James Cameron to Receive 2026 Writers Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award – The ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ filmmaker, who has never been nominated for a screenplay Oscar in his storied career, is being recognized for “outstanding contributions to the profession.”
by BunyipPouch
4 Comments
Wild. Writing is the worst thing he does.
Probably the best screenplay he wrote was True Lies and that was a remake/adaptation of a French Movie.
I know Cameron doesn’t get a ton of praise for writing but his scripts puts butts in seats and thats what ultimately pays the guild dues, I assume, I have no clue how Writers Guild dues works. Also, why didn’t the Coen brothers write Terminator 2 if they’re so good at writing movies?
Cameron is really good at exposition scene, probably the best there is working today. He has this ability to make you sit through an exposition scene and not know it is an exposition scene. Just recently, take the tent scene in Avatar 3 with Quaritch and Varand for example — all exposition and it is like 5 minutes long and the entire time you’re glued to the screen and not even realize it’s exposition. Really good stuff. The exposition scene in Avatar 2 where Quaritch cracks down where the Sullys are hiding is equally great exposition scene.
His best exposition scene is probably from Titanic where he tells you exactly twice (once a computer demo and another a blueprint) how the ship will sink and you’ll probably miss it’s an exposition. One of my personal favourites is from True Lies where the terrorists are laying out their plan and Cameron hides all that with the hysterical “Battery, Aziz!”
Not a big fan of making comparisions but if you compare how Christopher Nolan does exposition scenes vs how James Cameron does exposition scenes, Cameron is just miles ahead.
The action setpieces in his script are also all slick and easy to follow. Bro wrote the sinking setpiece of Titanic is three weeks! That’s some serious talent.