"Avatar" director James Cameron has very strong opinions about 3D and what its future should look like, and movies like producer Mark Canton's "Piranha 3D" do not fit into his narrow vision.
While promoting the re-release of "Avatar," Cameron told VanityFair.com that the gory horror film "is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3D horror films from the '70s and '80s, like Friday The 13th 3D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that's now what's happening now with 3D. It is a renaissance. Right now the biggest and best films are being made in 3D. Martin Scorsese is making a film in 3D [Hugo Cabret]. Disney's biggest film of the year -- Tron: Legacy -- is coming out in 3D. So it's a whole new ballgame."
Note that Cameron never disparaged "Piranha 3D" directly, but merely defended the 3D turf that he has appointed himself to oversee as the director of the highest-grossing (3D) film in motion picture history. Cameron never said that "Piranha 3D" was a bad movie, he merely implied that the industry is likely hurting itself by releasing so-called non-event films in the medium. The 3D in "Piranha 3D" simply "reminds" him of the actually bad horror films from the '70s and '80s -- although it's unclear whether Cameron has actually seen "Piranha 3D" for himself in theaters.
Cameron was the original director of 1981's "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning," though he was fired after the first week of production and replaced by Ovidio G. Assonitis.
Basically, this seems to be a case of one of the world's most successful (and narcissistic) filmmakers simply forgetting the genre roots from which he came.
Cameron's attack on "Piranha 3D" prompted producer Canton to take it upon himself to stick up for the movie by issuing a rebuttal through Dimension's PR department, which has been beating the "Piranha 3D" drum loudly to squeeze every last bit of publicity (and thereby, money) out of the killer fish franchise.
Here's his nearly 1400-word response in its entirety, though it all boils down to his last sentence:
"As a producer in the entertainment industry, Jim Cameron's comments on VanityFair.com are very disappointing to me and the team that made Piranha 3D. Mr. Cameron, who singles himself out to be a visionary of movie-making, seems to have a small vision regarding any motion pictures that are not his own. It is amazing that in the movie-making process - which is certainly a team sport - that Cameron consistently celebrates himself out as though he is a team of one. His comments are ridiculous, self-serving and insulting to those of us who are not caught up in serving his ego and his rhetoric.
