James Cameron Explains Why the Original Aliens Poster Is So Basic

Did you recognize James Cameron used to make film posters? It’s true. In his new guide, Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron, the director of Terminator, Avatar, and Aliens talks about his time creating posters for an previous film firm referred to as Saturn, not even watching the films as a result of they have been so unhealthy, and simply sending in pictures he thought have been cool. “They’re horrible movies,” Cameron mentioned. “I strongly recommend nobody ever see the films, like I never did. I could watch only about five minutes before I switched it it off.”

io9 was certainly one of a gaggle of journalists who spoke to Cameron about Tech Noir, which accommodates a bunch of those posters, and we requested him about how, if in any respect, that have impacted the posters for his personal motion pictures, none of which have even been illustrated. “I’ve never really pushed marketing departments to go one way or another [between photos and illustration],” Cameron mentioned on video name. “They show me stuff. I think on Avatar was one where I think they missed it, and we actually brought in Dylan Cole, who was one of our designers, and Dylan did the one sheets for Avatar. Believe it or not, we literally just did [them] in our own design department. So I do believe in the one sheet the same way I used to believe in the book covers of all those science fiction books I used to buy as a kid. If it was a good cover, I bought the book.”

Before Cameron moved onto the subsequent query although, he perked up and mentioned “There was a funny one sheet story on Aliens! I did have a strong opinion on that.” And that’s when he advised the story of how the one sheet for Aliens ended up simply being this.

“So I went into the office of the the head of marketing for 20th Century Fox, I literally met him on his last day at the office and his office was all boxed up. I was his last meeting before he left the job,” Cameron started. “He was sitting at the desk and he had this little green plastic frog and he was squeezing a bulb and making it hop around the desk. And I said, ‘What’s with the frog?’ And he said, ‘It’s my stress frog.’ I’m like, ‘OK, this guy is a casualty.’”

“Then he said, ‘But I’ve got a one sheet for you.’ And he showed this one sheet. I think you can get it online, a few of them kind of leaked out. [Note: We weren’t able to confirm which version Cameron is referring to, but if you know, let us know!] And it was this horrible sort of mash-up photography. It looked worse than a Roger Corman one sheet because, like me, Roger believed in good one sheets. Not good movies, but good one sheets. And I looked at this thing and I kind of held it in my hands and and I said, ‘Oh, let me tell you exactly what I think of this one sheet,’ and I just slowly sort of crumpled it up [into] a ball and threw it in the corner. And he was working the stress frog. And I said, ‘Honestly, if I had a choice between that piece of shit and just an all-black frame, I’d go with the all black frame.’ And apparently what happened was I walked out of the office and he called somebody up and said ‘He wants it all black!’ He wasn’t hearing what I was saying. So if you ever wondered why there was literally nothing on the one sheet for Aliens, that’s why.”

We’ll have extra from Cameron within the coming days. Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron, which compiles tons of of pages of drawings from Cameron’s whole life and is unbelievable, is out subsequent week. Preorder right here.

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