Sometimes, amid the clamor of media junkets and their tight roster of promotional interviews, we don’t always get a chance to pop our “five favorite films” question. Given that this was James Cameron, however, we couldn’t resist sneaking the quiz into the conversation — despite his being pressed for time.
Cameron was on hand, together with director Alister Grierson and writer-producer Andrew Wight, to promote Sanctum, the 3-D cave-diving thriller that arrives in cinemas this week. The film, set in the dark and sometimes terrifying labyrinth of a cave system in Papua New Guinea, deploys the camera technology that Cameron and Wight, a fellow diver, had pioneered on their ocean expeditions — and would form the basis for the tools with which Avatar was shot.
You can read on for our chat with the filmmakers about Sanctum. Here, our conversation turns — albeit briefly — to all-time favorite films.
“I hate lists. I never do lists,” Cameron protests. “But we’ll stumble through it.”
“Not because he’s sitting here, but Terminator 2,” offers Wight.
“You liar,” Cameron replies. “I’ve never been able to do this but I’ll take a stab at it.”
The Wizard of Oz is number one.
I can’t order these, you know, but somewhere in the top 10 would be Dr. Strangelove…
100% Tomatometer)
Just about half of Coppola’s films. [“Except for his last one,” adds Grierson.] Hey, I said half. Okay — Godfather.
Okay, Taxi Driver. I love Taxi Driver.
Click here for our chat with the filmmakers.
Sanctum is released nationwide this week.
