During his long career, Canadian film director James Cameron has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell or are officially cancelled.

1980s

Piranha II: The Spawning

In 1981, Cameron was originally hired as the special effects director for Piranha II: The Spawning and took over the direction when the original director, Miller Drake, was fired (Cameron also re-wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym H. A. Milton). Due to budget limitations the crew was composed essentially of Italians, none of whom spoke English. Some however did have prior experience on horror/fantasy movies so they were, to some extent, able to satisfy Cameron's requirements.

After the first week of shooting, the set harmony was disturbed by some discussions about the work between the director and the producers (the executive producer, Ovidio G. Assonitis, asked to verify the day-to-day activities, arguing with most of Cameron's choices), so while Cameron was only responsible for the shooting, most of the decisions were under Assonitis' authority. According to Dreaming Aloud, a biography of Cameron by Christopher Heard, Cameron was not allowed to see his footage and was not involved in editing. He broke into the editing room in Rome and cut his own version while the film's producers were at Cannes, but was caught and Assonitis recut it again. Most of the film was reshot by Assonitis after Cameron was fired. In an interview, Cameron stated: "I was replaced after two-and-a-half weeks by the Italian producer. He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me. It wasn't until much later that I even figured out what had happened. It was like, 'Oh, man, I thought I was doing a good job.' But when I saw what they were cutting together, it was horrible. And then the producer wouldn't take my name off the picture because [contractually] they couldn't deliver it with an Italian name. So they left me on, no matter what I did. I had no legal power to influence him from Pomona, California, where I was sleeping on a friend's couch. I didn't even know an attorney. In actual fact, I did some directing on the film, but I don't feel it was my first movie."James Cameron Interview at Terminator Files. terminatorfiles.com

Burning Chrome

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Alien Nation An earlier draft of the 1988 film Alien Nation was actually written by Cameron in 1987, but his name, however, was not credited in the final cut of the film.Alien Nation (1988) Cast and Credits. Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved March 10, 2010. Rockne S. O'Bannon received solo credit of writing the script, which deviated much from earlier drafts.

1990s

Jurassic Park

In May 1990, Cameron attempted to buy the rights to make a film adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park. However, Steven Spielberg bought the rights by a mere few hours before Cameron could do so. The film released in 1993 and was directed by Spielberg. In an Empire magazine interview, Cameron conceded, "[Spielberg] was the right guy to make it. Not me, because I would have made it too terrifying and R-rated. It would have been Aliens (1986) with dinosaurs."

Spider-Man After finishing the filming of True Lies, on September 1, 1993, Variety reported that Cameron had sent a screenplay (apparently written in 1991) to Carolco Pictures for the long-planned live-action adaptation of the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, a theatrical project that had been in production hell since 1985. Leonardo DiCaprio was attached to play Spider-Man, and Cameron's frequent collaborator Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to play Doctor Octopus.Ted Newsom, the screenwriter of the Cannon Spider-Man said there were no cast info about Cameron's Spider-Man. Cameron's planned screenplay featured a darker, R-rated and mature re-imagining of the classic Spider-Man origin story, with the storyline focusing on academically-gifted, yet outcast high school student: Peter Parker, being bitten by a mutated spider during a scientific demonstration, which later results in Parker developing spider-like superhuman abilities. After initially attempting to use his abilities for personal gain, his selfishness leads to him encountering and refusing to stop an armed robber from escaping from a local TV station, which later results in the tragic murder of his adoptive father-figure/uncle: Ben Parker. Guilt-ridden, Peter is later driven to use his new abilities as a masked vigilante: "Spider-Man", to atone for his partial responsibility in his uncle's death. While balancing high school life, Peter struggles to do good and help others under his Spider-Man alter-ego, while vying for the attentions of his classmate and crush: Mary Jane-Watson, with whom he develops a blossoming romance. Cameron's script also contained heavy profanity, mature themes, sexual content and a significantly grittier, edgier and adult-oriented tone and direction, compared to other cinematic Spider-Man adaptations. However, after problems that producer Menahem Golan had with Carolco (which ended in the bankruptcy of the latter), Cameron left the project and signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. The film was finally released in 2002 directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp.

