How Billie Eilish and James Cameron Captured a Pop Show in 3-D Glory

When Billie Eilish’s mother told her that the “Titanic” and “Avatar” director James Cameron wanted to direct a 3-D concert movie starring the pop star, the singer’s first reaction was incredulous: “What the hell are you talking about?” she recalled saying. “He emailed you himself? Like, James Cameron at Gmail?”

Then she considered the filmmaker’s pitch. “It was also, ‘Wow, what an incredible idea,’” Eilish, 24, said in a recent video interview alongside the Oscar winner. “Something no one had ever thought of before that — not my team, not anybody I had ever heard of.”

Cameron, 71, came up with the idea while “playing hooky” from finishing “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” released last year; he had been following Eilish’s concerts supporting her 2024 LP “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” and admiring the “Birds of a Feather” hitmaker’s emotional connection with her fans. “I didn’t even tell the studio I was gone. I just snuck out,” he said. “I went and made another movie before anybody noticed.”

“The thing that’s shifting is these shows need to feel more like a moment,” said Guy Carrington, a partner with Done+Dusted, which produced “BTS: The Comeback Live,” the K-pop stars’ recent Netflix livestream. “A simple concert film isn’t enough.”

These films often live supplement footage with past and present interviews. “It feels like you’re at a show, but there are so many more stories going around it,” added Tom Mackay, president of Sony Music Vision, one of the production companies that worked on Baz Luhrmann’s film “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” shown in theaters throughout 2026. “It takes that definition of a concert film and enhances it.”

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