James Cameron Explains How He Wrote 'Aliens' And 'Rambo: First Blood Part II' At The Same Time

Before crafting a sequel to his own The Terminator, writer/director James Cameron made a career out of making sequels to other filmmakers' projects. The man who would brings us Avatar, True Lies and Titanic began his career as the writer/director of Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, but he would follow it by having the same jobs on Aliens, in addition to writing Rambo: First Blood Part II. In fact, James Cameron wrote Aliens and Rambo First Blood Part II at the same time.

Find out how after the jump.

In a new documentary called "The Inspiration and Design of Aliens" that comes on the new 30th anniversary release of the sequel that hit shelves earlier this week, James Cameron revealed that he was hired to write both the aforementioned sequels at the same time, and he also explained how he pulled it off without going crazy. Watch this quick clip from the documentary from Entertainment Weekly:

How crazy is it that James Cameron delivered a 60-70 page treatment for Aliens after just three days? Also interesting is that the iconic scene from Aliens where Ripley fights off the Queen Xenomorph with a power loader actually came from another project that James Cameron had been working on.

It's pretty incredible that Cameron was able to write both these sequels so quickly and at the same time. Even more impressive is that Aliens is easily one of the best sequels of all time, and Rambo: First Bloody Part II isn't half-bad either. Here's hoping that the kind of quality work he brought to these sequels shines through in the still developing Avatar sequels that James Cameron recently referred to as a family saga.

Aliens: 30th Anniversary Blu-ray is available to buy right now.