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In 2013 Alfonso Cuaròn’s Gravity won several Oscars in technical categories thanks to the way it created a true feeling that Sandra Bullock was alone in the vacuum of space. Gravity was seen as a major special effects achievement that pushed the boundaries of what we thought filmmaking could do, and it turns out that basically nobody, including James Cameron, thought it would be possible to do in this way.
Cuaròn recently discussed his attempt to get Gravity made. After coming up with the story and the screenplay the Children of Men director realized he wasn’t sure how to actually make the movie with the available technology. He went to two other accomplished directors, David Fincher and James Cameron. Per what he revealed to Deadline, the first told him it simply couldn’t be done. The second told him it could be done, but it was going to make it the most expensive movie ever made at the time. Cuaròn explained…
Fincher told us to forget about it, there’s no tech, wait 6 years. And he wasn’t wrong. James Cameron told us how we could do it but that was a $400 million film. We told him only you can do that. And he said yeah you’re right. So we developed our own way.
One of the biggest issues for the director was that his last film Children of Men had been a financial flop (though critically acclaimed). The simple fact was that, while a studio might give James Cameron $400 million to make a movie, they weren’t going to give that kind of money to Alfonso Cuaròn, especially at that moment in time.
While movie budgets are never publicly disclosed, it’s estimated that Gravity actually cost somewhere around $100 million, with $20 million for Sandra Bullock’s salary. While actual space programs cost less, whatever James Cameron had in mind for making the film would have quadrupled the budget. It would have made the production more expensive than Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which was — at the time — recognized as the most expensive movie ever.
The director did eventually find his “own way,” utilizing new technologies as well as animation to put Sandra Bullock in the darkness of space. Those methods weren’t without their own costs. Robert Downey Jr. was originally going to co-star in Gravity, but he had to drop out because he had difficulty with some of the techniques being used for the zero gravity effects. George Clooney would replace him.
While test audiences, who saw incomplete visual effects, were apparently less than thrilled, when the movie was actually done and being shown at festivals, things changed. Gravity would go on to gross over $700 million on its $100 million budget. That’s a blockbuster success story if ever there was one. If the director had wanted to make $400 million movie at that point, he might have had a shot.