A couple of days ago I shared an idea with some friends: James Cameron could, if he wanted to, make one film that would serve as a sequel to two of his biggest hits: The Abyss and Titanic. Here's how I pitched it, with some slight edits to the original email...
The Abyss II: Battlestarship Titanic opens with Leo gurgling out his last farewell to Kate Winslet as the Titanic sinks beneath the waves. The camera follows Leo down into the depths, until he's rescued by bioluminescent underwater life forms...very much like the ones seen in Cameron's earlier film, The Abyss. We see many more of these creatures scooping up other drowning Titanic passengers. Fade to black...
110 Years Later...
Following the events of The Abyss (I don't believe a date was established in that film, so we could assume present-day), the descendants of the Titanic survivors act as go-betweens to bridge the communications gap between humans and the undersea civilization. Leo will, of course, play the great-great-grandson of his original character, now the leader of the Titanic community. Leo and the undersea creatures reveal that the bioluminescent life forms are not native to Earth, but rather fled here to escape a xenomorph (from Alien/Aliens etc.) infestation of their planet. This information is kept TOP SECRET, and the UN and the underwater aliens cooperate to rebuild the sunken Titanic as a space battleship, to be crewed by the Titanic descendants (because they are of course familiar with underwater alien technology), as well as UN reps and a few underwater aliens working in flooded compartments. Oh, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch (Predator).
The Titanic blasts off from the ocean floor and travels through deep space to the original undersea alien planet. But there's a complication - the Predators (from Predator, Predator 2 et. al.) are already on the planet, at war with the xenomorphs. The original plan to nuke the planet from orbit and clean it up with undersea alien technology is off the table, as nuking the planet would start all-out war with the Predators. So Arnold leads a team of heavily armed, poofy-shirted Titanic descendants to join the Predators in rooting out the infestation. But will the Predators even accept human help?
It appears not, for in orbit Leo and the Titanic gets into a pitched space battle with the Predator battle cruiser! Will the Titanic or its landing party survive? Will they reclaim the planet of the undersea aliens?
That's the end of my original idea. Steve commented that licencing would be a challenge for this film, but I believe Fox owns all the properties mentioned, which should grease the wheels. Mike suggested that Leo could play his original character, still youthful thanks to undersea alien medical technology. This way you'd have early 20th century types fighting alien xenomorphs alongside modern-day commandos, which adds a fun little angle.
The Abyss II: Battlestarship Titanic opens with Leo gurgling out his last farewell to Kate Winslet as the Titanic sinks beneath the waves. The camera follows Leo down into the depths, until he's rescued by bioluminescent underwater life forms...very much like the ones seen in Cameron's earlier film, The Abyss. We see many more of these creatures scooping up other drowning Titanic passengers. Fade to black...
110 Years Later...
Following the events of The Abyss (I don't believe a date was established in that film, so we could assume present-day), the descendants of the Titanic survivors act as go-betweens to bridge the communications gap between humans and the undersea civilization. Leo will, of course, play the great-great-grandson of his original character, now the leader of the Titanic community. Leo and the undersea creatures reveal that the bioluminescent life forms are not native to Earth, but rather fled here to escape a xenomorph (from Alien/Aliens etc.) infestation of their planet. This information is kept TOP SECRET, and the UN and the underwater aliens cooperate to rebuild the sunken Titanic as a space battleship, to be crewed by the Titanic descendants (because they are of course familiar with underwater alien technology), as well as UN reps and a few underwater aliens working in flooded compartments. Oh, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch (Predator).
The Titanic blasts off from the ocean floor and travels through deep space to the original undersea alien planet. But there's a complication - the Predators (from Predator, Predator 2 et. al.) are already on the planet, at war with the xenomorphs. The original plan to nuke the planet from orbit and clean it up with undersea alien technology is off the table, as nuking the planet would start all-out war with the Predators. So Arnold leads a team of heavily armed, poofy-shirted Titanic descendants to join the Predators in rooting out the infestation. But will the Predators even accept human help?
It appears not, for in orbit Leo and the Titanic gets into a pitched space battle with the Predator battle cruiser! Will the Titanic or its landing party survive? Will they reclaim the planet of the undersea aliens?
That's the end of my original idea. Steve commented that licencing would be a challenge for this film, but I believe Fox owns all the properties mentioned, which should grease the wheels. Mike suggested that Leo could play his original character, still youthful thanks to undersea alien medical technology. This way you'd have early 20th century types fighting alien xenomorphs alongside modern-day commandos, which adds a fun little angle.
2 comments:
If you pitch it, he will make it. Mr. Cameron, though, has strayed very, very far from his mentor's dictum of "one take, that's good enough". At the rate he makes films now, we'd see Abyss II around the same time that Avatar becomes a real thing.
Presumably, Abyss takes place in our present day. It was supposed to be somewhat futuristic when it was released. An extended scene with Premier Gorbachev, however, dates the film back in the 1980's or early '90's. Maybe Mr. Putin clones him.
Since he's already in the process of making the next 4 Avatar movies I'd suggest sending him this idea but rather than the planet be full of Predators just make it the Avatar planet with the blue creatures battling the evil business people. I'm sure they could use the help from Leo and the titanic in their battle against corporate greed.
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