What if James Cameron's Titanic is a failure?
- Thread starter Andrela
- Start date
The first major change would be that he would be unable to make his science-fiction epic Avatar (2009) as no one is going to invest in his $430 million budget, if the Titanic was a flop.
As for the main actor, Leonardo DiCaprio had already made his break in 1993 when he played the mentally handicapped brother of Johnny Depp's character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
As for his role in Titanic, DiCaprio had initially refused to portray the character but was eventually encouraged to pursue the role by Cameron, who strongly believed in his acting ability. Apart from not having himself transformed into a commercial movie superstar, resulting in fan worship among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-Mania". I still can see DiCaprio's career carrying on as in has IOTL.
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British Republic
Banned
Actually the cost of making the film was $280 million* (with another $16 million in total for the extended versions if James Cameron's claim about these additional scenes costing $1 million per minute are to be believed) after tax credits and $150 million to market. So the budget was more like $430 million.
*http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/movies/21box.html?_r=0 + http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/12/could-avatar-hit-1-billion.html
Oh wow, this proves my point even more. Thanks for the information, i'll edit that now.
Needless to say Avatar never happens, so net again already.
James Cameron gets fed some much needed humble pie. His career rebounds with a combination of Terminator 3, Spider-man, Battle Angel, and is working with Ridley Scott on an Alien sequel/spin off/reboot, and an adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness with Guillermo Del Toro.
LA Confidential sweeps the Oscars.
Kate Winslet remains just another talented British actress who never quite got that big break movie.
DiCaprio probably wins an Oscar a few years sooner without Leomania taining him as a "pretty boy" distracting from the fact he's a skilled actor.
We're spared Celine Dion and that awful song.
Pearl Harbor, Enemy at the Gates, and a number of other romance-infused period dramas either never get made, or have the romance subplots dropped.
Aside from multifilm projects like The Lord of the Rings, big budgets north of $100 million are still viewed as unviable a few years longer.
James Cameron gets fed some much needed humble pie. His career rebounds with a combination of Terminator 3, Spider-man, Battle Angel, and is working with Ridley Scott on an Alien sequel/spin off/reboot, and an adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness with Guillermo Del Toro.
LA Confidential sweeps the Oscars.
Kate Winslet remains just another talented British actress who never quite got that big break movie.
DiCaprio probably wins an Oscar a few years sooner without Leomania taining him as a "pretty boy" distracting from the fact he's a skilled actor.
We're spared Celine Dion and that awful song.
Pearl Harbor, Enemy at the Gates, and a number of other romance-infused period dramas either never get made, or have the romance subplots dropped.
Aside from multifilm projects like The Lord of the Rings, big budgets north of $100 million are still viewed as unviable a few years longer.
how would titanic fail? It would have to be a different movie, perhaps rated r because of the sec scene and 20 minutes longer. This would change its appeal and perhaps make it not a critical and commercial success but rather only a 250 million draw.
Céline would remain relevant, both within and outside the Francophone pop music world.
Considering her choice of movies to star in i have a feeling she would not care.
John Farson
Banned
Perhaps this might also deter Lucas from putting in the sappy, cringe-worthy love story in Attack of the Clones, making it a bit more like how it was between Han and Leia in the original trilogy. Or perhaps not.
Perhaps this might also deter Lucas from putting in the sappy, cringe-worthy love story in Attack of the Clones, making it a bit more like how it was between Han and Leia in the original trilogy. Or perhaps not.
That would be a good timeline then!
Better prequels? Yes please!
Perhaps this might also deter Lucas from putting in the sappy, cringe-worthy love story in Attack of the Clones, making it a bit more like how it was between Han and Leia in the original trilogy. Or perhaps not.
I'd say no to the series being better. Part of Luca's annoyance was that he really wanted to one-up Titanic, so it flopping would probably make him feel even more secure with his movie as is, since now it'd be his movie that breaks bank. About the only thing that might change is he doesn't try to tap into the romance aspect as mentioned, which would help that movie. His acrimonious divorce with Marcia probably poisoned his ability to write a romance anyway. While this might help any second prequel movie in terms of not having a cringe inducing romance plot, the same errors would be there, probably slightly magnified. Lucas would be more vindicated, so he'd be less likely to give any control away, and in fact might be more insistent on whatever visions he has for it.
As for Cameron going to Terminator, Aliens, and Spiderman, I'd rate that as possible to some degree. He'd want to move to safer grounds and smaller budgets to rethink what went wrong I feel. For the middle one, you'd probably need to make Freddy vs. Jason suck shit at the office too. Its success made executives want to quickly pump out AvP in favor of a 5th Alien movie after all. Plus this still doesn't guarantee that the movies will be good. Mainly because Scott and Cameron have a different feel for their movies, and I can see clashing between the two.
And I can't call Leo a good actor: he sucks at range and mostly emotes with shouting or acting dumb. He is what I call surrounded by good actors in his films. But this won't damage his career since he tends to be brought in by directors in spite of that for some reason.