James Cameron: I will always mourn the stories I don't get to make

James Cameron confessed he does "mourn some of the stories" he's not been able to turn into movies.

The legendary filmmaker has devoted most of his time to the 'Avatar' franchise, with four sequels developed and two filmed.

And although it has meant other projects have taken a backseat, the 'Titanic' helmer has been able to weave a lot of the stories into the world of Avatar.

Asked if he feels bad that he never got to tell the other stories and ideas he had due to how much time he's spent on the 'Avatar' franchise, Cameron told Empire magazine: "Two thoughts in answer to your question: the first is that the world of Avatar is so sprawling that I can tell most of the stories I want to tell within it and try many of the stylistic techniques that I hope to explore. And secondly, yes… our time as artists is finite. I will always mourn some of the stories that I don’t get to make. But I feel a great satisfaction when other directors want to explore some of my ideas, like Kathryn Bigelow did with 'Strange Days', and Robert Rodriguez did when I passed him the baton on 'Alita: Battle Angel'. I look forward to more collaborations in the future with directors I admire."

Elsewhere in the Q+A, Harrison Ford and Pierce Brosnan both asked why they'd not received a call to star in one of his films, and the 68-year-old director said he'd love to work with both actors.

He replied: "Answering both Harrison and Pierce: I’d love to work with both you guys, and many other actors I deeply admire. My great regret as a filmmaker is that I take so long to make my films that I only ever get to work with a tiny fraction of the artists that I respect. I have a long list of the people I would love to collaborate with, but I know my career will end before I’ve even made a dent in it."