James Cameron keeps saying he might be done with ‘Avatar,’ and in an in-depth THR interview, he’s hinting, “I’ve got other stories to tell,” specifically zeroing in on a new Terminator movie (without Arnold).
Here’s a little nugget from that conversation. He admits that he wrote ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action classic “Point Break,” which officially credited its script to W. Peter Iliff:
I wrote ‘Point Break.’ I flat out got stiffed by the Writers Guild on that. It was bullshit.
Know what? This kind of makes sense. Cameron also wrote Bigelow’s “Strange Days,” which he actually got credited for.
Cameron and Bigelow were married at the time, collaborated closely throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, and Cameron’s fingerprints—alpha masculinity, mythic action, and obsession-level craft—are all over the film. So are the cringe-level bouts of dialogue.
Still, the WGA credit has never changed, and Iliff remains the sole credited screenwriter. Cameron feels burned, but officially, “Point Break” isn’t his.
In the meantime, Cameron can revel in a filmography that includes “The Terminator,” “T2: Judgment Day,” “Aliens,” “Titanic,” and “Avatar.” In fact, he’s only directed 10 features in his near 45-year career. You can blame Avatar for that — he’s basically been stuck in Pandora-mode for three decades now.