Why James Cameron Pulled His Daughters out of the Us to Build a Quiet Life in New Zealand
By James H. Sterling
Pulling off a total family relocation is difficult for mid-level professionals; for a filmmaker running multi-billion-dollar cinematic franchises like Avatar, it required monumental logistical coordination. Cameron solved this by shifting his industrial core alongside his family life.
Wellington, located just an hour's drive over the Remutaka Range from his Wairarapa farm, houses Stone Street Studios and Sir Peter Jackson’s digital visual effects studio, Wētā FX. Instead of commuting between Los Angeles and international locations, Cameron rooted the ongoing production of the Avatar sequels directly in the capital city. He could direct performance-capture shoots by day and return to his family's rural estate by nightfall. The infrastructure allowed him to execute the most technologically demanding film productions in history while ensuring his daughters woke up to quiet farmland rather than California freeways.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
