Hollywood legend James Cameron has urged the Government to retain financial aid for the film industry and suggested critics - who include David Seymour - don’t understand them.
And Cameron revealed new details of the next Avatar movie, saying it is virtually finished and describing it as “maybe the best of the three so far”.
In an exclusive sit-down interview, Cameron, who directed three of the four highest-grossing films of all time, said movie-making was key to getting a beleaguered “Wellywood” back on track.
In a rare public comment on Avatar, Cameron said the third movie was now getting its finishing touches in post-production - and had even been watched by some people.
“I've shown it to a few selected people and the feedback has been it's definitely the most emotional and maybe the best of the three so far. We'll find out, you know, but I feel pretty good about it. And the work is exceptional from the actors. It's pretty heart-wrenching in a good way.”
In a boost for Wellington, Cameron said he would finish his five-film Avatar series in New Zealand, a process that would take another five or six years. He’s written and “roughly designed” the fourth and fifth instalments. The third movie will be released globally on December 19.
“We're in very good shape on it. I think we've got about 1000 people employed, mostly here in Wellington right now, and hopefully we'll roll right over into [movies] four and five from that.
“Look, I love to make jobs here. We're actually moving some of our people over from the US, and we'll be hiring as well. We're focusing more of the production here than we have.”
Historically, financial aid for the film sector has included a variety of tax breaks and grants. Cameron said such “investment” yields strong returns.
“For $1 in you'll get $7 out, or you'll get $10 out, something like that. So the incentives make sense, training programs, apprenticeships, mentoring, the universities, the trade schools.
“Everybody needs to be part of this. And it has to start at the central government level, but also the city [council] can assist with that as well, and just the citizens, you know.”
The Deputy Prime Minister-in-waiting, David Seymour, has been among political critics of assistance for the industry.
A 2023 statement by Seymour as ACT leader referred to “ giving billions of taxpayer dollars to Hollywood elites through the screen production grant and visual effects grant” and said “every dollar spent on subsidies for television and movie productions is a dollar that can’t be spent elsewhere. We would be better off scrapping the Screen Production Grant [and] allowing taxpayers to keep the money.”
But Cameron said:“There's sometimes a big media backlash against what's perceived as a subsidy of an industry, but it's not a subsidy, it's an investment with a very good return on investment.
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“Sometimes it gets undermined in the media, people don't understand it and they speak out against it, you know.”
The film-maker, who now likes being called Jim, spoke to me after being a panellist at an event seeking ways to fix Wellington. He arrived directly from an 18-hour flight from New York.
Cameron, whose biggest hits are Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic, with a combined gross of around US$7.5 billion (NZ$13b), is waiting for the paperwork confirming his New Zealand citizenship.
“I've already qualified in terms of time in-country. I've put in my application, I'm told it's imminent.”
He’s passionate about Aotearoa and the capital in particular, describing himself as a Wellingtonian. He has a house in Roseneath where he spends a lot of time and his Wairarapa farm.
But Wellington now was very different to the city he fell in love with more than a decade ago, he said.
“It's in a bit of a low spot right now, but when I first got here there was vigour in the film community, there was vigour in the city at large. We just need to remember that we're good at that.
“From my perspective, reinvigorating the film sector can mean a lot. And I don't think people here really appreciate how good they are relative to such a small population base.
“We're very good at some of the very high-tech stuff. You know, there are excellent VFX artists here, world-class. Historically, it's been proven, it's respected, and I feel it's a place that's worthy of investing.”
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