What’s the first thing you think of when we mention James Cameron?

For most, they’ll think of his films. THE TERMINATOR put his name on the map, while such follow-ups as ALIENS, TERMINATOR 2 and TRUE LIES turned him into a household name. At the same time, this is the most mind-blowing stat about Cameron: He’s responsible for the top two highest-grossing films of all time in AVATAR and TITANIC. It’d be impressive for a filmmaker to have one of the top two movies on the global charts. For the same filmmaker to have both of them is legendary.

And yet, James Cameron is so much more than a filmmaker. Or, to be more specific, his pursuit of the best type of storytelling often pushes Cameron to invent new technology — and the entire industry benefits.

One of Cameron’s biggest interests, when it comes to theatrical exhibition, is 3D. It has become the director’s passion. He pushed the envelope hard as he developed AVATAR, because he wanted innovative ways to bring the alien world of Pandora to life. And he has guaranteed that AVATAR 2 and its planned sequels (up to three additional AVATAR movies) will all be presented in 3D.

Cameron’s fascination with 3D led to him fighting to improve aspects of a movie’s presentation that comes with 3D, including performance-capture abilities, cameras and projection lighting systems that present the best possible image in a local theatre. He has designed cameras — the Reality Camera System with co-creator Vince Pace — that other filmmakers now use to capture stereoscopic 3D. Robert Rodriguez, for example, credits James Cameron’s innovations as helping him pull off all that he does in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. And at a recent Vivid event in Australia, Cameron was quoted by VFXBlog.com as stating:

“We need to see the roll out of these laser projection systems, so that we can fully appreciate 3D through glasses in cinemas. Then, we need the roll out of autostereoscopic screens — large panel displays, where you don’t need glasses at all. You have multiple discreet viewing angles and all that sort of thing. Anybody that’s geeking out on 3D knows what I’m talking about. It’s all possible. It’s just a question of will it happen or not.”

3D technology without the glasses? Only a pioneer like James Cameron could push to make that happen.

As a director, James Cameron spends most of his current time in Pandora. He is hard at work on AVATAR 2, which he wants to have in theatres by December 18, 2020.

But as an innovator, Cameron is tirelessly working behind the scenes on technology that benefits his films and the films of other directors all around the globe.

Grab tickets to Robert Rodriguez’s ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL — a movie that Cameron almost directed, had he not switched gears to work on AVATAR — and see the cutting-edge 3D technology on the biggest screen possible when it opens on February 14.