You don’t become the man who directed two of the top three grossing films of all time (“Avatar” and “Titanic”) without knowing a bit about appealing to large audiences and making lots and lots of money. That said, it almost goes without saying that James Cameron is a filmmaker that knows a thing or two about taking ideas and crafting multi-billion-dollar hits out of them. It’s also not a shock to say that Cameron is on the confident side of things, often predicting just how successful his films will become. So, when you hear how the filmmaker pitched 20th Century Fox for his version of the “Alien” sequel, “Aliens,” it totally checks out that he’d focus more on the bottom line than on the artistry.
Though, you could argue there’s a bit of artistry in turning an S into a dollar sign.
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Speaking to CinemaBlend, James Cameron reminisced about the pitch process for “Aliens” back in the ‘80s. At the time, the filmmaker had the idea of expanding the story beyond just one Xenomorph and including multiple baddies. Thus, the title, “Aliens,” is plural. And when he got in a room with the studio brass, he pointed out the new title and then transformed it into something that would make any executive’s eyes light up.
“It just popped into my mind in the moment. It was actually on the back of a script or some kind of presentation document. It might’ve been the treatment. I can’t remember,” said Cameron. “I was sitting with the three producers, and we were in the office of the then-head of 20th Century Fox. And I said, ‘Guys, I got an idea for the title. And it goes like this.’ And I wrote, ‘Alien’ in large block letters. And I put an S on the end. I showed it to them. I said, ‘I want to call it ‘Aliens’ because we’re not dealing with one. Now, we’re dealing with an army, and that’s the big distinction. And it’s very simple and very graphic.’ And I said, ‘But here’s what it’s going to translate to.’ And then I drew the two lines through it to make it a dollar sign. And that was my pitch. And apparently, it worked! Because they went with the title. They never questioned it.”
Many people might read that and laugh at just how ballsy it is for a young James Cameron to be so bold in his pitch. But according to the filmmaker, that’s something he thinks is crucial when trying to make a career in Hollywood.
“There’s a time in your career to be cheeky. Technically in Hollywood, that’s all the time,” he added. “But I mean, there’s a time to be exceptionally cheeky, which is when they don’t know who you are yet. There’s this constant din and pressure of people wanting to be seen, wanting to be heard, wanting to be hired, wanting to be trusted in. Sometimes, you have to do kind of slightly outrageous things. But do it with a kind of a twinkle in your eye. And I think they respect that because it makes them think about how they got where they are.”
Ultimately, we know it all worked out. James Cameron went on to make “Aliens,” and the sequel is often discussed as one of the rare follow-ups that surpasses the original. And from there, he’d do it again with his own “Terminator” franchise, making ‘T2’ an absolute monster hit. Though, it’s unclear how he turned “T2: Judgment Day” into any sort of money-making symbol.