The Crowded Room

In 1991, after finishing the filming of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron tried to get the rights of Daniel Keyes' non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan. In 1994, Keyes published a sequel novel entitled The Milligan Wars, stating that he published the novel for being a tie-in with the film adaptation, entitled The Crowded Room, which would be developed by Warner Bros. and with Cameron attached to direct, after buying the rights of the novel to Sandy Arcara. John Cusack was attached to play Billy Milligan and Cameron and Todd Graff wrote the screenplay. However, Cameron finally left the project, stating, "I entered an arrangement with a partner. We had joint control of the material. This partner turned out to be someone I couldn't work with and who felt that they couldn't work with me. We parted ways. A script had been written, we'd cast John Cusack to play the guy, and I was in pre-production. I was ready to go shoot… I will say that I believe this person behaved very unprofessionally." In December 2006, veteran film director Joel Schumacher was attached to direct the film, with a projected release date of 2008, but the project remained unfinished. In 2015, Leonardo DiCaprio announced that his company Appian Way Productions was producing The Crowded Room, with DiCaprio set to star. In 2021, Akiva Goldsman began developing the work as a miniseries with Tom Holland in the lead. It was released in 2023.

Terminator 3

During the 1990s, Cameron said many times that he was interested in directing a third Terminator film. After the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures in 1997, the developer of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron and 20th Century Fox were in talks about the production of a possible third Terminator film. However, at the end, Cameron left the production of the third film to direct Titanic. Arnold Schwarzenegger originally intended to not reprise his role as The Terminator after learning that Cameron was not going to direct the film and tried to convince him to work at least as producer, but Cameron declined. The film was finally released as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003 and directed by Jonathan Mostow. Cameron co-wrote and co-produced his vision with Terminator: Dark Fate, which ignores Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys, picking up after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The film was released in United States by Paramount Pictures and internationally by 20th Century Fox (through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures via Buena Vista International) on November 1, 2019.

Project 880 In 1994, Cameron finished the screenplay of Project 880, his next planned film. The script was about a man named Josh Sully traveling to the planet Pandora and falling in love with the native alien Zuleika. In August 1996, Cameron stated that he would direct Project 880 after finishing the filming of Titanic, and that the film would be released in 1999. However, Cameron felt that the technology of that time was not enough and realistic for the project, putting it on hold. Finally, in October 2005, 20th Century Fox greenlit the production of the project. Jon Landau was to produce the film. However, Cameron made many changes to the Project 880 script, and it was finally released in 2009 as Avatar.

The Mummy In December 1995, 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights to Anne Rice's The Mummy from Carolco with Cameron set to direct before the rights lapsed.

Planet of the Apes In 1996, Cameron intended to direct a reboot of Planet of the Apes, after the poor reception of Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973. In 1998, Cameron was to write and produce the movie, while Peter Hyams was to direct the film and Arnold Schwarzenegger was to star in the role of George Taylor. According to Cameron, he had great ideas for the movie, including Caesar traveling in time and discovering an ape society more technologically advanced. However, Cameron left the project after the successful reception of Titanic.* The reboot was finally released in 2001 and directed by Tim Burton.

Fantastic Voyage In 1997, Cameron expressed his desire to direct a remake of Richard Fleischer's Fantastic Voyage, but he left the project to focus on Project 880. Despite this, he still planned to make a remake based on his script. In 2007, 20th Century Fox hired Roland Emmerich to direct a remake with Cameron as writer, but Emmerich left due to creative differences with Cameron. In spring 2010, Paul Greengrass revealed his intentions to direct a remake with Cameron as producer and Shane Salerno as writer, but he was eventually replaced by Shawn Levy, who intended to shoot the film in stereoscopic 3-D. On January 7, 2016, it was revealed that Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro is attached to direct the film, along the announcement that David S. Goyer and Justin Rhodes will be the writers and that Cameron will produce the film with his production company Lightstorm Entertainment. In August 2017, it was reported that del Toro had postponed working on the film to completely focus on his film The Shape of Water. In April 2024, Cameron offered an update on the project: "we plan to go ahead with it very soon."James Cameron Confirms He's Planning to 'Go Ahead With' a 'Fantastic Voyage' Remake 'Very Soon' In December 2025, Cameron noted that there was a new script in the works with a new director.

Dungeons & Dragons In 1997, Cameron was attached to a film adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons just before he did Titanic (1997), but the deal did not suffice due to TSR, Inc.'s failure to come up with a merchandising deal that appealed to 20th Century Fox, where Cameron worked. Potential deals with Paramount Pictures and Lightstorm Entertainment were also destroyed due to strong disagreements on how to finance the film.

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