THE ABYSS
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THE ABYSS

By 1987, James Cameron Directed and co-wrote two box office smash movies back to back, TERMINATOR and ALIENS. 20th Century Fox loved him as much as they could love any filmmaker whose movies could bring in a ton of profit, which is to say, it was complicated.

After all, if you're releasing a science fiction action thriller you can't say,

"From the studio that brought you one of two hit James Cameron movies comes a picture that's not from James Cameron."

THE ABYSS
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THE ABYSS
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JAMES CAMERON
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20th Century Fox already had that problem of putting too much studio control in the hands of George Lucas. So a stumble would be nice. Not a huge one. Not a break the bank one, but a stumble which is profitable for the distribution arm of the studio yet doesn't live up to artificially invented high expectations. One that will absolutely be all on the Director if it trips and and comes up short.

With this in mind, the studio bosses gave James Cameron Carte Blanc with caveats.

A Blank Check with Caveats...

I know that appears contradictory but you may be surprised by how many big studio movie directors would read that and nod: They've been in that position.

Within the contraints of the budget: Huge, but the unbridled cocaine-fueled days of Michael Cimino movies were in the past (Coke might still be on the set in 1988, but so were the bridles), James could say and do what he wanted, "unfiltered".

THE ABYSS was the result.

Copyright 2020 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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