Name: James Cameron Says Movies Will Never Cost $150 Million | Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-07-03T22:00:10.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'James Cameron Says Movies Will Never Cost $150 Million | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-07-03. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'James Cameron Says Movies Will Never Cost $150 Million | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-07-03. Transcript available.

Our next guest has written and directed such films as The Terminator, Aliens,
and Rambo 2.
His new film, as we have already heard and learned, is called The Abyss.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to James Cameron.
Hi, James. How are you doing? Pleasure to see you.
Well, I'm all right. It's getting better. Have a seat.
Now, we've been joking about having the director of this film on,
but this is not just an ordinary film, is it?
This is a little something special.
Well, it was shot underwater, which, you know, I think you should do a show
underwater sometime.
You know, we've actually talked about it, but it seemed like it would be logistically
darn near impossible.
I'll talk to some people. We'll see what we can work out.
Get you a helmet.
Now, what is the deal here? This is, it's all underwater, and what happens?
It's people are out, a submarine explodes, and any of that?
Bits, bits, yeah.
A nuclear submarine sinks under mysterious circumstances.
You've got a crew of oil rigged divers on the bottom of the ocean who get
called in to find out what the hell's going on,
and they start coming in contact with something very strange.
It's coming up from a much...
It lives down there.
Lives down there, yeah.
Now, in all of the oceans of the world, is there anything like the abyss?
Is there like a bottomless hole anywhere?
There are places where it goes down five, six, seven miles, and it's relatively
unexplored, so anything could be down there.
We don't know.
Now, people who have seen the film, people are divided.
Some people say, geez, this is the best picture ever, and other people are
thinking, well, there's no fish.
You know?
Do you have fish in the movie?
Well, budget cuts.
But do you see fish?
But we can afford Chris.
Oh, good.
But is there marine life in there?
Yeah.
Well, at that depth, there is very little life.
What I was trying to do is say that this is a very barren and sterile place
down there,
and focus the attention on the people and their interaction, you know, their
emotions and, you know, what happens to them.
And how deep were you when you filmed this thing?
55 feet, something like that, yeah.
And were the actors that deep as well?
Mm-hmm, yeah.
And were they all, did they all take dive training?
Yeah, when I auditioned the actors originally, they all, you know, thousands of
actors came in for parts,
and I kind of winnowed out the ranks a little bit.
I said, you know, you're all going to die.
Yeah.
That was like the icebreaker, and I said, you know, you're going to have to
learn to dive, and you've got to expect losses.
Losses, really?
You know, we were very safety conscious on the picture.
Well, now, but have you heard, you must have heard this, that Ed Harris is
steamed because he says that you tricked him
and hit his oxygen or something like that?
Just a little underwater joke, you know?
I mean...
No, but is that true, or is that just not true?
It was probably some momentary tiff.
I hid his air, you know.
But, no.
Well, I was partying with Ed last night, and I don't think he's particularly...
Now, were you 55 feet below also?
Yeah.
So it was as dangerous for you.
Did you ever, do you ever think you placed them in jeopardy you yourself would
not have wanted to be in?
Um...
Not that anybody wants to be in jeopardy, but you know what I mean.
Well, some people like to challenge themselves, and I think we all were trying
to push ourselves a little bit.
You know, jeopardy is relative.
It's funny, I've been doing a number of press interviews and so on, and people
say, you know, how dangerous was it?
And I say, not very, and then I get in a taxi or a limo, and I'm driving around
New York, and I see people stepping off the curb and almost getting killed.
And I almost get killed, and I'm hiding under the seat, and I go in to do
another interview, and wasn't it really dangerous?
And I go, um, you know, yeah, it was not real dangerous.
And then I get out, and I go in the taxi, and I almost die.
And so, you know, jeopardy is kind of, it's a relative thing.
The budget for this film was, what, $30, $40 million?
$43 million.
$43 million.
And what was the budget on the first film you directed?
The first film I directed, which I got fired off of, was called Piranha 2.
And I think it was about $600,000.
And then the second film was The Terminator, and that was $6 million.
And the next film after that was Aliens, and that was $17 million, and this one
was $43 million.
So the next film on that curve would be about $150 million.
Yikes.
Do you think somebody will?
My phone's not going to ring for a while, by the way.
Do you think somebody will spend that kind of money on a film?
No, I don't think so.
Yeah, but I mean, years and years ago, somebody would have said,
geez, I'll never spend $40 million on a film either, I guess.
Well, you know, $40 million doesn't buy what it used to.
Yeah, that's a shame.
No fish.
And before Piranha 2, which was the blockbuster sequel to Piranha.
Yes, yes.
It was okay.
How did you start?
What was your first position in film?
What did you do?
I started working in special effects, and I did a little art direction, and
then I worked, you know, it kind of got into second unit.
You worked with Roger Corman at one point?
Roger Corman, yeah.
And was that a film you remember?
You worked on a film?
Yeah, I worked on Battle Beyond the Stars and another film called Galaxy of
Terror.
In fact, I got my first directing gig, which was, you know, Piranha 2, as a
result of Galaxy of Terror.
I was doing second unit directing on that film, and my very first job as a
director, it was like, okay, today I am a director, second unit director.
Second unit being what?
You know, little inserts and things, if you need a cutaway to something.
And they needed a cutaway to a dismembered arm lying on the ground with worms
crawling around on it.
So, I have the arm, I have the worms, we have to set up the camera, it's lit,
and nothing happens.
It's just like a still photo.
So, I have them put a piece of zip cord, strip it down, and lay it underneath
the arm, and we make it wet so that it'll conduct.
And there's an electrician around behind the set, and the only cue I could
think of was action to tell them to throw the switch.
So, you're going to shoot electricity into the arm, the worms, both.
Yeah, right, exactly.
And what I didn't know was that these two producers who were looking for a
director for Piranha 2 had come in behind me,
and they were looking over the setup, and I said, all right, roll camera.
They rolled, and action, and the electrician behind plugged in.
The worms all started to move.
I said, that's good, that's a cut.
He unplugs.
They didn't see him.
Worms stopped moving.
I turned and said, come with us, we'd like to talk to you about a film we're
making.
And then it was Piranha 2.
Well, this has opened nationwide now, is that the deal?
Abyss is all over.
And do you think, is it going to be like one of these big ones, like Batman or
some of the others that have...
It's hard to say.
It's anybody's guess, you know.
People seem to want to spend a lot of money this summer at the movies, which is
great.
But on the other hand, they might have spent it all already.
All right.
But it's the abyss, and this is the man responsible for it, James Cameron.
Pleasure to see you.
Thank you very much for being here.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.