For Your Anticipation: You're So About To Get Spanked!

You know what the only mild comfort I have going into this weekend is? That despite the abysmal box office standings of the past month, that could all change because a James Cameron film is entering the market. Of course he didn't actually direct it, and the visual effects look occasionally terrible judging by these clips. Still, the man produced the feature, and that means that we might have another inexplicable box office success on our hands. I can't tell you what people liked about Avatar, because I don't see any reason to. Still, there must be a reason it made nearly $3 billion. I'm not saying I expect Sanctum to do anything close to those numbers. It'll be lucky if it manages more than $20 million this weekend. Just some wishful thinking.

Theatrical Trailer: Sanctum

Another film produced by James Cameron! It's sad that I just don't care anymore. Here's the set up for his latest production, Sanctum. A group of cave divers decide to explore the largest unexplored cave system on earth, when chaos strikes. If it sounds vaguely like The Cave or The Descent, then you drew the same parallels that I did. The core differences are that there is no monster trying to kill our team, which is always a mark against a film, and that it is being marketed in a similar vein as 127 Hours. Suddenly, I'm more inclined to like Danny Boyle's upcoming film. I'd like to be nicer to James Cameron and give him a shot, but I did that for Avatar and it cost me more than it benefited me. So watch the trailer, and let me know what you think.

Cameron Taking On "Avatar" Sequels Next

As usual, there is some good news, some bad, and some that's open to interpretation based on what you like. James Cameron has spent the last year twiddling his thumbs, wondering if he wants to just go ahead and shoot the Avatar sequels now, or do what Christopher Nolan did and take a break to make a separate classy effort. The only problem with the latter decision is that Cameron isn't classy, so this decision makes sense. The man has confirmed that his next projects will be the two sequels to Avatar to finish off the trilogy. Currently, he foresees the effort to take a good six years, presumably for the technical costs.

I assume, based on what he did for the first film, he could probably just bust out the next two scripts in about a week. If he has the entire world mapped out in his head, why spend any time working out something like intriguing dialogue. Just give fans what they apparently want. I know it sounds like I'm being pessimistic, and that's because I am. I'm just playing the odds, based on what I saw of the first film. For me, these next six years will be something of a relief, and then we'll just be finished with this franchise as the final two installments are both released within a two year period. What do you think of this news. Are you one of the people who loved Avatar, or are you a member of my party?

Producers Guild of America Giving James Cameron the 2011 Milestone Award

In years gone by, the Producers Guild of America has giving their Milestone Award to many well deserving filmmakers such as Ron Howard, Clint Eastwood, and Walt Disney. The next to join this prestigious pantheon of film legends is none other than the once-great James Cameron. First off, let me say that I feel that James Cameron totally deserves this award, at the very least for his spectacular work on Aliens, The Abyss, and the first two Terminator films. I would've given the award to him back then rather than now, because the last two feature-length films he's done have been visually fantastic, but narratively stupid.

Titanic's success was a freak of nature, almost guaranteed never to happen ever again. I never understood what people saw in it, as it was one of the most corny films I'd seen in my life up to that point. Then, more than ten years later, Cameron is able to top himself in the range of cheesy stupidity with Avatar. The fact that it's now the highest grossing film of all time is nothing less than an abomination, for me at least. It's not worth traveling an hour to see it in IMAX 3D. The 3D wasn't even that great, and was frankly confusing. Nevertheless, Cameron waited ten years to make this film, which is honorable no matter how stupid the end product is.

Guillermo Del Toro's OFFICIAL Next Film Is...

So after Del Toro's announcement that he'd be at the very least writing and producing The Haunted Mansion, which he hoped to direct, he revealed that that film will have to wait for the moment. He's going to be busy mastering the period horror film At the Mountains of Madness, based on the H.P. Lovecraft book. This project has been rumored to death, and many thought that it would never happen because of the way the story is put together. However, when you need a studio to give you the utmost trust, even if it's undeserving, there's only one man to go to: James Cameron.

Yes, the self-proclaimed "KING OF THE WORLD" has opted to produce the film, giving us assurances of top notch visual effects, and giving Guillermo free reign to do what he wants to do creatively. Horror films usually don't get such a high budget, but Del Toro is taking that leap of faith that it will work. I personally haven't read the H.P. Lovecraft novel, but I'd like to so I can get some sort of idea in my head of what this story is, and what the film will be. Best of luck to you Guillermo Del Toro.