James Cameron: fired from this film, he wanted to delete it from his filmography!

It’s unlikely, but James Cameron, the absolute master of the box office with the monster successes of the Titanic and Avatar films, an essential part of the seventh art, who now wants to revive the iconic SF franchise, has already been fired from the filming. . Yes, purely and simply fired! It was at the very beginning of his career, and the experience left such a painful memory for the Canadian director that he wanted to delete the film from his filmography for a long time.

This dark episode in the career of a man who recently warned against artificial intelligence dates back to the early 80s. Then special effects specialist Cameron, who had never been behind a feature film camera, was chosen to handle the controls. Piranha 2 – The Flying Killers after producer Ovidio G. Assonitis fired (already!) the original director, a certain Miller Drake.

James Cameron isn’t just directing Piranha 2, the sequel to Joe Dante’s Piranha. He is also a screenwriter with Assonitis and Charles H. Eglee. It is he who is at the forefront of this story, telling the investigation of a diving instructor, his scientific companion and her ex-husband after two women are killed by piranhas. Piranhas like others since they fly!

Things seem to be going well when James Cameron is hired, but two and a half weeks into filming, he is fired. For what ? In Interview with the Daily Dead websiteOvidio G. Assonitis states that Cameron “the experiment” on the point “That there was already a planned six-day delay on the eighth day of filming.” According to him, it is a real problem for a film with a low budget and busy schedule.

The Italian producer is not a tender with Cameron. “He lost control of the situation… (…) The actors hated him because he was arrogant, sometimes vulgar, but above all impudent”, loose assonite. It’s ultimately the apprentice filmmaker’s manic side—in this case, the time wasted waiting for a cloud to appear in the sky to find the perfect light—that decides to set him free once and for all.

Almost… because if Assonitis takes over the main production, it still allows Cameron to film the underwater sequences with special effects and piranhas. But here again, nothing goes well for the Transalpine producer, who is exasperated by the rendering of the special effects and who also sees Cameron meddling too much in the editing phase for his liking. “He was experimenting again”he worries. “He was spending at my expense, and I had to be strict again. Jim, you’re not allowed to set foot in the editing room.”

Eventually, Aceonite finished filming Piranha 2 alone and supervised the editing. The result is a work that, he says, “Includes footage shot by Cameron during the week and 30% special effects for which he is responsible.”

And Cameron, how did he cope with this chaotic production? Apparently quite badly. The filmmaker had long wanted to keep his name out of the credits of Piranha 2, but legal issues prevented him from doing so. “The Italian producer fired me and changed me, which he wanted as soon as he hired me”He ran wildly inside Interview with journalist Kenneth Turan. “Too late I realized what was happening to me.”

“To sum it up, I directed a bit of Piranha 2, but I don’t think of it as my first film.”continues the father titanic and avatar. “I revealed my merits when he could do me a favor, i.e. receive.” terminator. After that I dropped it. I think it makes sense.”

For a long time, James Cameron has definitely indicated that The Terminator, which was released in theaters in 1985, is his first film. Only later, he changed his tune and said that it was Piranha 2 that marked his debut behind the camera. However, with this difficult beginning imprinted in red iron, the remarks are laden with a certain irony when he states 60 minutes on the microphone that it is “The best Flying Piranha movie ever made.”

Our Give Me Five show on James Cameron: