The 1981 sci-fi film Escape From New York remains one of the best movies in the genre. After all, it was the brainchild of legendary director John Carpenter. Apart from Carpenter, a young James Cameron was also on the set of the film.
Over the years, Cameron has become one of the best directors in the industry. He has delivered a plethora of great films, such as Titanic and The Terminator franchise, among others. But before becoming an independent filmmaker, Cameron had an innovative approach to special effects in movies.
John Carpenter on ‘Resident Genius’ James Cameron in Escape From New York
John Carpenter’s Escape From New York featured a plethora of matte paintings to make the film visually appealing to the audience. Sure, Carpenter was the director of the film, but it was a young James Cameron who rendered several matte paintings for the movie.
In an exclusive 2018 clip shared by Yahoo! Finance, Carpenter spoke highly about his resident genius, James Cameron.
He was the resident genius and everybody was talking about how great he was.
The interview also featured other key members of the film talking about the amazing matte paintings that Cameron drew of the New York skyline to integrate into the live-action footage.
All things considered, Escape From New York would never have been such a huge success if it wasn’t for James Cameron’s presence on the set.
The film had an estimated budget of $6 million in 1981. Despite being such a low-budget movie, it ended up with a box office gross of $25.2 million. Now, that’s a good return for a low-budget film that had special effects way ahead of its time.
James Cameron Became An Industry Icon
Not many directors can claim that they changed the industry with their work. However, James Cameron is one of the select few directors who can make that huge claim and be right about it. Cameron’s movies always featured some iconic special effects shots that always left a huge impact on the audience.
As we mentioned earlier, some of his best work was featured in The Terminator, Aliens, and Avatar. Speaking of the Avatar film franchise, the sequel was released in 2022. But Cameron has no plans to stop anytime soon.
After all, it has already been confirmed that James Cameron will release at least three more Avatar movies. Avatar 3 is nearing its release date as the movie is all set to arrive in theaters worldwide in 2025.
Will James Cameron make the audience’s jaw drop once again? Well, the veteran director has rarely disappointed throughout his career, so that’s certainly a safe bet to make.
