Before Avatar had to go and make almost three billion dollars there seemed to be a flicker of hope that James Cameron would get back to sweet dystopian arena of strict action with a film version of Yukito Kishiro’s manga series Battle Angel. But, as his sci-fi blockbuster far exceeded anyone’s expectations, 20th Century Fox was keen to pull him back in for back-to-back sequels. So where does this leave the other project?
The director stopped by MTV to give us our first update on his possible future action film in quite some time. He came up with a clever way to say that his sequels were not about making more bank, rather there is much “more good” to be done making people aware with nature with these sequels. And that Battle Angel is just a “kick-ass action story.” That sounds like a wonderful reason to make a passion project to me, but Cameron insists that he still intends to direct it. And while he doesn’t want to die with it, there isn’t a great chance that he’ll let anyone else do it. My bets? We’ll never see this one come to fruition.
Something much more likely, however, is another sequel to Terminator. Fast Five director Justin Lin was attached to direct the film before he went on to helm a sixth in that car racing franchise, but now Cameron let slip a small desire for the series. Also speaking with MTV, he revealed that he told Arnold Schwarzenegger “he should not do it until it’s focused on his character.” Cameron believes there “great stories that can be told about that character that haven’t even been thought of yet.” With Arnie back in the action filmmaking game, I could actually see another one being made in the not-so-distant future. Check out both interview bits below as we wait for more Cameron news, which will likely feature only blue aliens for the next half-decade.
Would you have liked to seen Battle Angel before the Avatar sequels? Do you want a Terminator 5?