James Cameron on 3-D ‘T2’: It’s a ‘thrill’

Director James Cameron has always embraced the newest technology available when making his movies. For his 1991 feature “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” Cameron teamed with Industrial Light & Magic to produce the liquid metal special effect that allowed the murderous robot from the future, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), to morph into multiple shapes.

There are only five minutes of computer-generated moments in the film but because the technology was so new at the time, it took 35 people working a total of 25 man-years at a cost of $5 million to create the special effects. It was one of the most aggressive uses of CGI to that point in movie history.

Cameron was so focused on new technology, he didn’t give a second thought to making the movie with the older film process of 3-D. That wasn’t in his plans in 1991. But technology has caught up to the way Cameron makes movies, and now “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is being re-released theatrically in 3-D starting Friday.

“It really just wasn’t in anyone’s consciousness because 3-D had been tried and failed in the ’50s. It had been tried briefly with a couple of esoteric titles in the ’70s like Andy Warhol’s ‘(Flesh for) Frankenstein’ and ‘The Stewardesses.’ But it was pretty much a dead art,” Cameron said. “It was really the advent of digital cameras that made it possible to create a 3-D camera system that was somewhat viable.”

That technology didn’t come around until the late ’90s, long after the original release of “Terminator 2.” Current 3-D technology has advanced so much that even movies that weren’t originally filmed in 3-D can be converted. How good that conversion looks depends on the way the movie was original shot.

Cameron wasn’t thinking about 3-D at the time but when he looks back at the filming of “T2,” the director realizes that a lot of decisions he made in regards to the equipment he selected made it possible for “T2” to be transformed into the kind of 3-D quality he wants.

“I tend to always think — and compose — visually with depth in mind,” Cameron said.

For a moment, the director, writer and producer slips back to his college days at Fullerton College in Southern California where he had enrolled to study physics. Cameron is certain that those days studying physics before quitting school to focus on the film world have affected many of his decisions as he has set up shots over the years, especially choreographing action scenes.

Even when he’s creating big action sequences, they all have to feel like they obey the real laws of physics.

“So, it’s a particular thrill as a filmmaker to re-present a movie into theaters all these years later.”