James Cameron has explored various genres throughout his career, and while he has a long list of movies in which he has served as director and/or producer, he also has a long list of unmade movies – and here’s every one of them. James Cameron’s career in the filmmaking industry began in the 1970s, working as special visual effects producer, set dresser assistant, matte artist, and photographer before making his directorial debut in 1982 with Piranha II: The Spawning, where he replaced Miller Drake. Cameron disowned the movie for years, but he now acknowledges it as his directorial debut.
Cameron’s second feature film was the one that gave him worldwide recognition and praise: Terminator (1984), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. Since then, Cameron has become a very important name in the sci-fi genre, with movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Avatar, though one of his most important projects was the 1997 romance/disaster movie Titanic, which gave him his first Academy Award for Best Director. However, Cameron has also taken on many projects and abandoned them for different reasons, with some of them either being picked up later by other directors or simply being left in development hell.
Cameron’s unmade movies include sequels to some of his most notable original works and movies from other franchises, superhero movies, classic sci-fi stories, a biographical movie, and more. Here’s every unmade James Cameron movie and why they didn’t happen.
X-Men
Cameron has stayed away from the world of superheroes, but in the late 1980s he could have been one of the minds behind an X-Men movie. Back then, Stan Lee and Chris Claremont were in talks with Carolco Pictures and Lightstorm Entertainment to bring the X-Men to the big screen, with Cameron as producer, Kathryn Bigelow as director, Gary Goldman as writer, Bob Hoskins as Wolverine, and Angela Bassett as Storm. The project was left aside when Cameron’s interest shifted to a potential Spider-Man movie, though it was later picked up and released in 2000, but with Bryan Singer as director.
The Crowded Room
Following Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Cameron began working on an adaptation of Daniel Keyes’ non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, the first person in U.S. history acquitted of a major crime pleading by multiple-personality disorder. The project was titled The Crowded Room, and Cameron was supposed to direct the movie, with John Cusack attached to play Billy Milligan. Cameron ended up leaving for unknown reasons, with Joel Schumacher coming in as replacement, but the movie ultimately never happened.
Spider-Man
Cameron could have brought Spider-Man to the big screen in the early 1990s, and his vision would have been very different from what has been done with the character so far. Once he finished filming True Lies, Cameron sent a screenplay to Carolco Pictures for a live-action adaptation of Spider-Man, which had been in development since 1983. Cameron’s idea for the story wouldn’t have been too different, except for the tone he was going for. The movie would have centered on genius outcast Peter Parker, who after being bitten by a mutated spider, gained unique superpowers. Peter would have initially used his new powers for personal gain, with his selfishness making way for Uncle Ben’s tragic death. Cameron wanted the movie to be R-rated, as it included heavy profanity, mature themes, sexual content, and was more oriented towards adults than a young audience.
Problems between producer Menahem Golan and Carolco hurt the project, with Carolco ending up going bankrupt, and Cameron left the project, later signing a contract with 20th Century Fox. The project was picked up years later, and so Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy happened.
Terminator 3
Although there is a third Terminator movie, it isn’t Cameron’s version. Cameron was interested in making a third Terminator movie, and was in talks with 20th Century Fox to make it happen after Carolco Pictures (developer of Terminator 2: Judgement Day) went bankrupt. Cameron dropped out to direct Titanic, and even though Schwarzenegger tried to convince him to return, he declined. The movie was released as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003 with Jonathan Mostow as director, but Cameron got to share his vision for it in Terminator: Dark Fate, co-written and co-produced by him, and which ignored all movies after Terminator 2.
Planet of the Apes
Back in 1996, and after the bad reception of Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973, Cameron was interested in directing a reboot. By 1998, Cameron was set to write and produce, with Peter Hyams as director and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached to play George Taylor. Among Cameron’s ideas was Caesar traveling in time and discovering a more technologically advanced ape society. Cameron left following the success of Titanic, and the reboot was picked up by Tim Burton and released in 2001.
Fantastic Voyage
In 1997, Cameron was interested in directing a remake of Richard Fleischer’s Fantastic Voyage but left to start working on Project 880 (which ended up becoming Avatar). Still, Cameron planned to direct the remake, and by 2007, 20th Century Fox brought Rolan Emmerich in as director and Cameron stayed as writer, but Emmerich rejected his script. Three years later, Paul Greengrass intended to direct the project, with Cameron now as producer, but was replaced by Shawn Levy. In 2016, Guillermo del Toro was attached to direct, with Cameron still as producer, but the movie is now trapped in development hell, with del Toro and Cameron working on different projects.
True Lies 2
Cameron planned to make True Lies 2 sometime in 2002, but the September 11, 2001 attacks changed his mind and he decided not to go forward out of respect. Cameron has been asked about True Lies 2 multiple times, but there was always something in the way, such as Schwarzenegger still being Governor of California or him being busy with other projects (such as Avatar). Cameron seems to have lost interest in the project due to all the terrorist attacks that have happened since the first movie came out, and the sequel has now been canceled.
The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back
In 2010, it was reported that Cameron was working on a movie titled The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, based on the book of the same name by Charles R. Pellegrino (which, by the way, had various errors and its publication was halted, but after a revision, it was released under a different title and by a different publisher). The movie would have followed the life of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized by the government of Japan as a survivor of both the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The movie entered development hell after Cameron decided to focus on the Avatar sequels.
Other Projects
Cameron has been attached to a number of projects, of which some ended up being directed by others and some were simply forgotten. Back in the late 1980s, Cameron wrote an earlier draft of Alien Nation, but wasn’t credited in the final version of the movie (which is somewhat understandable as it ended up being very different from Cameron’s version). In 1990, he tried to buy the rights to adapt Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park to the big screen, but Steven Spielberg got them a few hours before Cameron could buy them. Six years later, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to Anne Rice’s The Mummy from Carolco, and Cameron was set to direct, but the rights lapsed. In the early 2000s, Cameron was in talks to direct Alien 5, but ended up deciding to serve as writer and producer – however, there have been many obstacles in the way, and though Cameron said in 2019 that he was working on reviving the project, there have been no updates.
Other projects Cameron was supposed to make are The Informationist, based on Taylor Stevens’ novel of the same name, but he left it aside to focus on the Avatar sequels; The Dive, based on Francisco Ferreras’ book, which Cameron would have produced and Francis Lawrence would have directed, but there have been no updates on it; and At the Mountains of Madness, produced by Cameron and directed by Guillermo del Toro, which was canceled as they wanted it to be R-rated, and studios were against that.
One of the most recent projects that Cameron could have directed is Alita Battle Angel, which he left in favor of the Avatar sequels but ended up serving as producer while Robert Rodriguez took over as director. James Cameron’s list of unmade movies is as interesting and varied as those he has made (either as director, writer, or producer), and while some of them could still happen, he will surely want to finish all the Avatar sequels first.