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Published on Wednesday, July 14, 1999 - 12:17am |
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James Cameron and his 2 Mars projects... 1 is TV and the other one is IMAX 3-D!
Folks, this is Harry here.... MAN, this sounds like Cameron is up to his next tickling
with brilliance. Personally from the sound of this, I would guess that he’s probably using
these projects as a bit of R&D for his AVATAR project that is just awaiting to be made
someday. Keep your fingers crossed. Ol Roger Ramjet here... Man, I tell you. It always
pays to be courteous to folks wherever you are. He really didn’t know much about film
other than the final product, now look... He’s a spy. Cool. Personally, I don’t know
about you, but I’m dying to hear more on these projects. Well... Here’s Roger...
Hey there Harry, you might remember me from your visit a while back to Nasa when you
came to visit the ARMAGEDDON set. I was the one that asked you why they kept
shooting the same scenes 15 to 20 times. I realize now how stupid that must have
sounded. After a year and a half of reading your site I think I have a better grip on what
goes into making a movie.
I bet you are wondering what I’m going on about with this email, so I guess I better get
on up to the point.
There’s a bunch of us NASA guys here in Houston that are really quite pissed about the
whole bunch of ‘MARS’ projects on the horizon in Hollywood. You see you have those
two projects at Warner Brothers and Disney that are just so full of baloney that we NASA
types just want to throw our hands up in the air and form a revolt. One has the remains of
giant dinosaurs on the surface of Mars, they all have government conspiracies that make
us out to be the bad guys. In fact they even have the same sort of unlikely bullshit as was
in that FIRST MEN ON THE MOON bit, complete with pulsating domes that encapsulate
alien towns.
And let us not even go into the actual science of the space travel. We really did think after
the success of APOLLO 13 and that mini-series of Tom Hanks that we’d see an explosion
of real hard science fact being spiced into our science fiction films.
I know this sounds really negative Harry, but there is a point to all of this. I was hanging
out at a bar with some of my fellow NASA workers and as the night wore on, one of our
project managers started getting really open. This is why if you people think we are
covering something up you are wrong. We are people just like you. We can get fucked
up and vocal about secrets and blow it like anybody else. Keeping secrets in this world is
not as simple as saying it is a secret. This man, who I’ll call John Glenn just cause he’s a
real hero, began detailing a real Hollywood project, actually two of them, that do care
about the reality of space travel and the future of man.
Turns out both projects are sitting in the lap of James Cameron. One is that 5 hour
mini-series detailing the first manned mission to Mars that will be not unlike that Tom
Hanks HBO thing. Cameron’s take is to treat the Mars mission as though it has already
happened. John Glenn was calling these projects Science Fact, but that is kind of stupid
since it hasn’t happened yet and is fictional, it is by definition Science Fiction. It’s just
paying a real close bit of attention to the hard SCIENCE part.
The other project is a 3-D IMAX movie that will cover the same basic subject matter
called DESTINATION MARS. Now John really started going into how much Cameron
really cares about the reality of the mission. He’s talking to all of our people here in
NASA about the space suits, equipment we’ll need, the mission plans. He wants to know
every step we will need to take to get there, just like when we went to the moon. John
says that Cameron really is listening to the scientist as opposed to just paying them for
their ‘consultant’ names autographed on the project for validity’s sake. (ahem,
ARMAGEDDON anyone?)
When I say he’s really listening to us, I really mean it. I’m talking about him including
details like the “In-Situ Resource Utilization Nuclear Powered Fuel Plant” Most people
really don’t care about that sort of thing, but that piece of equipment and mission is what
will assure the astronauts the ability to have supplies waiting for them on Mars. You see it
extracts elements from the atmosphere that we’ll need to manufacture all the water and
fuel and oxygen for the return trip, as well as the stay on Mars.
There is so much more that I can go into with you Harry, but for now why don’t you run
this and see if your audience wants to hear more about the project. You have my email,
just contact me if there is any interest. The two Cameron projects are what we NASA
folks are excited about. You know, we’ve had a century of science fiction melodramas
and a lot of us scientist want to see the movies done with the same degree of care and
effort that we put into the real thing. By trivializing space travel and inter-planetary
voyages it makes what we do seem and feel to kids out there as being archaic and silly.
