James Cameron Guest Edits Wired Magazine

colonist writes "Terminator and Titanic director James Cameron is guest editor of the December issue of WIRED Magazine: 'This special issue of Wired is about honest-to-God, two-fisted, hairy-knuckled exploration.' Cameron worked for nearly a year on this issue, developing stories on the future of exploration in the oceans, on earth and in space. Contributors include Buzz Aldrin, Sean O'Keefe, Burt Rutan, Robert Ballard, Sylvia Earle and Kim Stanley Robinson. (The issue is not online yet.) Apart from making blockbuster films, Cameron explores the depths of the oceans and is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and the Mars Society."

Comments

James Cameron is the director of Aliens

[tezza]

I think you should mention a Director's most accomplished work, rather than his biggest grossing.

Terminator is good though.

Re:James Cameron is the director of Aliens

[Wolfbone]

Well it could've been a lame blood-n-guts sequel - and superficially it even looks like one - but I don't think it was. I watched all four in a row recently and "Aliens" came across as an alternatively styled work, complementary to the original: a beautifully detailed and fast-paced sequel to Alien done in the 'action' style of sci-fi films, not an inferior movie at all.

The third one was where the deterioration began, though it's not really that bad and compared to "Resurrection"... well - all I can say is that Jeunet should be burnt at the stake for having made a complete mockery of the Alien series: The pantomime General, stereotypically drawn scientists, arty-farty, technologically empty sets and a time-serving support cast of art house cinema poseurs (Winona excepted).

When the alien hybrid made those sickeningly twee babyface expressions I felt like crying.

Re:James Cameron is the director of Aliens

[NanoGator]

"I think you should mention a Director's most accomplished work, rather than his biggest grossing."

Are we going to split hairs about what 'most accomplished' means? Wouldn't biggest grossing imply most people seen/enjoyed? What about the great deal of effort that went into making that movie? Isn't that quite an accomplishment compared to Aliens or Terminator(s)?

Titanic isn't my favorite of his movies, but I have no issue with calling it "most accomplished" on several levels. This is especially true considering that Titanic is probably the one he's the most proud of. He really loves that ship.

Re:James Cameron is the director of Aliens

[Anonymous Coward]

"The suspense that made the original so great was gone, and in its place was buckets of gore"

Sorry, but first of all by the end of the first film, we'd seen what the Alien looks like, so ergo, there's no point in re-creating that suspense in the next film, since everyone already knows about them. (duh). Secondly, the sequel ALIENS was in fact suspenseful in many parts. i remember nearly peeing my pants in the scene where they are in the lab and this face-sucker suddnely jumps within one of these big glass tubes...

Just editing???

[mikerich]

Don't you mean conduct the interviews, reluctantly agree to be interviewed, write the articles, do the fact-checking, throw out the facts, draw the diagrams, re-draw the diagrams in an incomprehensible but oh-so-hip fashion, take the photos, dick around with the photos in Photoshop until they look like something in a psychology test, fetch the coffee, take the coffee back because it actually tasted of coffee, have the requisite magazine editor nervous breakdown, shout at the printers, go grovelling to the printers so they don't print the whole magazine in mirror image on fluorescent stock - hold on lose the mirror image keep the fluorescent paper, glue on the commemorative CueCat(tm) - then edit the magazine?

And still have time to throw in one ludicrously bad special effect?

Sci-Fi series

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I know James Cameron owns the film rights to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. I wish he would hurry up and make it into something along the lines of the Sci-Fi channels Dune adaptions, or even better perhaps?

Re:laying low

[mfg]

I think James Cameron has been laying low since he made an ass of himself with the "I'm the king of the world"

Considering what he'd been through over the previous couple of years, I think he was fairly restrained. After a long, hard shoot with nearly constant rumours that the movie was going to be one of the most expensive disasters in history, he's standing there in front of the entire entertainment industry with a couple of Oscars and a box office take heading for a billion dollars. In his place I'd probably have gone for "Fuck you, assholes!"

NASA Advisory Council?

[Pedrito]

Apart from making blockbuster films, Cameron explores the depths of the oceans and is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and the Mars Society

I'm sure James Cameron is a smart guy and everything, but I'm curious what makes him more qualified to be on the NASA Advisory Coucil than say, 50% of Slashdot readers who I'm sure are just as scientifically knowledgeable, if not a few hundred times as knowledgeable on the topics important to NASA. I mean, other than his bucket-loads of money, of course.

I'm not saying NASA should come recruit their Advisory Council on Slashdot, but I would certainly question the quality of the advice when movie directors are providing it. I mean, check out his resume on their site. It's a good resume for a movie director, but for an advisor to NASA?

And don't get me wrong, I don't think someone should be excluded because they're in a profession. I mean, I'm sure Asimov, Clarke and some other Sci-Fi authors would be able to provide valuable advice in the area of space exploration because, if nothing else, they tend to spend a lot of time thinking of the realism of the ideas in their books (something movie directors aren't particularly noted for).

I mean really, go look at all the resumes of the members on the site and then play the Sesame Street game of "Which of these things doesn't belong?"

Re:NASA Advisory Council?

[Ohreally_factor]

I'm sure Asimov, Clarke and some other Sci-Fi authors would be able to provide valuable advice in the area of space exploration because, if nothing else, they tend to spend a lot of time thinking of the realism of the ideas in their books (something movie directors aren't particularly noted for).

Asimov is dead, and it's hard to sit up at advisory council meetings when you're dead. They have to nail you to the chair, and it gets messy.

Clarke is a British citizen, IIRC. He lives in Sri Lanka and is wheelchair bound and in generally poor health. He couldn't even make the trip to England for his knighting ceremony, so I don't think he'd make many advisory council meetings in the U.S.

Also, he is credited with the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal for telecommunications. This makes your statement something of an understatement.

Cameron is a big shot celebrity with an interest in science. That's his only real qualification, and it's enough for what basically is an honorific post.