTUM

Jim here. SANCTUM promises to be a very intriguing project. Just after the low budget and Peter Jackson produced DISTRICT 9 was released to much acclaim we learn that SANCTUM has gotten $30 million financing from Wayfare Entertainment. James Cameron will executive produce.

The underwater survival drama will be using the FUSION 3D camera system (photos) invented by Vince Pace and James Cameron. Wise move. There is no one better in the world in underwater 3D. Expect the production to begin shooting in Australia in Q4 this year with Vince Pace most likely as DP (I have an email into Vince inquiring about this).

Another similarity with DISTRICT 9 is that the relatively unknown Alister Grierson (KOKODA) will direct the movie under the guidance and technology of an industry power player. Obviously the intent is to duplicate the overwhelming success.

Andrew Wight (GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS, ALIENS OF THE DEEP) co-wrote and will produce. John Garvin co-wrote as well.

From Variety: "Sanctum" is a fictional drama inspired by Wight's near-death experience when he led an expedition of 15 divers into a remote underwater cave system below Australia's Nullarbor Plain, and then watched a freak storm collapse the cave entrance. It became a two-day battle to survive until all 15 were rescued, an ordeal recounted in the 1989 docu "Nullarbor Dreaming."

In "Sanctum," a hard-edged father and his teen son lead a diving team, and the true character of the divers surfaces when they are faced with adversity."

As one who was nearly killed in that cave collapse, I thought there was great stuff in how people react in crisis, and become heroes or cowards," Wight told Daily Variety. "Jim and I spoke about all this while working on these 3-D adventure projects, and we had a burning desire to make a gritty film about what it's like to be on an expedition and have it all go horribly wrong. We wanted to show that the 3-D equipment and technology can be used to tell a story in a modest budget independent film."

We can expect more such ventures from Cameron. He obviously is taking a strong approach to ensuring their is plenty of 3D movies in the pipeline for distributors to make the call to changeover to digital 3D. This is yet another underwater 3D drama from Cameron/Pace with the other being his THE DIVE project which he will be directing. I have to say that I would not want these films under anyone else's influence - the man knows submerged filmmaking.

Quick Post: Laeta Kalogridis (co-writer of Avatar, Battle Angel, The Dive) Profile

Michael here. It's long been known that Laeta Kalogridis has been working on Battle Angel and The Dive for James Cameron, and her work on the Avatar script has also recently come to light.  Kalogridis has been a very well-respected screenwriter, but until now it seems she hasn't had much luck getting her screenplays produced.  Well, that's about to change - Kalogridis' career is really heating up.  Later this year, along with a little movie called Avatar, she has Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.  She is also working on the script for the action-comedy Witchita, which will star Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting profile of Kalogridis, including this quote about her collaboration with Cameron: "The whole reason I came out to Hollywood was the influence of [Cameron's] work, his transformation of how we think of action, and how we think of female heroes in action."

I can't wait to see what she does with Battle Angel, which has insane action along with a complex female protagonist.

James Cameron Signs to CAA - Ramifications for his Future Films?

Michael here.  Variety just reported that James Cameron, after 15 years of not being signed with an agency, has just inked a deal with CAA.

For those 15 years (since the release of True Lies), Cameron has been represented solely through his legal team at Greenberg Glusker.

So why seek agency representation at this point in time?  Agencies are responsible for "packaging" movie ideas for presentation to studios and other investors.  They work with their creative talent, production companies, and studio executives to put movies together with terms that all are happy with.  Once all the legal t's and i's are crossed and dotted, the agency typically takes 10% of each client's earnings.

So this has me wondering: Why would Cameron jump back into an agency again at this point in his career?  He has the clout to do something as huge and ambitious as Avatar with zero studio interference - Fox execs have said repeatedly they are staying away completely and letting him do his thing.  They respect him, and are ecstatic to have him in their camp - so I doubt he needs an agency's help getting Fox to greenlight his post-Avatar movie.

He also doesn't need anyone to find potential projects for him - he has plenty already lined up, including Battle Angel, The Dive, as well as an untitled historical project, which I speculate to be an epic depiction of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 that led to the destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the deaths of 10,000 to 25,000 people.  This project was announced back in February 2004 when Cameron acquired the rights to the book "Ghosts of Vesuvius."  And he has referred to the project since then as well.

Variety mentions that Sanctum, a 3D underwater suspense/drama being developed / produced by Cameron for another director, was packaged by and is being shopped around to studios by CAA. But that still doesn't explain why Cameron personally signed with CAA.  A producer's job and an agent's job are very similar in the early stages-bringing the project together.  So although I could sort of understand Cameron paying a minimal fee to CAA to help package future projects (although with his pull at Fox and his respect in the industry at large, I doubt he would need this), I am still confused as to why he is signed as a CAA "client" - which seem to suggest that he would be receiving potential scripts from CAA for his consideration, would be relying on them to approach and negotiate with potential cast, writers and other talent, etc.

I'm very curious to learn more about his reasons for this decision, and what it may mean for his future movies.

What do you think?  Am I missing something? Any industry insiders that can shed some light?

"Battle Angel" Has A Script Ready?

Jim here. According to SciFiScoop, BATTLE ANGEL's IMDB page has been updated with a status change from "Development Unknown" to "Script". Even if this is official (which with IMDb it certainly may NOT be), does it mean that we are closer to seeing this get made?

We know that Cameron has been working on BATTLE ANGEL here and there. So this little development seems to fall in line with current expectations that the heat is being turned up on this project and may be front-burnered. Certainly Cameron's 3D tech has been tweaked and optimized during thr shooting of AVATAR so the project should hit the ground running - whenever that is.

So what will happen with THE DIVE? One would assume that Cameron can and will swap projects from time to time as it was a toss up whether AVATAR would be made first over BATTLE ANGEL. Personally I would like to see BATTLE ANGEL done next, but I know that THE DIVE will be an extremely important movie in that Cameron can present a drama in 3D done CORRECTLY.

What project do you think Cameron should shoot next?

"The Dive" Next Up For James Cameron: 3D Of Course!

James Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter that his follow up movie after "Avatar" will be "The Dive", based on a true story of a Cuban free diver Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras and his love affair with a French woman - Audrey Mestre. Mestre perishes while in competition after being trained by her lover.

I KNOW I missed out on asking some key questions of Cameron and Vince Pace during their Cannes Panels yesterday, but c'est la vie. Next time Jim!

Obviously as I have alluded to in past posts, underwater 3D cinematography is absolutely stunning. Floating objects are suspended in front of you allowing your eyes to wander and become deeply immersed in the film. When the camera is at the waters edge, just breaking the surface - it really seems as though you are IN the water. An amazing effect indeed.

Cameron will be able to take this movie to its limits and explore nuances never before seen as 3D is the tool that directors dream about.

It may be free diving but there is a cost associated with this picture - "Battle Angel" will have to wait awhile. Can't say as I blame him - he is putting an ungodly amount of time into "Avatar" to spoil us all. Battle Angel will not be a walk in the park - not that any of his films are.

I have a ton of anticipation for "The Dive". An escape into a world that I would never ever see otherwise, partially a glorious environment for a movie setting and partially a death trap. Awesome. If there is one team I would want doing "The Dive" it is James Cameron and Vince Pace. Synergy baby.

Is it just me or does Francisco look A LOT like Ron Perlman? Hmmm. Called it.

Here is an Italian clip of the couple: