The TV Column

Cameron hosts Story of Science Fiction on AMC

James Cameron (left) poses with Steven Spielberg during the fi lming of James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction. The series debuts at 9 p.m. Monday on AMC.
James Cameron (left) poses with Steven Spielberg during the fi lming of James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction. The series debuts at 9 p.m. Monday on AMC.

Years ago, if you mentioned that a TV show or movie was set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away, my mother would have nothing to do with it. No matter how compelling the plot or characters were, science fiction was anathema to her. It just was.

That's not the case with film and TV viewers these days. Sci-fi has become the highest-grossing genre in cinema. James Cameron's 2009 epic Avatar tops the list in theatrical exhibition with a worldwide gross of more than $2.8 billion. That's with a B.

In third place just behind Cameron's Titanic is 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII-- The Force Awakens with $2.1 billion. A billion here and a billion there and you're talking some serious money.

Cameron is also the guy behind other sci-fi blockbusters such as Aliens, The Abyss and The Terminator movies. Who better to host a series exploring all things science fiction?

James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction debuts at 9 p.m. Monday on AMC. The six episodes will "explore the evolution of sci-fi from its origins as a small genre with a cult following to the blockbuster pop-cultural phenomenon we know today." And that includes everything from Hunger Games and The Walking Dead to most films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.

Cameron will interview several of his famous contemporaries, including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Ridley Scott. The guests will "debate the merits, meanings, and impacts of the films and novels that influenced them and discuss where the genre -- and our species -- might be going in the future."

Among many other iconic films, Spielberg gave us Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park; Lucas created Star Wars; and Scott directed Alien, Blade Runner and The Martian.

Among actors to be interviewed are Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator), Will Smith (Independence Day, After Earth), Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) and Sigourney Weaver (Avatar, Alien and its sequels).

In addition, Hendrix College President Bill Tsutsui, author of Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters, will appear in the May 14 episode.

In each of the six episodes, Cameron introduces one of the "Big Questions" that mankind has contemplated throughout the ages. In Monday's first episode, "Aliens," he asks, "Are we alone?" Does Earth have the only intelligent life in the universe? If not, what can we learn from aliens?

In an AMC interview, Cameron, 63, boasts that in his youth, he was "a sci-fi nerd."

"When I was a kid, I basically read any book with a spaceship on the cover and I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey many, many times. The movie inspired me to become a filmmaker. I liked the special effects, but I really loved the ideas and the questions behind them: How will the world end? Will technology destroy us? What does it mean to be human?

"These are subjects sci-fi has never been afraid to tackle. With this series, we are going back to the origins of sci-fi, following the DNA of these ideas back to the source. Without Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein. And without them, there wouldn't be Lucas, Spielberg, Scott or me.

"As a filmmaker who specializes in science fiction, I'm interested in exploring the struggles and the triumphs that brought these incredible stories to life and seeing how art imitates life, as well as how science fiction imitates and sometimes informs science."

About his earliest influences, Spielberg recalls the time his father took him to a hill in New Jersey to watch a meteor shower.

"There were hundreds of people lying on picnic blankets," Spielberg says. "I put the scene in Close Encounters. I just remember looking at the sky, because of the influence of my father, and saying, 'If I ever get a chance to make a science fiction movie, I want those guys to come in peace.'"

And when they get here, they need to phone home right away.

• Elementary finally arrives with Season 6 at 9 p.m. Monday on CBS. In the episode, "An Infinite Capacity for Taking Pains," Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) struggles with a medical diagnosis that threatens his career and sobriety.

• Unforgotten on Masterpiece premieres Season 2 at 8 p.m. today on PBS and AETN. In the episode, Cassie and Sunny (Nicola Walker, Sanjeev Bhaskar) interview suspects in a murder that took place 25 years before.

• Good Witch debuts Season 4 at 8 p.m. today on Hallmark Channel. In "With This Ring," Cassie Nightingale (Catherine Bell) gives those around her pieces of jewelry that magically turn out to be just the thing each needed.

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Style on 04/29/2018

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