James Cameron is the most successful filmmaker of all time by some margin. Which is something we tend to take for granted. The question at the heart of his story isn’t only how this came about, but what is it about Cameron that makes him such a universal storyteller? Cinema has had its godlike directors, lifting it up into new spaces, but he is their Zeus. The man who made the biggest film of all time, Titanic, then topped that by making the next biggest film of all time, Avatar.

Encapsulating not only the magnitude of James Cameron as a filmmaker but the minutiae too – the incredible stories of an artist whose commitment to the medium knows few bounds. The tales behind the films are as epic as the films themselves. The astonishing making of The Abyss, much of it shot submerged in a decommissioned nuclear plant, could fill a book on its own.

James Cameron: A Retrospective is an enthralling and beautifully illustrated film-by-film biography – from The Terminator to Aliens to Avatar 2 – of the most popular director in movie history.