The James Cameron Note That Erased Frankenstein’s Most Beautiful 7 Minutes
James Cameron’s notes pushed Guillermo del Toro to drop a seven-minute sequence from Frankenstein—a beloved stretch sacrificed to sharpen the final cut.
Guillermo del Toro cut a big, beautiful chunk out of his Frankenstein because James Cameron told him to. That is not me being glib; that is the actual chain of events. And it is a pretty great peek at how del Toro finishes his movies.
The cut: 7 minutes gone, on Cameron's advice
While talking at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Jan 4, 2026 (during Variety's 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards), del Toro said a roughly seven-minute sequence was in the cut of Frankenstein, and he loved it. Cameron watched it, complimented it, and still told him it had to go. Del Toro did not argue. He pulled it. The scene is not in the movie anymore.
'This is beautiful, but you gotta take it out.'
That was the gist of Cameron's note, and del Toro took it to heart immediately. He called the scrapped piece 'beautiful' himself, which tells you this was not some easy trim. Seven minutes is a whole sequence.
How del Toro 'tests' movies (he doesn't)
Del Toro does not do traditional test screenings. Instead, he screens his films for a small crew of heavyweight friends and takes their notes seriously. Like, do-it-no-questions-asked seriously.
- No test screenings. He skips them entirely.
- He shows cuts to about 14–16 trusted friends.
- That trusted circle includes Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Rian Johnson, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron.
- The pact is simple: be brutally honest. If one of them gives a note, he takes it. No debating, no inviting feedback and then ignoring it.
Why this matters
Beyond the fun of hearing that James Cameron helped shape Frankenstein, this is a very candid behind-the-curtain detail about how del Toro works. He keeps the circle small, asks for blunt truth, and actually acts on it. In this case, that meant deleting a seven-minute sequence he thought was great because a fellow filmmaker said the movie would be better without it. Trust like that is rare, and it clearly guides his final cuts.