I've heard this story that James Cameron pitched the sequel of ALIEN by simply writing ALIEN$ on a piece of paper, and instantly getting the project greenlit for millions of dollars. I tried tracking down the article I originally saw it on and was surprised to only find two websites alluding to the claim.
The article reads as follows:
“[James] Cameron was young. He had just directed Terminator. Cameron had called a meeting to discuss his “next project.” Everyone knew Cameron had written a treatment for Alien 2 that nobody would touch because Alien was not a massive financial success. Alien 2 was not on the table. We expected a professional pitch from Cameron, an outline and a treatment of what he had in mind with a cursory budget; perhaps a couple assistants to run a slide show. Instead Cameron walked in the room without so much as a piece of paper. He went to the chalk board in the room and simply wrote the word ALIEN. Then he added an ‘S’ to make ALIENS. Dramatically, he drew two vertical lines through the ‘S’, ALIEN$. He turned around and grinned. We greenlit the project that day for $18 million.”
— told by Gordon Carroll, Exec Producer of Aliens in the book “Hello He Lied,” by Linda Obst
Perhaps my google query was poorly phrased, causing me to find fewer articles referencing an otherwise interesting tale, but the lack of reporting from film blogs leads me to doubt the credibility of the story. While I'm inclined to to believe Gordon Carroll's story, as sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, I still have some doubts.
Are there any other corroborating sources to this claim? Did James Cameron draw ALIENS as ALIEN$ when he pitched the movie?
