The fact that James Cameron has only directed two movies in the last quarter of a century, with Avatar 2 still a year away from coming to theaters at long last, would indicate that we shouldn’t expect the less-than-prolific filmmaker to take his talents to the small screen for an episodic series anytime soon, if ever.
However, given that he’s built his entire reputation on constantly changing the game and reinventing the visual possibilities of cinema, he may have found a workaround. During a conversation with Dune director Denis Villenueve hosted by Variety, the two acclaimed talents chatted back and forth about their careers and opinions.
When Villenueve asked Cameron for his thoughts on what the unstoppable rise of streaming could mean for the theatrical experience, the Terminator and Titanic architect floated an idea that’s equal parts unique and ambitious.
“I think what we can see is an expanded form of cinema. I want to do a movie that’s six hours long and two and a half hours long at the same time. Same movie. You can stream it for six hours, or you can go and have a more condensed, roller coaster, immersive version of that experience in a movie theater. Same movie. Just, one’s the novel, and one’s the movie. Why not? Let’s just use these platforms in ways that haven’t been done before.”
The thought of giving audiences the option of whether they want to enjoy the same project as either a two-hour film or a six-hour series is a fascinating concept, when both would be able to tell roughly the same narrative but in vastly different forms. Cameron more than likely isn’t going to find the time for this experiment, but we’re hoping that somebody else draws inspiration from his comments to make hit happen.
