As he did with his first movie, The Terminator, James gave everything he could to save his film.
When Bill Mechanic knocked on James Cameron's trailer door, James knew it was bad news.
One of the best parts about the mini-studio 20th Century Fox had built in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, was that it was harder for executives to come in and meddle in the creative vision James had spent years now building.
But when Mechanic, Fox's President of Motion Pictures, visited the set, and handed James a list of shots they were asking him to cut from the film schedule, James didn't take it well.
Mechanic recalled the visit firsthand in his interview with Blockbuster series creator Matt Schrader.
"If you're going to try to fire me, you're going to have to kill me," Cameron says in Episode 9 of Blockbuster.
Tomorrow marks the season finale Episode 10 of BLOCKBUSTER: THE STORY OF JAMES CAMERON — the award-winning "biopic podcast" series, starring The Walking Dead's Ross Marquand, from filmmaker and journalist Matt Schrader.
In response, James agreed to forfeit his participation in the film's profits, and his writer fee as well, in order for Fox to allow him to finish the gargantuan movie the way he intended — at a cost of upwards of $230M.
This is featured in BLOCKBUSTER, free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and all other platforms. BLOCKBUSTER is winner of Adweek's Creative Podcast of the Year, and earned two Webby Honorees and NYF Radio Awards, including for Best Podcast Miniseries.
You can hear more about the passions and rise of James Cameron in BLOCKBUSTER, free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other platforms.
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