James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is an Acaemy Award-winning Canadian-American director, producer and screenwriter. He is noted for his action/science fiction films, which are often highly innovative and financially successful. Thematically, James Cameron's films generally explore the relationship between humanity and technology. Cameron wrote and directed the film Titanic, which earned 11 Academy Awards and grossed over US$1.8 billion worldwide. He also created the Terminator franchise, serving as co-writer and director for The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. To date, his directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$3 billion, unadjusted for inflation. After the success of Titanic, Cameron turned his focus to documentary filmmaking and the co-development of the digital 3-D Cameron/Pace Fusion Camera System. He is currently working on a return to feature filmmaking with the science fiction film Avatar, which will make use of the Fusion Camera System 3-D technology. Avatar is scheduled for release in December of 2009.