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James Cameron. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

Top 10 Interesting Facts about James Cameron

James Cameron was born in Ontario Canada on August 16^th, 1954. He is known in the filmmaking industry for his record-breaking films and science fiction.

He has also made documentaries for sea exploration while contributing to remote vehicle technologies and underwater filming on March 26^th, 2012 in the Mariana trench.

 He is recognized worldwide for directing two of the five films to haul in over 2 billion dollars.

 He has been mentioned in Time magazine in  2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. James is also an environmentalist and runs several businesses. Here are 10 facts about James Cameron:

1. He dropped out of college

 James Cameron dropped out of high school in 1973. he had attended Stamford collegiate and troy high school when he graduates and attended Fullerton College in 1973. He enrolled to study physics but did not finish the course.

 He left school and married a waitress. His fondness for science fiction since childhood and desire to become a filmmaker pushed him after he saw Star Wars in 1977 to pursue this venture.

2. He worked as a truck driver

James speaking at TED 2010. Photo by Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA. .

James worked several jobs one of which was as a truck driver for a local school district after he dropped out of college. After watching the Star Wars film he left his blue-collar job to pursue filmmaking.

He taught himself techniques and started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman studios before he was employed as an art director in 1980.

3. His 10-minute script landed him a job

 James Cameron created a film called Xenogenesis with his friends which earned him fame. the director claims the idea came to him after reading a book called 鈥渟creenplay by Syd Field,鈥�.

 He imagined the possibility of integrating science and art and came up with the 10 min script in 1978. this helped him attain a job with new world pictures.

4. Most of his greatest films he materialized from his dreams

James Cameron. Photo by Towpilot.

 James Cameron鈥檚 most iconic films came from his dreams. While filming the movie Piranha II he fell ill and had a nightmare of an invisible robot.

 This became the inspiration for the movie Terminator. He wrote most of this screenplay in his car. the movie became a commercial hit in 1984.

 Arnold Schwarzenegger was the fictional robot character actor. Another dream that Cameron turned into a movie was Avatar. This dream occurred to him in his childhood he materialized into an iconic film.

5. He started directing in 1981

Cameron got his big break when miller drake left a project they were working on in 1981. The film set was for the sequel to Piranha which is Piranha II: the spawning.

James Cameron was then the special effects director. the original director drake miller butted heads with the producer Ovidio G. Assonitis over their creative differences. James directed the movie until completion.

6. He underwent mutiny on set

Cameron was the director of the alien film sequel in 1979. The director鈥檚 peculiar way collided with the crew鈥檚 normal routine, causing disruption. He had to fire some workers which enraged the crew further causing a mutiny.

 Gale Anne Hurd who was Cameron鈥檚 had to step in to help diffuse the situation. rather than replace the crew to find a way to work around the situation.

 The film was still an incredible success in spite of winning academy awards and becoming a box office success.

7. He based a movie on an idea from a high school biology class

James Cameron at a ceremony. Photo by Angela George at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/.

One of the movies Cameron directed was based on a high school biology class. The movie The Abyss budgeted 41 million dollars was one of James Cameron鈥檚 most expensive movies of that time.

 The most expensive was the Titanic which was budgeted at 312 million and still holds one of the top 10 positions to date.

8. His career rose with the movie Titanic

The Titanic movie is an incredible story that showcases one of America’s most gruesome tragedies in a romance story.

 Apart from the attention to detail to showcase the horrific sinking of the RMS Titanic that took 1504 lives the movie duration is 2hrs 40 min the actual same amount of time the ship sank after hitting the iceberg.

 The film cost more than 250 million dollars in production but reeled in more than 1 billion. It was the first movie to earn so much money. the film also won 11 awards from 14 academy award nominations.

9. He drew the iconic Titanic drawings

 In Titanic鈥檚 romance story of two lovers from different backgrounds who fall in love, an iconic drawing is highlighted twice. First when the film begins divers discover the safe that stored the drawing.

 This in fact inspired by Cameron鈥檚 venture when he dived to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean multiple times to shoot the footage of the actual Titanic ship underwater to insert into the final film. The second instance is when Jack the main character draws.

 It was a drawing of the character Rose to pose. the drawing is the actual work of James Cameron and the hands shown drawing the portrait are his.

10. He is considered difficult to work with

James Cameron on USS Hue City. Photo by MC2 Gina K. Wollman, USN.

The director was considered difficult to work with due to his dictatorial mannerism. numerous people complained he was uncompromising and had a bad temper when sudden changes were made to the schedule and budget.

 Actors like Kate Winslet who was the star in the Titanic film decided to never work with Cameron after that due to his demanding nature.

 His personality has led to numerous shortcomings between him and his workmates.

In conclusion, James Cameron is an incredible filmmaker. he has gone through many troubles drowning on set while filming an underwater scene in the movie The Abyss.

 This did not deter him as he still challenged himself and spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor. He lives with pieces of shrapnel in his arm from the set of Terminator 2 that never came out. he has even competed with his ex-wife for a distinguished Oscar award and lost.

 He has established great feats in the filmmaking industry proving the only limit is people鈥檚 imagination.