By taking it seriously and showing the real thought and team effort and the drive and
passion of meeting each of a thousand different goals I really feel that kids and people in
school will redouble their efforts and go back to dreaming a lost dream we have had.
Wow, I really did not intend to turn this into a Gettysburg Address, but you know me.
Just get me talking and try to shut me up. I love what we do here, I just want more
people out there to love it too.
This is Roger Ramjet zooming out
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Reader Talkback
jimmy cameron and oh, am i
first? by spidahman | Jul 14th, 1999 12:28:22 AM | IMAX 3D RULES by darken | Jul 14th, 1999 12:31:33 AM | Fantastic-sounding Mars
movies! by justine | Jul 14th, 1999 12:40:42 AM | Only Cameron can pull this
off right by MagykElf | Jul 14th, 1999 01:14:13 AM | ... not the first by blsweden | Jul 14th, 1999 01:16:31 AM | We need a full length IMAX
feature and this would be
perfect by paragonian | Jul 14th, 1999 03:23:14 AM | How would this ever pay for
itself? by Major Boothroyd | Jul 14th, 1999 04:27:43 AM | Whee!! by Hamadryad | Jul 14th, 1999 05:20:09 AM | Ugh. by Hamadryad | Jul 14th, 1999 05:23:25 AM | Confirmation? by BrianM | Jul 14th, 1999 05:42:56 AM | IMAX by Payndz | Jul 14th, 1999 06:24:45 AM | Look at me! I'm a Martian! by Uncle Cracky | Jul 14th, 1999 06:55:23 AM | Mars Direct by chanur | Jul 14th, 1999 07:10:27 AM | Cameron has been involved with
NASA before by the_jujy | Jul 14th, 1999 07:31:47 AM | "Get your ass to Mars!" by Uncapie | Jul 14th, 1999 07:40:24 AM | Cameron's bad choices by Mike D | Jul 14th, 1999 08:20:11 AM | NASA comments by Orion7 | Jul 14th, 1999 08:43:50 AM | ONLY Cameron can Do This? by Goodgulf | Jul 14th, 1999 08:52:26 AM | Howard, NASA & Cameron by the_jujy | Jul 14th, 1999 09:01:56 AM | MARS! by Yossarian | Jul 14th, 1999 09:26:16 AM | H-ard Sci-ence! by Lord Shell | Jul 14th, 1999 09:38:22 AM | Somebody needs to make a
'real' IMax3D movie! by Darth Siskel | Jul 14th, 1999 10:10:22 AM | hard science in hollywood by cyboman | Jul 14th, 1999 10:34:17 AM | Major Boothroyd is right by Musgrave | Jul 14th, 1999 11:06:59 AM | Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley
Robinson by the_jujy | Jul 14th, 1999 12:28:04 PM | People seem to be missing the
point... by Meridian | Jul 14th, 1999 01:31:30 PM | Jimmy Cameron's losing the
race... by BigJackieV | Jul 14th, 1999 02:05:52 PM | I'm the King of the Assholes! by Billy Idol | Jul 14th, 1999 03:31:07 PM | making money by Orion7 | Jul 14th, 1999 03:33:08 PM | Ramjet is Right On by supernew | Jul 14th, 1999 04:02:29 PM | YOU MEAN ARMAEGDDON WASN'T
FACTUALY CORRECT??!!! by Tall_Boy | Jul 14th, 1999 04:05:41 PM | want to hear more? by the boom | Jul 14th, 1999 06:02:50 PM | Space travel is archaic and
silly by primemover | Jul 14th, 1999 06:53:28 PM | Oh, yes! by Cassius the Evil | Jul 14th, 1999 08:30:52 PM | Primemover, 96 years ago... by Ktak | Jul 14th, 1999 09:22:17 PM | Possible filming location by lymond | Jul 14th, 1999 10:47:00 PM | James Cameron's 2 Mars
projects story by Satan | Jul 17th, 1999 08:32:51 AM | Ooooooh, will they film it on
MARRRRRRRS? by Wolfpack | Aug 11th, 2006 08:21:00 PM |
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