CAMERON'S 3-D "SANCTUM" MAY PRECEDE "PROJECT 880" AND "BATTLE ANGEL"

April 23, 2006

According to a Variety interview with Canadian-born writer/director James "Terminator" Cameron, "There isn't a film that I've got in my queue -- and I'm four deep right now in projects that I've got scripted and want to shoot -- that I wouldn't want to make in 3-D."

"I'm betting the frickin' farm on this."

Cameron has spent the last 10 years working in 'stereography', beginning with theme-park attraction "T2 3-D: Battle Across Time" in 1996.

Since the success of "Titanic", the Roger Corman movie-factory alumnus began developing a stereoscopic camera system that could support a live-action 3-D feature, testing it on "Ghosts of the Abyss" and "Aliens of the Deep".

"The best stereo experience is one that's more of a guided experience by the filmmaker, not one that is selected by the viewer," he said.

"By the time I come out with my feature film in summer of 2008, I'm hoping for a minimum of 1000 (screens)."

Cameron confirms that film is "Project 880" aka "Avatar", that will include performance capture and a virtual production pipeline.

"But, I have another project that is a straight, live-action 3-D project," he said.

"It might be done first. The working title right now is "Sanctum" and we're still writing it, but it's designed as kind of a fast-turn project."

On the news that George Lucas intends to re-release all of his "Star Wars" films in 3-D, and of Cameron's own plans to re-release "Titanic" in a similar format, the director said, "making a 3-D movie is fun and cool and challenging, but having your film dimensionalized after the fact is always a compromise."

But he added, "Any film that's made more than half a billion dollars is a very good candidate for 'dimensionalization' and re-release."