The Kapuskasing-born writer/director let Spider-Man slip through his fingers, turned down Terminator 3 and lost interest in making a sequel to True Lies. He's been more documentarian than dramatic filmmaker in the past 10 years, focusing on scholarly underwater studies (Aliens of the Deep, Expedition: Bismarck) over the multiplex behemoths that made his name.
At 52, he's the forgotten man of Hollywood, no mean feat for a five-times-married guy with an ego to match his famous Oscar boast about being the monarch of the planet.
He's been busy stacking the dough he earned guiding Titanic to a record $1.8 billion (U.S.
) box office and winning a record-tying 11 Oscars.
But it looks like Cameron is finally getting back to making movies, according to a recent interview in Britain's The Independent newspaper.
He has started pre-production on Avatar, his long-discussed sci-fi adventure about a human who takes over an alien planet.
Cameron wrote the screenplay in 1995. It's been sitting on the shelf so long that a few years back it was featured in an Empire magazine list titled The Twelve Greatest Unproduced Scripts In Hollywood.
I was never bored of making features, Cameron told The Independent.
This has been a dream project of mine for more than a decade, but when I first wrote it, the technology was not advanced enough. So I stuck the script in the drawer until the technology caught up.
As usual, he's as ambitious as all get-out.
He wants to create both an all-new alien culture and language, using photo-realistic CGI characters and photo-capture imagery of the kind that created the character Gollum for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
If Cameron remains true to form, he'll end up inventing new technology to get the images he wants. And he's in no hurry to get Avatar made, predicting a 2009 release.
(And don't hold your breath on that ndash; just last summer, he was talking 2008.)
This must be the season for Canuck movie talent to come out of hibernation. Maybe it's the lack of snow we've been having.
Last week, Toronto's Mike Myers took the muzzles off his pals and allowed them to blab to The New York Times about his own simmering projects.
His new celluloid endeavours include playing the title role in a biopic of Keith Moon, the late drummer for The Who; playing a relationship guru in a romantic comedy; and playing a man fighting machines in the sci-fi thriller based on the cult self-help book How to Survive a Robot Uprising.
But none of these films are expected any earlier than 2008, which would make it five years since Myers' last live-action role, hiding behind make-up in the kidpic bomb The Cat In the Hat.
No wonder headlines referred to Myers as an Intentional Man of Mystery, a play on his Austin Powers nickname.
His voice will be heard this year, however, in Shrek the Third, the latest chapter of his blockbuster cartoon about a fairy-tale ogre and his donkey.
CANNES FOR DYLAN AND STONES?
Todd Haynes' unusual Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There is in post-production, having wrapped filming in Montreal.
The Weinstein Company announced Wednesday it has picked up North American and U.K.
rights to the film, which features an all-star cast playing Dylan at various stages of his life. The actors playing him include Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett and Richard Gere.
No one is saying so yet, but the timing of the announcement suggests a launch at the Cannes Film Festival, which runs this year from May 16-27.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Cannes programmers also pick up Martin Scorsese's unnamed Rolling Stones career retrospective, assuming the famously finicky filmmaker can get it finished in time. Haynes and Scorsese are both Cannes veterans.
BOND BOMBSHELL: Casino Royale is now the highest-grossing James Bond film of all time, having this past weekend hit $454 million (U.
S.) on the worldwide box office, beating the previous record of $432 million set by Die Another Day, the last Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan. It's expected that Casino Royale will hit the $500 million mark before heading to DVD, proving that the risky decision to replace Brosnan with Daniel Craig was a sound one.
And rumours are circulating about plans for Craig's second stint as 007. Current bets are that it will be based on an Ian Fleming short story title Risico, one of five tales originally published in 1960 in a collection titled For Your Eyes Only, which yielded its own Bond movie (as did From a View to a Kill, another story in the book).
In Risico, Bond is sent by M to sleuth Italian drug smugglers who are shipping their contraband to England.
The story includes a high-profile capture and high drama on the high seas.
CUTTING TO THE CHASE: George Lucas is still talking about making a fourth Indiana Jones, a project that has been moving at tortoise speed since 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Lucas was yammering about it yet again while preparing to emcee the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's Day.
But now it seems it's actually going to happen, even though Harrison Ford will be nearly 66 when we finally see him wearing his Indy hat again in the summer of 2008, the planned year of release.
Lucas' co-conspirator Steven Spielberg is preparing to direct, screenwriter David Koepp (Spider-Man, War of the Worlds) has hammered out an acceptable script and Ford is ready to crack his whip yet again, even if it throws his back out.
But what's the controversial MacGuffin that Lucas keeps talking about as the main plot hook of Indy IV?
It has some connection to the Ark of the Covenant in the original Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Lucas believes it could be controversial, which means it likely has some religious aspect to it.
I like the theory advanced by poster Ian Sinclair on Jeffrey Wells' Hollywood-Elsewhere.com blog.
Sinclair posits the MacGuffin will be the Spear of Destiny, the lance that pierced the body of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The Nazis apparently believed it to be an artifact with Earth-shaking power similar to the Ark of the Covenant, so it would do nicely for Indy IV, if indeed these Raiders ever do get rolling again.
SADLY, SLY DOESN'T SUCK: This year's Razzie Awards are in a quandary.
The antidote to the Oscars, preparing for its annual edition on Feb. 24, is in the midst of sending out nominations ballots for Razzie voters to list the worst movies of 2006.
The noms come with a note from Razzies founder John Wilson as to why Rocky Balboa, a.
k.a Rocky VI, isn't all over the ballots. Wilson writes that he was expecting a Razzie of epic proportions for Sylvester Stallone's final slide down the Rocky chute, but to his astonishment ndash; shared by many critics ndash; the movie is okay.
While hardly a classic, Rocky Balboa (or as we like to call it, Rocky XVII) is actually, for a film starring, written and directed by Stallone ...
not that bad, Wilson writes.
Talk about your backhanded compliments. A film that's too good to not be considered really bad.
But Rocky Balboa is listed in two places on the nominating ballot: Burt Young (who plays Rocky's wacky brother-in-law Paulie) and Milo Ventimiglia (who plays Rocky's wimpy son) are both listed as choices for worst supporting actor. But they'd be up against such non-talented contenders as Martin Short (Santa Clause 3) and David Thewlis (for both Basic Instinct 2 and The Omen).
Basic Instinct 2, which the Razzies call Basically, It Stinks, Too!
, looks to be the top contender for Razzie infamy this year. It's all over the nominating ballot, reflecting the 93 per cent rotten rating it received from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Incidentally, Stallone has a sense of humour about this stuff.
The Los Angeles Times asked him recently about his career total (so far) of 30 Razzie nominations and 10 wins.
Is that all? Stallone replied.
I'm sorry, I must be slipping!
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