{"id":248583,"date":"2026-01-23T22:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248583\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T22:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:47:08","slug":"director-james-cameron-leaves-us-for-new-zealand-farm-life-with-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248583\/","title":{"rendered":"Director James Cameron leaves US for New Zealand farm life with family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/avatar-director-james-cameron-disses-marvel-films-says-special-effects-arent-even-close\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">James Cameron<\/a> fulfilled a lifetime dream of leaving the United States for greener pastures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Cameron, 71, admitted that the coronavirus pandemic heavily impacted his decision to uproot his family from the states and move across the world to New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>During a sit-down on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RISmoB4PUSo&amp;t=101s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8220;In Depth with Graham Bensinger,&#8221;<\/a> the &#8220;Titanic&#8221; director confessed that he&#8217;s not so much interested in the scenery of the area, but more so invested in the country&#8217;s &#8220;sanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/director-james-cameron-finally-addresses-amy-poehlers-ignorant-joke-about-his-marriage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">DIRECTOR JAMES CAMERON FINALLY ADDRESSES AMY POEHLER&#8217;S \u2018IGNORANT\u2019 JOKE ABOUT HIS MARRIAGE<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/director-james-cameron.jpg\" alt=\"Director James Cameron walks red carpet\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>James Cameron fled the United States with his family during the pandemic. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/entertainment\/movies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Avatar: Fire and Ash&#8221; creator<\/a> and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, moved to New Zealand roughly five months into the pandemic. During a visit to the Christchurch area in the &#8217;90s, the director remembered falling in love with the country and making himself a promise that he would live there &#8220;one day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After building a family with Amos, they decided that once &#8220;Avatar&#8221; was completed, they would relocate to the 12,000-acre farm they purchased in 2011. However, a global health crisis prompted a change of plans.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/sylvester-stallones-wife-praises-florida-family-rebirth-after-fleeing-hollywood-lifestyle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SYLVESTER STALLONE&#8217;S WIFE PRAISES FLORIDA AS A FAMILY \u2018REBIRTH\u2019 AFTER FLEEING HOLLYWOOD LIFESTYLE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After the pandemic hit \u2026 [New Zealand] had eliminated the virus completely,&#8221; Cameron explained. &#8220;They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/james-cameron-suzy-amis.jpg\" alt=\"James Cameron walks red carpet with wife Suzy Amis Cameron\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Suzy Amis Cameron and James Cameron have been married for 25 years. (Lyvans Boolaky)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is why I love New Zealand. People there are, for the most part, sane, as opposed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">United States<\/a> where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that&#8217;s going down \u2013 going the wrong direction. Are you kidding me?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cameron weighed the two options and asked, &#8220;Where would you rather live? A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybody&#8217;s at each other&#8217;s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When Bensinger noted how &#8220;stunningly beautiful&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/world\/world-regions\/new-zealand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New Zealand<\/a> is, the award-winning director didn&#8217;t mince words.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not there for scenery, I&#8217;m there for the sanity,&#8221; Cameron said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters?cmpid=fnfirstnl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Avatar&#8221; made $2.74 billion at the box office worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in 2010, when it surpassed &#8220;Titanic.&#8221; It kept the record for the highest-grossing film ever for nine years, before &#8220;Avengers: Endgame&#8221; took the top spot in April 2019, making $2.79 billion.<\/p>\n<p>While discussing his thoughts on climate change last year, Cameron slammed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">President Donald Trump<\/a> and said the country was &#8220;going backwards&#8221; without solutions to the global issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/James-Cameron-AI.jpg\" alt=\"James Cameron\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Avatar&#8221; director slammed President Trump while discussing his thoughts on climate change. (Getty; iStock)<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-features\/james-cameron-interview-avatar-future-1236451614\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Hollywood Reporter,<\/a> Cameron described Trump as the &#8220;most narcissistic a&#8211;hole in history since f&#8212;ing Nero.&#8221; He added, &#8220;Yeah, you can quote that.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/apps-products?pid=AppArticleLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cameron warned that he sees environmental decline, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/tech\/artificial-intelligence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">artificial intelligence<\/a> and shifting movie-going habits as emerging threats to humanity and Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who\u2019s to say we wouldn\u2019t be going backwards even faster if it wasn\u2019t for these films? There isn\u2019t an alternative Earth without \u2018Avatar\u2019 we can point to and say, \u2018It made this measurable difference,\u2019&#8221; Cameron said, adding that he believes his films are on the &#8220;right side of history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tracy Wright is an entertainment reporter for Fox News Digital. Send story tips to Tracy.Wright@fox.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! James Cameron fulfilled a lifetime dream of leaving the United&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[22059,430,156,22060,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-248583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-babies","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-family-genres","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}