What is James Cameron's most expensive movie to date? Director wants to use AI to "cut the cost" of blockbuster movies in half

Director James Cameron says he's keen on using AI to "cut the cost" of making blockbuster movies by half.

The Oscar winner sat down for an interview on the Boz to the Future podcast, where he reflected on how best to use AI to bring down costs without axing jobs. As reported by Variety, Cameron announced this September 2024 that he would be joining the board of directors for Stability AI, a company that helms the text-to-image model Stable Diffusion.

James Cameron is most renowned for his films like Titanic and Avatar, though his most expensive movie to date is Avatar: The Way of the Water. The film reportedly cost $460 million in expenses, while its prequel, Avatar, comes second with a staggering $237 million.

James Cameron slams the use of AI, says he "warned" everyone in 1984, but no one listened: Read more

James Cameron said of joining Stability AI:

“In the old days, I would have founded a company to figure it out. I’ve learned maybe that’s not the best way to do it. So I thought, all right, I’ll join the board of a good, competitive company that’s got a good track record. My goal was not necessarily make a sh*t pile of money. The goal was to understand the space, to understand what’s on the minds of the developers. "

"What are they targeting? What’s their development cycle? How much resources you have to throw at it to create a new model that does a purpose-built thing, and my goal was to try to integrate it into a VFX workflow.”

He went on, noting that it's "not just hypothetical."

“If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I’ve always loved and that I like to make and that I will go to see — ‘Dune,’ ‘Dune: Part Two,’ or one of my films or big effects-heavy, CG-heavy films — we’ve got to figure out how to cut the cost of that in half. Now that’s not about laying off half the staff and at the effects company."

"That’s about doubling their speed to completion on a given shot, so your cadence is faster and your throughput cycle is faster, and artists get to move on and do other cool things and then other cool things, right? That’s my sort of vision for that.”

Notably, the renowned director has long voiced his concern about the implications of AI in Hollywood and its potential to replace jobs instead of helping employees manage their workload.

During an interview with CTV News last year, James Cameron expressed doubt at the idea of AI being able to pen “a good story” and outdo screenwriters.

“I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — about the life that they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it…I don’t believe that’s ever going to have something that’s going to move an audience. You have to be human to write that. I don’t know anyone that’s even thinking about having AI write a screenplay," he said.

“Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for best screenplay, I think we’ve got to take them seriously,” he added at the time.

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James Cameron also denounced the use of AI while referencing his 1984 film The Terminator. “I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen,” he told CTV News, noting that “the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger."

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