10 Great Directors Who Made Terrible Debut Films
1. James Cameron - Piranha II: The Spawning
With a title like Piranha II: The Spawning it is little surprise that the film was annihilated by critics but what is surprising is that it was directed by the man behind Titanic and Avatar: James Cameron.
However, if you believed everything the notoriously controlling director said you would not have guessed he was behind the mega flop sequel to 1978's Piranha. As soon as his debut film bombed at the box office, failing to get more than half a million dollars, he disowned it completely and maintained The Terminator was his first film.
The film itself is an unapologetic B-Movie and a parody of Jaws (or more specifically the sequel to a parody of Jaws) which allowed Cameron to hone his style. While Cameron may be ashamed of Piranha II, only recently acknowledging its existence, without its existence we would never have seen Arnie's cyborg, Jack and Rose's romance or the inhabitants of Pandora.