Not a collab we saw coming, tbh.
That James Cameron likes to keep busy. When he’s not occupying himself making seemingly infinite Avatar sequels and diving to the most remote and terrifying locations on the planet, the Terminator director gets up to all sorts of stuff. Back in February he fronted up at an event for a political lobby group in Wellington, New Zealand. Now he’s doing a 3D concert film with Billie Eilish.
Not that those are commensurate in importance, mind you I merely want to illustrate the breadth of the Canadian former truck driver’s interests. According to Deadline, Eilish made an announcement at her concert in Manchester on Saturday night – and they’ve got the video to prove it.
As Eilish outlines, all four Manchester shows are being filmed for the project – whether it’s native 3D or will be post-converted is anyone’s guess at this point. The film is TV-bound, and the extent of Cameron’s involvement is a bit murky too – he could be directing and/or producing, or engaged in a more technical role.
This isn’t Billie Eilish‘s first concert film, of course. She released one for her second studio album, Happier Than Ever, back in 2021, working with director Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez and James Cameron collaborated on the live action manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel in 2019, so there’s one tenuous connection to speculate about.
Whatever the Billie Eilish project turns out to be, this isn’t Cameron’s first foray into music. Back around the time his future wife (and ex-wife) Kathryn Bigelow was making stone cold vampire classic Near Dark, Jim directed the music video for “Reach” a tune by Martini Ranch – a musical project by his casting fave, Bill Paxton. The video features appearances by Paxton; Bigelow; Aliens veterans Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and Jenette Goldstein; Judge Reinhold; Brian Thompson (he and Paxton were in The Terminator together); Adrian Pasdar; and Bud Cort. It’s, uh, pretty wild:
…yeah, this Billie Eilish thing is gonna struggle to live up to that.
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