James Cameron

A paraplegic ex-marine war veteran is unwillingly sent to establish a human settlement on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious, digital 3-D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, will be shot on the proprietary FUSION digital 3-D cameras developed by Cameron in collaboration with Vince Pace, and will offer a groundbreaking mix of live-action dramatic performances and computer-generated effects. Australian actor Sam Worthington stars as the reluctant human settler Jake Sully, with actress Zoe Saldana signing on to portray the local woman who enters into a romantic affair with the hero. The revolutionary motion-capture system created for the film allows the facial expressions of actors to be captured as a virtual camera system enables them to see what their computer-generated counterparts will be seeing in the film, and Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning Weta Digital visual effects house has been hired to supervise Avatar's complex visual effects. Wes Studi, Sigourney Weaver, CCH Pounder, and Michelle Rodriguez round out the cast. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director/producer/screenwriter Simcha Jacobovichi teams with executive producer James Cameron to explore the possibility that a first-century tomb unearthed in Jerusalem in 1980 may have once held the remains of Jesus Christ. In the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, a bulldozer inadvertently unearthed a tomb containing ten ossuaries - six of which bore inscriptions of extraordinary magnitude to biblical scholars. Six names were inscribed on the stone coffins: Jesus, son of Joseph; Mariamene (the common name of Mary Magdalene; Maria; Matthew; Joseph; and Judah, Son of Jesus. Though the stone coffins were initially dismissed as coincidence by archeologists, they were cataloged by the Israel Antiquities Association before being sent to a warehouse and forgotten for over two decades. Compelled by the remarkable collection of New Testament names inscribed on the tombs, filmmaker Jacobovichi, with the aid of Cameron, determined to solve the mystery behind what could be one of the most significant archeological discoveries in the history of man. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Canadian documentary filmmaker Stephen Low directs the IMAX movie Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, with Titanic director James Cameron as the executive producer. During its brief 40-minute running time, the film starts out with a 1977 expedition to find life at the bottom of the sea. At depths as low as 10,000 feet, the discovery proved the existence of underwater volcanoes and the plant life they help sustain. Using the deep-sea diving vehicle known as Alvin, the filmmakers capture large-format film footage of some of these underwater ecosystems along with some helpful CGI reconstructions. Ed Harris delivers the narration. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

