Hollywood friendships can be wonderfully illogical. Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma found common ground through New York cinema, while Mel Brooks somehow became an unlikely champion of David Lynch. Then there is Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron, two filmmakers who seem genetically incapable of doing anything on a small scale.

One builds melancholy monsters and gothic labyrinths. The other sinks ships and invents entire moons. Their friendship, however, began with remarkable simplicity. Cameron watched Cronos, liked what he saw, and suddenly del Toro found himself living in the Terminator filmmaker’s house.

And hanging around the editing room of True Lies.

During an appearance on On Film… With Kevin McCarthy, Guillermo del Toro traced the friendship back to James Cameron seeing his 1993 feature debut Cronos. There was apparently very little Hollywood courtship involved. Cameron watched the movie, connected with its maker, and the relationship accelerated almost immediately.

“Jim became my friend, the first day he saw Cronos. We became friends, I started living in his house shortly thereafter,” del Toro recalled.

That meant del Toro suddenly had a front-row seat to Cameron’s filmmaking machine while True Lies was being assembled. For a young filmmaker obsessed with creatures, mechanics, practical effects and the physical construction of cinema, hanging around Cameron’s editing room must have felt like being handed a backstage pass to a very expensive spaceship. 

Del Toro further revealed he later asked Cameron why they clicked so quickly. Cameron’s answer essentially became a taxonomy of filmmaking obsessives. Directors were rare, writer-directors rarer, and filmmakers capable of writing, directing, designing and understanding technology occupied an even smaller club. Add financial discipline and an awareness of production time, Cameron argued, and you have somebody another filmmaker can genuinely talk shop with.

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Their friendship has survived decades of cinematic madness, but Cameron himself is now wondering how much filmmaking madness he still wants to personally direct.

After 21 years immersed in Pandora, James Cameron recently told GGAwards-PrixGG that he is looking at the landscape and asking which stories he still wants to tell, along with how many require him behind the camera. He has even framed his decision around a larger question.

“What will do the most good?” Cameron says he is mapping out the “last act” of his career, though he has made no firm decisions yet.

That leaves Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 in an intriguing position. Cameron has previously said each sequel must justify its enormous business case, and he has openly entertained the possibility of handing directing duties to somebody else while remaining involved creatively.

The timing has extra spice after Avengers: Endgame Encore pushed Endgame back above Avatar as the highest-grossing film worldwide, reaching roughly $2.925 billion. For now, Cameron seems less interested in quitting than in choosing his remaining battles carefully. 

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What do you think about Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron becoming friends almost instantly? Let us know in the comments.