The new issue of Empire is a Big Deal for a number of reasons – the major world-exclusive first look at Indiana Jones 5, the new image of Marvel baddie Kang The Conqueror, the brand new interview with Cate Blanchett and accompanying exclusive photoshoot by Mary McCartney, to name a few.
One of the biggest reasons to get your hands on a copy (on newsstands now!) is that inside, you’ll find a mammoth Q&A session with none other than James Cameron, pioneering filmmaker and mastermind behind Avatar, Titanic, The Terminator and more – but its not our questions he’s answering. We spoke to more than 20 of Hollywood’s finest – including Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Jane Campion, Mads Mikkelsen, Guillermo del Toro and more – to find out what they’ve been dying to ask the legendary director, put the questions to him, and he responded in glorious detail.
There are queries about his writing process, his ability to take risks – and, as submitted by Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, whether two of his alien race-featuring movies actually have a lot more in common that just that. Read a short extract of the feature, where Cameron gives his thoughts on Trevorrow’s theory, here:
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Colin Trevorrow: In The Abyss, mankind makes first contact with an alien entity whose bioluminescent biological make-up evokes life on Pandora. Does The Abyss share a universe with Avatar?
James Cameron: Just the universe of my brain. And obviously I love bioluminescence. From early childhood on I’ve had a deep awe and fascination with all the wonders of nature, both above and below water. That’s certainly what drove the creation of Avatar. The Abyss had a different motivation. It was my version of The Day The Earth Stood Still, a function of my Cold War angst, and a comment on how an alien super-intelligence might judge rather harshly the way we mistreat each other and our beautiful world.
In Avatar, WE are the invaders from space, and the common theme with The Abyss is that we are judged harshly by a more evolved alien culture, in that case the Na’vi, who live in a harmony with nature in a way that we have forgotten.
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Read our full audience with James Cameron feature in the new issue of Empire, on sale now. Avatar: The Way Of Water is in cinemas from Friday 16 December.
