BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — James Cameron — who borrowed Leonardo DiCaprio’s line from “Titanic” and declared himself “king of the world” when that film sailed to Oscar glory 12 years ago — positioned himself for an Academy Awards win after with his Golden Globe wins Sunday for the sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar.”
The tale of big, blue aliens in conflict with rapacious humans on Pandora earned the Globes for best drama and director, prizes that also preceded the Oscar run of “Titanic.”
“This is a trip,” said Cameron, recalling that as “Titanic” was becoming a box-office and Oscar juggernaut, he had thought to himself, “Enjoy this ride, it ain’t never going to happen again.”
Yet “Avatar” has soared to a worldwide box office of $1.6 billion, second only to “Titanic” at $1.8 billion, and could end up surpassing his 1997 smash about the doomed luxury liner.
A key difference for Cameron’s success this awards season is that he’s doing it with a space fantasy, the sort of far-out tale that usually goes overlooked except for visual effects and other technical honors during Hollywood’s prestige period.
“Hopefully, this is part of a trend of the acceptance of science fiction as a legitimate dramatic form of cinema,” said Cameron, whose films include the sci-fi tales “Aliens,” “The Abyss” and the first two “Terminator” movies.
Like “Avatar,” “Titanic” was a visual marvel, but it was an epic period drama, too, the kind of movie awards voters have embraced since the early days of the Oscars.
Peter Jackson achieved rare awards acceptance for fantasy adventures with his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, though those films had a long and distinguished literary pedigree in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Cameron made everything up himself for “Avatar,” a 22nd century story of interspecies romance set on Pandora, where intrusive humans are mining a priceless energy source, steam-rolling over the world’s natives to do it.
Pandora’s inhabitants, the 10-foot, blue-skinned Na’vi, fight back with help from a paralyzed human (Sam Worthington), whose mind is transferred to an “avatar” resembling the natives. He finds a mentor and romantic interest in a fierce Na’vi princess (Zoe Saldana).
Cameron said he was aiming only for a crowd-pleasing commercial success this time, not another awards contender.
“We have been down that road. It is a nightmare. You have to wear a tux all the time, and here we are again,” Cameron said. “What the hell did we do?”
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