James Cameron directed... - Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1982) Discussion

[–] Pedro_D 18 years ago

read the trivia, its not his film.

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[–] acdcfanbill 18 years ago

re-read the trivia, and go out and read some books about Cameron's early career, he did direct it.

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[–] jeff-1250 18 years ago

Or so the legions of Cameron fans would have us believe eh Pedro!

He directed the movie, learn to live with the fact. It could have been worse, he might have made a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio leading .... oh hang on ...

www.mangogals.com - film review, discussion, and articles.

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[–] TMC-4 (20493) 3 years ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/rgpyni/comment/hooi41d/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Cameron was originally hired as a special effects guy, and was promoted to director after the original director was fired shortly before principal photography began.

He was really only given authority for the actual shooting, while the producer more or less controlled everything else about the production. Cameron was then fired after about two weeks into the shoot, and only some of his actual work can be seen in the final result. However, they kept his name in the credit because they contractually needed an English name and not an Italian one. He wanted to have his name removed but didn't have the means to fight it at the time.

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[–] CrazyJim2004 18 years ago

Hey, we all gotta start somewhere.

http://www.myspace.com/crazyjimfilms
Click here to read my scripts!

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[–] Martialhorror 18 years ago

Yeah, while I saw talent, Camerons direction was somewhat aumetourish.......but he had some cool scenes.

"I hate PG-13 horror flicks"- THIS IS MY SIG GENIUSES!

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Martialhorror 18 years ago

I didn't spot much talent, but I did like some of the camera angles and shots. Nevertheless, I do agree he was simply an amatuer at that time. He didn't have a good grasp on his actors and the effects were lame.

But cant blame a guy on a budget, especially if what wikipedia says is true behind the film.

"I hate PG-13 horror flicks"- THIS IS MY SIG GENIUSES!

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[–] minkowski76 18 years ago

The people are these IMDB boards are so friggen dumb! Re-read the trivia? James Cameron actually directed? The trivial clearly states that HE DID NOT DO MOST OF THE WORK!!!!! You brain dead losers. Get your heads out of your a-holes!

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[–] xtrospawn 18 years ago

I don't know why the Cameron fans want to disavow the fact that he DID indeed begin his career helming this italian sci-fi classic. Read it and weep, suckers. This is all taken from the JAMES CAMERON BIOGRAPHY!!!

James Cameron was originally hired as the special effects director for this film (and his hand in story-writing can be suspected under the H. A. Milton pseudonym on the original script), and took over the direction when the original director left.

Due to budget limitations the crew was composed essentially of Italians, none of whom spoke English, but some of them had prior experience on horror/fantasy movies, so they were able to satisfy Cameron requirements.

After the first week of shooting, the set harmony was disturbed by some discussions about the work between the director and the producers (the executive producer, Ovidio G. Assonitis, asked to verify the day-to-day activities, arguing most of Cameron's choices), so whilst Cameron was just responsible for the shooting, most of the decisions are under Assonitis' authority.

According to "Dreaming Aloud," a biography of James Cameron by Christopher Heard, Cameron was not allowed to see his footage and was not involved in editing. He broke into the editing room in Rome and cut his own version while the film's producers were at Cannes, but was caught and Assonitis re-cut it again.

Cameron has defended the film by saying that it's the finest flying piranha movie ever made.

Some of the mechanisms used to make the piranhas fly were later recycled into the facehugger animatronics for Aliens.

According to Piranha II: The Spawning — James Cameron’s First Film, by Dr. John L. Flynn, most of the underwater scenes were filmed off Grand Cayman Island, and the stand-in for the Club Kynan is the Mallard Beach Hyatt. Interior scenes were filmed on a soundstage in Rome.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] knowsaboutfords 18 years ago

He directed for about a week then was fired by the producer... he tried to make it good but it got turned into crap by the production team... he wasn't even allowed to edit it.

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[–] gurlpower07 17 years ago

ah well, he hadn't his big budgets, but at least it was something.

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[–] bighand99-1 17 years ago

I thought this was one of his best movies. It was even better than the original, which is saying something.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] adman_9000 17 years ago

Of course he directed it, New World Pictures started Camerons career with this sort of deadly-flying-mutant-piranha type film (should be a genre in itself!). There's a great book if you're interested in New Worlds classics:

http://www.hemlockbooks.co.uk/shop.php

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[–] mick_guitarist 17 years ago

I watched this film the other night because I couldn't beleive it was a Cameron film, more specifically his debut. Though fro mthe sounds of it the production of this film was shockingly messed up and clearly ended its life as a mediocre horror film early on. I found it hilariously bad, Some of the scenes were so bad I couldn't stop laughing, but hey we all have to start somewhere :)

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[–] steur 17 years ago

I don't think this movie is all bad. Its a typically early 80's horror flick wich you don't find these days anymore. To me, you can see that Cameron did his best to make something out of a lousy script. And I think if he could have edited this movie, it would be better than it is now. It's so obvious that Cameron had nothing to do with the choice of the music that was used for the movie, and that it was the work of Ovidio.
The special effects are the work of Cameron. And I know, the flying piranhas are'nt the greatest effects, but you have to see it in its timeperiod. The special effects in the 80's was'nt computerwork. That's realy something I like at 80's movies. For special effects they really had to be very creative and make it al by hand. I gotta respect that.
And OK, I agree that this isn't the best movie ever made, but I find that Cameron did a pretty good job with the material he got to work with on his directors debut and the fact that he didn't got to edit the movie because of that lousy Ovidio.

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[–] eddy-28 17 years ago

Ovidio Assonitis may be a successful film businessman and investor, but as a director, he fails to execute quality and satisfaction. If you take a look at Assonitis's previous work as a director, he bascially ripped off The Exorcist with his 1974 release of "Beyond the Door" which actually became one of the most successful independent films of that year earning over $40 million worldwide, and then in 1977, he ripped off Jaws, with "Tentacles". His other works include "The Visitor" and "Beyond the Door III". To be honest, Assonitis gets credit for starting James Cameron's career. I argue this mainly because as we can all agree that Assonitis micromanaged Cameron's directorial duties on this film. Roger Corman was the one who originally discovered Cameron through his short films he shot in film school and offered him a position on this film, as a sequel to his 1978 New World Picture's release of Joe Dante's original film. The problem was in 1980, Corman and Assonitis already had set up the joint venture for this film, but the same year, New World faced financial setbacks and was taken over by an investment group, with Corman leaving the studio entirely.

After Cameron's career was in full fledge in 1990, this partially explains why Cameron did not direct "Spiderman" during the time when Cannon Films still had the rights to the Marvel Comics character. In 1989, when Cannon Films faced bankruptcy and was taken over by the infamous Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti and Pathe Communications, Parretti gave Menahem Golan (Cannon's CEO) a severance package which included Spiderman and $10 million in operating expenditure for his new company, 21st Century Films, with its parent company, being 21st Century Distribution Corporation. Parretti recruited none other than Ovidio Assonitis to become the new CEO of 21st Century Distribution. After Golan had a contract with Carolco Pictures, Cameron was dispatched to shoot Spiderman way back in 1990, but it never materialized. Golan eventually was given full control of 21st Century Films on his own, with Assonitis's 21st Century Distribution renamed as "Cannon Pictures". Assonitis was fired as CEO of Cannon Pictures the following year.

I'll have you eviscerated for this!
Richard Jaeckel, John Carpenter's Starman

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] TheQuietStorm 17 years ago

James Cameron did direct this film. I heard him say so about 10, 11 years ago on the short lived Sinbad Late night show. He probably was promoting "Titanic".

Cameron admitted to messing up the film and being fired. I could be wrong about the "fired" part. It was 11 years ago. However, he joked about the executive producer ushering him off the project for doing such a horrid job. At the time, I wasn't studying film, so the terminologies weren't identifiable to me. ut I remember thinking, "This guy did one of those Piranha films?"

Million Dollar Baby Academy Award® Winner for Best Picture of 2004

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] tommyuk 16 years ago

Wasn't there a Piranha in Titanic ? If you watch it carefully you can spot it Its like a cameo LOL

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[–] terminator56 16 years ago

that is cool if it is true

i'll be back

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[–] tommyuk 16 years ago

LOL

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[–] Jordwil82 16 years ago

Maybe I can settle this argument.

Someone may have already mentioned this because I skipped to the end of this thread.

OK so James Cameron did in fact direct this film, now thats a fact we all know this, but the part that I'm surprised wasn't address in this thread as far as I read is the fact that James Cameron only directed for 8 days and was fired for breaking into the editing room. The producer of the film took over and they put James Cameron's name in the credits anyways.

So there you have it, I could not possibly agree with someone who says James Cameron did in fact direct this movie when in fact he had only directed for 8 days, If he made that movie in 8 days then I would congratuate him for making such a good movie when you consider 8 days of filming, that my friends is some pretty laser beam quick filmmaking.

I feal sorry for James Cameron having that film in his resume when it wasn't really his film.

James Cameron is a genius and AVATAR will be Kaboomtastic.

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[–] Grand_Age_Hyphia 14 years ago

I tell you what. There is a Piranha 3D out right now in 2010. Awful movie. So let's consider this mistake as an experience for James Cameron.

It's a remarkable improvement that he goes from this to the Terminator movies, to Titanic, and now Avatar. Quite a learning journey through history.

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[–] Boricanator 14 years ago

As other people mentioned. He directed this movie for 8 days and was fired. He couldn´t edit or do anything to make it truly his movie. Hardly could be said to be his work.

Regardless, after that he hasn´t made a bad movie since then.

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[–] Captain_Bob 14 years ago

Given the choice I would way rather watch "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning" than JC's latest masterpiece "Avatar". Who could say no to so much awesome early-80s cheese? Lots of horny chicks with big fluffy hair and jiggly boobs, endless pubescent sexual innuendo, and of course the awesome flying chomping fish!

Flying plastic fish 1
Tall blue people 0

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[–] DeuceWild_77 13 years ago

Amen to that, Captain Bob, i can't stand Avatar, Piranha II all the way!!

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 13 years ago

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