Thread by @TheSpaceshipper

Xenogenesis (1978 short film)

James Cameron: "I studied physics and astronomy in college and I kind of appreciated how difficult it would be and how a lot of spacecraft designs in movies were pretty whimsical. So I came up with this idea for a starship that had the engine..."

"...engine section far away because of the radiation and so on. I could just go down that nerdy rabbit hole of figuring out the tech, and I think I’ve maintained that as a motif throughout my science fiction body of work..."

ISV Venture Star in Avatar (2009):

James Cameron: "We had all these movies that showed rocket ships and they were all pointy and they had fins at the bottom. That’s how they landed and went to other planets."

"When we finally went to the Moon, we went to the most improbable-looking device that was never anticipated by a couple of decades of Hollywood designers. But if you understand why it was the way it was, it makes completely logical engineering sense."

"So I thought, in my science fiction films, I’m gonna start with the engineering and let that drive the design, and then that’s what we’ll build, and that’s the world we’ll inhabit."

Xenogenesis (1978), art by James Cameron:

"So while I’m not really preceding with Xenogenesis, the way in which I formulated my working process is still what I apply today."

More:
syfy.com/syfy-wire/jame…