After Terminator 2 and Titanic, James Cameron reportedly wants to undertake a 3D conversion of Aliens. This isn't really a surprise, since from the very first Avatar, James Cameron was one of the pioneers of 3D in cinema, with the Avatar franchise remaining the absolute benchmark for the use of this technology to this day.
Over the years, James Cameron has seen some of his older films benefit from 3D conversions, notably Titanic 3D in 2012, a technological leap that cost $18 million and required more than a year of work. In 2017, it happened again, a 4K scan of Terminator 2: Judgment Day resulted in a 3D conversion that, once again, required about a year of work and mobilized more than 1,400 artists. Why James Cameron wants to make his films timeless: While promoting his new 3D concert film dedicated to Billie Eilish, Cameron told the media outlet Letterboxd that he was considering a conversion of his 1986 feature film, Aliens: "Aliens is a film rooted in its time." We're thinking about converting Aliens [to 3D], because I now know that the tools are much better than they were for creating depth maps. We'll probably end up converting Aliens, which will be a fun experience. That film seems to be timeless. People still go back to it a lot. If people remember a film I made 38 years ago, I think I've already won the debate.
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The only problem with conversion is when the film wasn't shot from that perspective. It still makes a huge difference compared to Avatar, or even Fury Road, some shots of which wouldn't exist if they hadn't been designed for 3D. So what's the point of converting Aliens to 3D? Apart, of course, from the fun it might give the director… We're still figuring it out.
The 1986 film remains a cornerstone of the science fiction/action genre, one of the greatest films of the 1980s, and a model of a successful sequel. It was followed by numerous sequels that never managed to recapture the same level of quality. Cameron immediately followed up with The Abyss in 1989, before achieving immense success with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar.