3. JAMES CAMERON
AGE 53
JOB TITLE Director/producer
SMART BECAUSE He's
reinventing the technology of
cinema and may alter the
entire industry along with it.
Ten years after Titanic made
$1.8 billion worldwide, Cameron
is at work on the futuristic
Avatar, a top secret 3-D project
involving a super-advanced
stereoscopic technique (and a
camera system he designed)
that supposedly allows him to
digitally manipulate actors into any
shape he desires with even more startling realism
than in Beowulf. Peter Jackson' s effects team at
Weta is involved, and Spielberg, Jackson, and a few
others have popped in on Cameron to take a peek at
the future. Avatar won't be out until summer 2009.
He may never beat Titanic's box office, but by then
there should be enough 3-D theaters nationwide for
him to give it a shot.
BURNING SENSATION Unlike
some other celebs, he wisely evacuated his Malibu
home during the October 2007 fires.
