James Cameron avatarizedJames Cameron personally earned 0 million from the theatrical release of Avatar, the biggest financial gain by a director from a single film in history, reports Deadline.

The figure is staggering, but not once you consider the movie has made .7 billion for Fox since its December 2009 release, the highest grossing movie of all time.  The studio is even planning a “Special Edition” re-release on August 27 for those who might have missed it the first time around that contains an additional eight minutes of footage.

Cameron is also hatching plans for a sequel that could potentially dive into the depths of Pandora’s ocean, which comes as no surprise from the aquatic enthusiast who made The Abyss his love letter to the sea.  It’s also no secret the visionary filmmaker considers the original adventure as part of a possible trilogy that could expand into space and the interstellar territory of his own Aliens.

The massive total was also helped by record-breaking sales of the DVD and Blu-ray, a stripped down version released in April.  He’ll pad his fortune come November when the new discs hit with special features and those precious eight minutes of Na’vi lovemaking (or whatever the extra footage winds up being).

His personal gain far surpasses the million he took home from Titanic, once the biggest blockbuster ever.  But Cameron stands to add a few more dollars since he’s spearheading a 3D re-release of that film as well, scheduled for sometime in 2012.

Cameron ranked second on Forbes list of celebrities (behind Oprah) and now sits at third for lifetime domestic grosses (behind Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis).  That’s with 9 films to Spielberg’s 24, mind you.

Finke’s article also mentions the Fusion Camera System he created, which helped revolutionize the way stereoscopic film is captured and rendered into eye-popping 3D.  Once Hollywood stops slapping a third-dimension on their clunkers on the cheap (read: The Last Airbender), Cameron will make a fortune off the cutting-edge technology alone, just as George Lucas did after Star Wars.

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LeBron JamesAs sports fans and pretty much anyone who watches television in Miami, New York, LA, Chicago and Cleveland know, superstar basketball player LeBron James has been mulling over which team he plans on joining for the 2010-11 season — and he’s settled on the Miami Heat!

Ever since he became a free agent, team after team have been courting the young athlete, many making crazy expensive offers in order to bring James over to their side, but the choice was ultimately LeBron’s — and he settled on the Heat. But the entire process has drawn so much media attention beyond the usual sports outlets that it got us thinking about the inevitable: when Hollywood does in fact decide to make a movie about LeBron James, who will they cast to play him?

Well, Hollywood, worry not. We’ve done the work for you. Hit the jump and dunk hard for our picks on who has the skill to match LeBron!

Antony MackieAnthony Mackie
After Mackie’s performance in the critically acclaimed and multiple-Academy Award winning “The Hurt Locker,” this young actor definitely proved he’s primed and ready to get off the bench and play the metaphorical acting court. Not only that, but he also starred in the dance-off/basketball-playing film “Crossover,” in which I’m pretty sure he dunked a ball while jumping a motorcycle. Your move, LeBron.

CommonCommon
Rapper turned actor Common broke onto the big screen with his role in “Smokin’ Aces.” From there, the surprisingly good actor went on to star in major blockbuster films, including “American Gangster,” “Wanted” and “Terminator Salvation.” His recent ventures “Date Night” and “Just Wright” allowed him to expand into the comedy scene and the latter even featured him as a highly successful basketball player. With his experience and diversity of roles, casting him just seems like Common sense. Get it?

Chiwetel EjioforChiwetel Ejiofor
In this blogger’s opinion, a highly underrated but phenomenal actor, Chiwetel played countless roles from across all genres and played them all supremely well. I loved him in “Love, Actually,” but honestly I loved everyone in that movie. However, after his portrayal of the Operative in the Joss Whedon-directed “Serenity,” he pretty much cemented his place as deserving any role that comes his way. If he can go toe-to-toe with Nathan Fillion, he can definitely play ball as LeBron. After all, being a mercenary and being a baller are kind of similar, right?

Quinton JacksonQuinton “Rampage” Jackson
In one of the biggest surprise of the summer movie season thus far, “The A-Team” audiences learned that just because you spent most of your career beating the ever living crap out of people doesn’t mean you aren’t a great actor. Although Jackson’s experience points in acting aren’t as high as the previous people on this list, if he wanted the role, he’d probably get it — even if he had to knock out everyone else in line waiting to audition!

Isaiah MustafaIsaiah Mustafa
Do me a favor. Google “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and watch the video. I’ll wait. Now tell me that Isaiah Mustafa shouldn’t star in pretty much everything everywhere. His plays on the court would be legendary! “Look at the ball. Now at me. Now back at the ball. Now back to me. The ball is now in my hand. Look at the net. Back to me. I have just scored three points. Anything is possible when you’re LeBron James.”

Check out our photo gallery of who should play LeBron James in a biopic, and tell us who you would cast in the comments and on Twitter!

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