During her recent four-night run of concerts in Manchester, Billie Eilish made a surprise announcement on stage about a new cinematic collaboration she’s working on.
“So, you may have noticed there are more cameras than usual up here,” Eilish said, per Deadline. “Basically, I can’t say much about it, but what I can say is I’m working on something very, very special with somebody named James Cameron, and it’s going to be in 3D. So, take that as you will, and these four shows here in Manchester, you and me, are part of a thing that I’m making with James.”
The nine-time Grammy winner went on to elaborate that Cameron, the multi-Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind films such as The Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar, was “in this audience somewhere,” and that the 3D project would serve to commemorate this era of her career in visceral fashion. The sold-out Manchester shows are part of Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, which she has been on for several months now, supporting her third full-length album, Hit Me Hard and Soft.
While she is predominantly recognized as a boundary-pushing musical artist, Eilish is certainly no stranger to the world of films. In 2021, the starlet worked with maverick filmmaker Robert Rodriguez to craft the concert film/documentary, Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles. In 2023, she actively contributed to the soundtrack of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie film, with the song “What Was I Made For?” The track would go on to greatly inspire the musical score for the movie as a whole, and win Eilish an Academy Award for her work.
Additionally, when the Hit Me Hard and Soft album was first released in May of 2024, listening parties were hosted as screenings at AMC theaters across the country.
For his part, while Cameron has never made a concert film before, he has been deeply tapped into the musical language of cinema for years. Famously, Celine Dion’s contribution to Titanic, “My Heart Will Go On,” won an Academy Award in 1998. More recently, Cameron tapped prolific musical artist and pop-star The Weeknd to contribute the closing-credits song for Avatar: The Way of Water.
And of course, 3D and James Cameron go hand-in-hand, being the filmmaker who helped to modernize and re-popularize the technology in 2009 with the release of Avatar.
In the aftermath of that film’s unprecedented success, many concert films were made utilizing the 3D technology he pioneered. However, given Eilish’s announcement, she is confirming that this will be the first time Cameron himself steps behind the lens and applies the technology to the musical concert film firsthand.
Also, this is pure speculation, but given the timing and the fact that Cameron has a third Avatar film releasing this December that one would assume he similarly wants to get a modern artist to deliver a bespoke track for, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see a new Eilish song featured in the end credits for Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Regardless, it sounds as though Cameron and Eilish will be immortalizing this era of her live show as a 3D cinematic experience, for all to see in the very near future.
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