14 DAY TRIAL // It’s on now: in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, James Cameron said the recently released “Piranha 3D” was the example of what should not be done in 3D. Producer Mark Canton has just responded to the diss – and it’s not pretty.
As we also informed you the other day, Cameron said that, while many films drew inspiration from his “Avatar” and used 3D in a way that befitted the story, “Piranha 3D” was merely scraping on the bottom of the creativity barrel.
As one may have guessed, the “Piranha” peeps couldn’t have let this slide, first of all because it came from Cameron, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) directors of our time, and secondly because it ran in VF, the bible of celebrity culture.
Consequently, Mark Canton issued a statement to E! Online, saying that not only is Cameron too stuck up to see past his own merits (if any), but that he’s also greatly exaggerating how groundbreaking “Avatar” was.
Cameron wasted no words in making his feelings clear with no regard to those of “Piranha” producers – and Canton does the same, blasting him for his ego and narrow-mindedness.
“Mr. Cameron, who singles himself out to be a visionary of movie-making, seems to have a small vision regarding any motion pictures that are not his own,” Canton says, referring to how Cameron blasted “Piranha.”
“His comments are ridiculous, self-serving and insulting to those of us who are not caught up in serving his ego and his rhetoric,” the producer goes on to say.
Canton believes Cameron shouldn’t have name-picked the likes of Scorsese and Burton and belittle them, because they’re groundbreaking directors who’ve made successful films even before the advent of 3D.
Cameron is a successful director who makes brilliant movies and is a hit at the box office as well, yet he doesn’t act like one. He shouldn’t criticize young directors and films he’s not involved in because these directors look up to him and don’t want a “dictator” for a role model.
“My sense is that Mr. Cameron has never seen Piranha 3D… certainly not in a movie theater with a real audience. Jim, we invite you to take the opportunity and experience the movie in a theater full of fans – fans for whom [sic] this movie was always intended to entertain,” Canton says.
“To be honest, I found the 3D in Avatar to be inconsistent and while groundbreaking in many respects, sometimes I thought it overwhelmed the storytelling. Technology aside, I wish Avatar had been more original in its storytelling,” Canton adds, points out to Cameron that he did not “invent” 3D.
Still, he (Canton) can’t remain oblivious to the countless merits of “Avatar,” despite some minor flaws, which is precisely what Cameron should do too with “Piranha,” a movie that debuted to a 82 % fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (it’s now down to 75%, which is still very good).
For Mark Canton’s full statement on James Cameron’s “Piranha 3D” comments, see here.