My first conversation with George Lucas in Mexico revolved around a common language, that science-fiction films had portrayed unrealistic sets and props that were all new and plastic-looking.

George’s vision was forming in our collective minds.

Long before he made movies, after he dropped out of community college, Cameron spent about ten years working low-wage manual labor jobs. He was a truck driver, a school bus mechanic, a high school janitor, a precision tool and die machinist, and so on. “It was a long period of frustration for me in this kind of blue-collar life,” he said. “I was fr