James Cameron's unrealized projects

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 in development hell or are officially cancelled.

1980s

Alien 3

After the release of Aliens and its financial success in 1986, 20th Century Fox decided to hire Cameron for direct a sequel entitled Alien 3, the third installment in the Alien franchise.^[1] Cameron had hopes that Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn would return to reprise their respective roles, along with Carrie Henn; but at the end, Cameron and Biehn left the project.^[2] The film was finally released in 1992 directed by David Fincher.

X-Men

Around 1989, Stan Lee and Chris Claremont entered in talks with Carolco Pictures to make a film adaptation of the X-Men comic book series, with Cameron as producer and with Kathryn Bigelow as director. However, the project entered in development hell when Lee piqued Cameron's interest on the long planned Spider-Man film.^[3] The film was finally released in 2000 with Bryan Singer as director.

1990s

The Crowded Room

In 1991, after finishing the filming of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron tried to get the rights of Daniel Keyes' non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan. In 1994, Keyes published a sequel novel entitled The Milligan Wars, stating that he published the novel for being a tie-in with the film adaptation, entitled The Crowded Room, which would be developed by Warner Bros. and with Cameron attached to direct, after buying the rights of the novel to Sandy Arcara. John Cusack was attached to play Billy Milligan and Cameron and Todd Graff wrote the screenplay.^[4][5] However, Cameron finally left the project by unknown reasons. As of December 2006, veteran film director Joel Schumacher was attched to direct the film.^[4]

T3

During the 1990s, Cameron said many times that he was interested in direct a third Terminator film,.^[6] After the defunct of Carolco Pictures in 1997, the developer of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron and 20th Century Fox were in talks about the production of a possible third Terminator film.^[7] However, at the end, Cameron left the production of the third film to direct Titanic, and the film was finally released as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003 and directed by Jonathan Mostow.

Spider-Man

After finishing the filming of True Lies, on September 1, 1993, Variety reported that Cameron had send a screenplay (apparently written in 1991)^[8] to Carolco Pictures for the already planned for a long time Spider-Man film, a theatrical project that had been in production since 1983.^[9] Leonardo DiCaprio was attached to play Spider-Man while Cameron's frequent collaborator Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to play Dr. Octopus.^[10][11] However, after the problems that producer Menahem Golan had with Carolco (which ended in the bankruptcy of the latter), Cameron left the project and signed a contract with 20th Century Fox.^[8] The film was finally released in 2002 directed by Sam Raimi.

Project 880

In 1994, Cameron finished the screenplay of Project 880, his next planned film.^[12] In August 1996, Cameron stated that he would direct Project 880 after finishing the filming of Titanic, and that the film would be released in 1999. However, Cameron felt that the technology of that time it wasn't enough and realistic for the project, putting it on hold. Finally, in October 2005, 20th Century Fox greenlighted the production of the project.^[13] However, Cameron released many changes on the Project 880 script, and it was finally released in 2009 as Avatar.

Planet of the Apes

In 1996, Cameron intended to direct a reboot of Planet of the Apes, after the badly performance of Battle for the Planet of the Apes. However, Cameron left the project after the successful reception of Titanic.^[14] The reboot was finally released in 2001 and directed by Tim Burton.

2000s

True Lies 2

Around 2001, Cameron planned to make True Lies 2, a sequel to his acclaimed and succesful film True Lies, with a potential release date in 2002. Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to reprise his role as Harry Tasker/Harry Rehnquist. However, after the September 11, 2001 attacks that happened on New York City in 2001, the production of the sequel was cancelled, because Cameron felt via Reddit that terrorism was no longer a funny joke.^[16]

Alien 5

In an interview on January 23, 2002, Ridley Scott expressed interest in make a fifth installment of the Alien film franchise.^[17] He stated that the fifth film would explain the Aliens' origins and where they were discovered.^[18] Cameron also discussed his possible return as director for the installment. However, the project was finally shelved due the production of the spin-off Prometheus and Alien vs. Predator was released in 2004 instead, as the first installment of the Alien vs. Predator spin-off franchise.

Battle Angel Alita

On April 17, 2003, it was reported by Moviehole that Cameron had signed with 20th Century Fox to direct a film adaptation of the Yukito Kishiro's manga Battle Angel Alita.^[19] On November 22, 2004, Cameron stated that the film would be released after finishing the filming of his documentary film Aliens of the Deep.^[20] However, on June 16, 2005, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the production of Battle Angel Alita would be delayed such Cameron decided to direct first Project 880^[21] (which would later became Avatar).^[22] On June 29, 2006, Cameron stated that Battle Angel Alita would be the first film of a trilogy.^[23] After other delays,^[24] like Cameron's work in the first two Avatar sequels,^[25] Cameron finally left the project. However, it was finally revealed on October 14, 2015, that the film would be released in 2018 with Robert Rodriguez as director and Cameron as producer, along Jon Landau.^[26]

True Lies: The Series

On May 8, 2009, seven years after the cancellation of True Lies 2, Cameron stated that although he didn't have plans to revive the True Lies sequel project, he had intentions of collaborate with Arnold Schwarzenegger again.^[27] On September 13, 2010, Deadline.com reported that Cameron was considering make a TV series based on True Lies, with Dark Angel producer René Echevarria as showrunner and producer.^[28] However, the project finally ended in development hell.

2010s

Heavy Metal

On March 12, 2010, Deadline reported that Cameron was attached to act as the co-executive producer and direct one segment of a planned R-rated animated remake of Gerald Potterton's Heavy Metal.^[29] However, five months later, Cameron left the project after David Fincher cancelled it due funding problems.^[30][31] Despite this, in 2011, Robert Rodriguez acquired the rights of the film,^[32] and in 2014 he stated the possibilities of adapt it into an animated television series in his El Rey Network.^[33]

Hiroshima

On August 12, 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that Cameron was working in biographical film about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese man that survived the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Cameron met Yamaguchi just days before he died.^[34] However, the project entered into development hell after Cameron decided to first focus of the Avatar sequels in The Informationist.

At the Mountains of Madness

On July 28, 2010, it was announced that Cameron would produce a film adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness for Universal Pictures, with Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro as director. The movie was originally set up as a project at DreamWorks in 2004, but it was cancelled.^[35] However, due many delays, Cameron and del Toro left the project after del Toro realized that the film would have been very similar to Ridley Scott's 2012 film Prometheus.

Untitled Avatar prequel

On May 5, 2012, Cameron expressed his desire of direct a prequel to his acclaimed and succesful Avatar film,^[36] with Sigourney Weaver attached to reprise her role as Dr. Grace Augustine.^[37] The film was originally supposed to be shot back-to-back along the second and third installment, because the prequel was supposed to be the fourth installment in the franchise. However, on September 8, 2012, Cameron revealed that the prequel will not be shot back-to-back with the second and the third films.^[38] Also, in April 2016, it was stated by Cameron that the fourth installment, along the fifth, are planned to be sequels like the first two,^[39] leaving the fate of the prequel project unknown.

The Informationist

On October 23, 2012, Los Angeles Times reported that Cameron had acquired the rights to direct a film adaptation of Taylor Stevens' novel The Informationist for 20th Century Fox. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment was attached to develop the film. He announced that he would direct the film after finishing his work in the first two Avatar sequels,^[40] but since this announcement any update was made, implying that the project was likely abandoned after the announcement of two more Avatar installments.^[41]

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