James Cameron has no time to defend the 4K transfers of his films like “Aliens” and “True Lies.”
The auteur told The Hollywood Reporter that fans who criticize the quality of restorations should “get a life.” Cameron seems to be echoing the sentiment that Ridley Scott doled out for the historical accuracy of his own features like “Napoleon.” Basically, let the directors direct, the restorers restore, and be content as cinephiles, according to Cameron.
“When people start reviewing your grain structure, they need to move out of mom’s basement and meet somebody. Right? I’m serious,” Cameron said. “I mean, are you fucking kidding me? I’ve got a great team that does the transfers. I do all the color and density work. I look at every shot, every frame, and then the final transfer is done by a guy who has been with me [for years]. All the ‘Avatar’ films are done that way. Everything is done that way.”
He added, “Get a life, people, seriously.”
As for his aforementioned “Avatar” team, Cameron teased that the upcoming “Avatar 3” is “really fucking cool.” And Cameron is still steadfast about directing the fourth and fifth installments of the franchise.
“I mean, they’re going to have to stop me. I got plenty of energy, love doing what I’m doing. Why would I not?” Cameron said. “And they’re written, by the way. I just reread both of them about a month ago. They’re cracking stories. They’ve got to get made. Look, if I get hit by a bus and I’m in an iron lung, somebody else is going to do it.”
Cameron previously told IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill during a 2023 Beyond Fest panel that the 4K release of “The Abyss” had bonus material that was not part of the original 1989 film.
“All of the mastering is done and I think it drops pretty soon — a couple of months or something like that,” Cameron said. “There’s a lot of added material that they’re sticking in there, and it will be available on streaming simultaneously. But I didn’t just want to look at the old HD transfer. I wanted to do it right.”
