Hey folks, Harry here with further information on that James Cameron 'MARS' deal that is in the works. This further unveils his plans, and for the first time in public. You might recall this report from a month ago that spilt some beans on the project. Personally I can not wait to see what all Jim has in the wings for us. To give you an idea of how exacting Cameron is with his designing, I recently forwarded a friend of mine the details for a real flying car that is being tested. Now this friend showed them to Cameron, Cameron quickly came back with the design flaws and began talking about what would go wrong in testing. He reminds me a bit of ol Max Fleischer in that respect. Don't know how to do it? Well... invent it. Maybe he'll kickstart our journey to Mars. Meanwhile the other two MARS projects are beginning to remind me of LEVIATHON and DEEP STAR SIX.... seems Cameron is working on the ABYSS again!

Click here to view images that Cameron displayed at the MARS SOCIETY yesterday!!!

Hi Harry!

Okay, this news isn't a big secret, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, so I thought I'd let you know. If this is old news, then ignore me.

Today James Cameron told a group of 1,000 precisely what his future plans are. This was at the 2nd Annual Mars Society conference (http://www.marssociety.org/), at which I was in attendence. He not only described his two upcoming projects in detail, but showed us many pre-production computer renderings as well. The were AMAZING.

Okay, let me back up a minute. Cameron has two projects in the works, both of which will be about the first human mission to Mars, set in the near future (2012-2016, which is actually quite realistic). One will be a 5-hour miniseries on network TV, and the other will be a 1-hour 3D IMAX film! Both will air in the spring of 2001. These will share the same sets, actors and props -- essentially covering the same story from different angles. The story will encompass several years, from before the mission to the 6-month voyage to Mars, to over 500 days on the surface of Mars, and then the return to Earth. "When we sent men to the moon, it changed them forever," said Cameron, "but sometimes those changes took years to manifest. Well, the Mars crew will be away from Earth for years, and we'll get to see those changes take place. And we'll see the changes in their friends and families on Earth as well."

That's about as much as he told us of the plot. Then he went into the technical technical details. And let me tell you, speaking as a rocket scientist, he KNOWS his technical details! Every aspect of his mission will be as accurate as it can possibly be. He studied the NASA DRM (Design Reference Mission) through and through, but in many cases wasn't satisfied with the level of detail that NASA was able to give him. So he designed his own Long-distance Mars Rover, Surface habitats, and other aspects of the mission. And these are GOOD designs -- the rover in particular is probably the most detailed design for a Mars rover which has ever been produced, and hardened Aerospace Engineers were gasping at some of its more ingenius features.

I am excited -- and I believe completely that he can pull this off. For the first time since Ron Howard did Apollo 13, Hollywood will be doing a space movie EXACTLY right. The division betgween miniseries and IMAX seems kind of strange at first, but will actually allow for both stunning visuals on the BIG screen and detailed exposition on the smaller one. 2001 is going to be a good year for movies.

A few more details (which he went through really quickly, so I may have transcribed them wrong). The TV special is being written by Cameron and Al Reiner (?) [HARRY NOTE: This is actually Al Reinert, director of FOR ALL MANKIND, Screenwriter of APOLLO 13 and the FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Miniseries Episodes: 4 and 6], produced by Cameron, and directed by Martha Coolidge (?). The 3D IMAX is being written with Al Goddard (?) and Robert Zubrin (founder of the Mars Society), and will be directed by Cameron himself. A book written by Cameron is also in the works.

Unable to wait,

"Saxifrage"