James Cameron has this second life as a documentary filmmaker/adventurer. He likes to travel the world and do exciting stuff and learn things, like what kind of gross fish live at the bottom of the ocean. But he’s also weirdly credulous. You may remember Cameron’s last game changer, when he claimed to have found the coffin of none other than Mr. Jesus H. Christ himself. That didn’t quite pan out as expected, did it?
Now Cameron is back in cahoots with the guy who wrote the book about Jesus’ coffin, The Jesus Family Tomb (this sounds like a Chico and the Man-esque sitcom), for The Last Train from Hiroshima. Cameron gave a blurb to the book, written by his pal Charles Pellegrino, and even optioned it for a movie. Now it turns out the book is full of shit.
How full of shit? The publisher is halting publication (there are a few thousand copies out there. Collector’s item!). And the book turns out to be really fake:
The publisher was unable to determine the existence of a Father Mattias (the first name is not given) who supposedly lived in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, and John MacQuitty, identified as a Jesuit scholar presiding over Mattias’ funeral.
“I read a number of books on this period of time and none of them mentioned Mattias or MacQuitty. I knew there was no way those people could have been omitted if they were real,” said history professor Barton Bernstein of Stanford University.
Ouch! There’s more! Pellegrino claims to be the holder of a PhD from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand… but the school had no record of it! The guy’s an extreme bullshit artist, it turns out.
The upside of all this is that Cameron will not be making a CGI mocapped Hiroshima movie anytime soon. I find his longtime association with Pellegrino – Cameron wrote the intro for Pellegrino’s 2000 book Ghosts of the Titanic, and Pellegrino got paid as a consultant on Avatar! – fascinating and am intrigued by what it says about Cameron. When the real book about Cameron gets written – not the ass-licking The Futurist – I’m looking forward to an examination of how Cameron’s oddly naive historical side informs his filmmaking.
21 comments
Whoops.
Geez you have a VENDETTA dude. Get over it. When the book about Cameron gets written it will be all about his huge movies and his talent as a filmmaker. Nobody seems to care about the other shit that you care about. Of course, you will probably flip that into everyone else being 'sheep' and 'afraid to examine the harsh reality of blah blah' or whatever, but it's really just that NOBODY CARES. We care about good, fun movies. And James Cameron makes 'em. This article IS kind of enlightening, but why turn it into an attack on James Cameron? Why not just take it to Pellegrino? He seems to be the one who's full of shit. Oh, it's because you're childish and harbor truckloads resentment. Grow up. Positive Energy Activates Constant Elevation.
Here we go again!
He makes fun movies. But not a very good judge of character, apparently.
Saying people don't care about the personal lives of celebrities is kind of ridiculous. Especially in a country where a guy having sex warrants a public apology and where commenters on a website complain about the background of writer of an article that doesn't really have an influence anywhere else. Alas though I'm basically complaining about people complaining about people complaining.
Saying people don't care about the personal lives of celebrities is kind of ridiculous. Especially in a country where a guy having sex warrants a public apology and where commenters on a website complain about the background of writer of an article that doesn't really have an influence anywhere else. Alas though I'm basically complaining about people complaining about people complaining.
It's like Nick and Steve Alten, only interesting!
The dorks who get all butthurt when Devin dares say anything remotely critical of Cameron crack me up. Go love on blue cartoons, ya gheytards.
I wonder if when Cameron rolls a cigar with a $1,000 billl, does he LOL at DF?
Hmmmmmm…..
Ooooooooo, you said tards…..i'm so telling Sarah Palin on you.
Oh I thought for a moment there we were going to finally get a movie telling the moving story of Babelfish or Google Translate or something. Featuring all your favourites from Zero Wing to "By nightfall these hill will be swarming with Ox" and of course "DO NOT WANT!"
Hey guys, I don't see anything wrong with having secret partnerships. The only real difference in their case is that Cameron is a creative and fascinating guy, while I hooked up with Nick. FUCK.
What nothing about Kathryn Bigelow's agent sending out e-mails to Oscar voters suggesting that they rank The Hurt Locker #1 and Avatar #10? That is some underhanded shit, so Devin, where is that trash talking story, cause it sure as shit makes her and her team look pretty fucking shady. Plus, they now potentially face a lawsuit and could be fucked at the Oscars.
Cameron's a Glory Hound – this is why he's easily fooled. No explanation of same for the vast audience of Avatar though – mob stupidity?
#13 – it was actually one of the producers, not bigelow's agent. before ranting and raving about faraci maybe you should try doing a little thing called "research." whatever happens because of it i doubt it will rub off negatively on bigelow.
Wow. That got about 3 more paragraphs than it deserves. Cameron is a prig who should get a ton of shit from most everyone. Except Devin, of course, as he's worn it on his sleeve for so long he'd be better off leaving it alone. I can picture his child-like excitement when this story crossed his path and he practically pissed himself trying to wring as much from it as possible. Let Cameron become the black whole on your pages, Devin, and you (and we) will be better for it. By way of disclaimer, I saw Avatar for free and I'm glad… that I saw it for free. It was good looking, and the 3D was amazing, but I didn't need to part with $10-15 for that rehash of Pocahontas. So thankfully, Cameron is not lighting up any stogies with my money.
Wahhhhhhhh! Wahhhhhhh!
A director didn't invite me to his movie set or let me interview him has a hugely successful movie that I panned. I cannot stand that he is successful despite my obvious lame attempts to thwart that sucess.
Wahhhhh! Wahhhh!
You know how Cameron can get into Devin's good graces? Cast Seth Rogen as a thanator-Na'vi hybrid in the Avatar sequel. Or just cast Rogen in anything. Devin's good will will last about, say, a movie.
It does seem a tad unprofessional, this blatant loathing of Cameron and the need to belittle him at every opportunity just because he doesn't like Cameron's films. His dislike of Christopher Nolan is quite restrained by comparison. Seriously, there is nothing in this news item that reflects badly upon James Cameron. Except that one of his friends is a bit of a dick, and I'm sure we all have one like that…
Avatards TM…..
This doesn't really reflect poorly on Cameron at all. Sure there is a saying about being judged by your friends, but who really puts any faith in something that stupid?
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