It is the final stand between the transgens and their enemies in this special 90-minute episode. The connection between anti-transgen White (Martin Cummins) and the "Sandeman" responsible for the creation of such Manticore mutants as Joshua (Kevin Durand) has finally been revealed. As human vigilantes prepare to besiege the transgen refuge in Terminal City, Max (Jessica Alba), who has rather forcefully enlisted her human friends to her side of the battle, welcomes a mass migration of thousands and thousands of her Manticore "siblings" from all over the country. Will those runic symbols breaking out all over Max's body be explained? Is Logan (Michael Weatherly) at last immune to Max's lab-generated virus? And will White succeed in wiping out all traces of Manticore by killing every transgen on Earth? Unless the grass-roots effort to revive the series succeeds, this remains the last-ever episode of Dark Angel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Launched on May 18, 1941, the Nazi battleship Bismarck was the largest war vessel of its kind ever built. Wasting no time in making its mark on the Second World War, the Bismarck spent the first eight days of its existence cutting a swath of destruction and devastation throughout the North Atlantic, sending several Allied ships (and sailors) to the bottom of the sea. But on day nine -- May 27, 1941 -- the Bismarck itself was defeated and destroyed by the combined efforts of the British battleships Rodney and King George. When the smoke cleared, the Bismarck was sunk beneath the waves, carrying 2,106 German sailors with it. Produced and directed by James Cameron, the man who brought the movie megahit Titanic to life in 1997, the two-hour documentary Expedition: Bismarck uses state-of-the-art technology and filming equipment to offer viewers the first images of the Bismarck since its death 61 years earlier. This required Cameron and his hardy crew to risk their own lives by plunging some 16,000 feet into the icy North Atlantic, but the end results were well worth the danger involved. Debuting on the Discovery Channel cable network on December 8, 2002, Expedition: Bismarck was made available on both video and DVD within a matter of days after its TV bow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the few new Fox Network series of the 2000-2001 season to be tagged as a "sure winner," Dark Angel was produced, written, co-created, and co-directed by James Cameron, of Terminator and Titanic fame. Nineteen-year-old Jessica Alba shed her ingenuous Flipper image as Max Guevara, the creation of a diabolical futuristic laboratory that specialized in creating human prototypes for their own evil purposes. Escaping from the lab as a child, Max managed to survive into adulthood through a combination of drop-dead gorgeous looks, the cunning of a fox, the agility of a cat, and the strength of a superhuman. Managing to elude her mad-scientist pursuer, Lydecker (John Savage), by living in a squalid inner-city slum, Max is lured out of hiding by fearless cyberjournalist Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly), who convinces the heroine to join his fight against the oppressive post-apocalyptic status quo. Along the way, Max solicits the aid of her fellow lab subjects, some of whom have gone over to the other side. The supporting cast includes Alimi Ballard as Herbal Thought, Jennifer Blanc as Kendra, Richard Gunn as Sketchy, J.C. MacKenzie as Normal, and Valarie Rae Miller as Original Cindy. The weekly, 60-minute Dark Angel ran from October 3, 2000 through May 3, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actor/writer/director Albert Brooks turns his satiric gaze on the film industry in this comedy about a screenwriter who has hit a rough patch. Steven Philips (played by Brooks) has enjoyed a celebrated career in Hollywood, but one day he has a meeting with his agent, who informs him his career is suddenly going nowhere. Steven quickly finds himself at the end of his rope and is unable to put a decent sentence on paper. Desperate, he hears that there's a bona fide muse in Hollywood, Sarah (played by Sharon Stone), who might be able to help with his problems. The writer contacts Sarah, hoping a good, stong dose of inspiration will get his career back on track. However, Sarah's late hours and endless demands don't do much to help Steven's relationship with his wife (Andie MacDowell). The Muse features an original musical score by Elton John, and cameos by several notable film figures, including Martin Scorsese, Rob Reiner, and James Cameron. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This spectacular epic re-creates the ill-fated maiden voyage of the White Star Line's $7.5 million R.M.S Titanic and the tragic sea disaster of April 15, 1912. Running over three hours and made with the combined contributions of two major studios (20th Century-Fox, Paramount) at a cost of more than $200 million, Titanic ranked as the most expensive film in Hollywood history at the time of its release, and became the most successful. Writer-director James Cameron employed state-of-the-art digital special effects for this production, realized on a monumental scale and spanning eight decades. Inspired by the 1985 discovery of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, the contemporary storyline involves American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent.

Cameron launched the project after seeing Robert Ballard's 1987 National Geographic documentary on the wreckage. Blueprints of the real Titanic were followed during construction at Fox's custom-built Rosarito, Mexico studio, where a hydraulics system moved an immense model in a 17-million-gallon water tank. During three weeks aboard the Russian ship Academik Keldysh, underwater sequences were filmed with a 35mm camera in a titanium case mounted on the Russian submersible Mir 1. When the submersible neared the wreck, a video camera inside a remote-operated vehicle was sent into the Titanic's 400-foot bow, bringing back footage of staterooms, furniture and chandeliers. On November 1, 1997, the film had its world premiere at the 10th Tokyo International Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Set in Los Angeles two days before the end of 1999, Strange Days introduces us to Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), an ex-cop turned sleazy hustler who hawks the newest underground thrill on the black market: a "squid," a headpiece that allows one to transmit digital recordings of other people's thoughts, feelings, and memories into their brain; as Lenny describes it, "this is real life, pure and uncut, straight from the cerebral cortex." Lenny deals "clips" (the software) as well as "squids" (the hardware) for this new and illegal entertainment system, and while sex and violence are the most popular themes, Lenny refuses to deal in "blackjack" -- slang for snuff clips. Lenny is nursing a broken heart after his girlfriend, punk singer Faith Justin (Juliette Lewis), left him, and he spends a lot of time with clips he recorded when they were together. Faith is now involved with Philo Grant (Michael Wincott), a music business tycoon who once managed Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer), a hip-hop musician and political activist whose murder has sent L.A. into a state of chaos. When a clip emerges that shows that Jeriko was killed by L.A. police officers, Lenny finds his life in danger, and he tries to escape possible death on both sides of the law with the help of his friend Mace Mason (Angela Bassett). Strange Days was written by James Cameron in collaboration with former film critic Jay Cocks; Kathryn Bigelow directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide