“Jim Cameron is my hero. I am perhaps his biggest fan,” W. Peter Iliff tells EW.

Point Break screenwriter responds to James Cameron claiming he wrote action classic: ‘Too blessed to be stressed’

"Jim Cameron is my hero. I am perhaps his biggest fan," W. Peter Iliff tells EW.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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on December 18, 2025 3:27 p.m. ET

Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in 'Point Break'. Credit:

- James Cameron claimed that he "got stiffed" by the WGA because he didn't receive credit for writing *Point Break*.

- *Point Break* screenwriter W. Peter Iliff tells ** that Cameron did contribute some material to the action classic.

- Iliff appreciates Cameron's assistance in shaping the project: "Jim helped give me a long writing career and I am forever in his debt."

James Cameron claimed that he should have received screenwriting credit for *Point Break* — and now, the film's credited screenwriter is speaking out.

"I wrote *Point Break*," the *Avatar* director recenty told *THR*, adding, "I flat out got stiffed by the Writers Guild on that. It was bulls---.”

W. Peter Iliff, who penned the screenplay for the 1991 action classic, tells ** his recollection of creating the film, which was directed by Cameron's then-wife, Kathryn Bigelow.

"Jim Cameron is my hero. I am perhaps his biggest fan," Iliff says. "And so grateful for his fabulous work on *Point Break*."

W. Peter Iliff in 2015.

Eric Charbonneau/Getty

The screenwriter says he wasn't concerned with Cameron's recent comments. "My reaction to Jim is only one of gratitude," he says. "I am too blessed to be stressed by things I cannot control. And I always make sure to give Jim credit when publicly asked to speak about the film."

Iliff says that the "original idea" for the coastal crime drama started with filmmaker Rick King, who had previously directed Iliff's script *Prayer for the Rollerboys*. "Rick had an idea about surfers who rob banks," the screenwriter recalls. "I was late 20's, waiting tables to get by, and Rick got producers Peter Abrams and Robert Levy (*Wedding Crashers*) to pay me $6K to write the screenplay *Johnny Utah*."

Iliff says that he and King sold the film to Columbia Pictures for Ridley Scott to direct in the 1980s. "My life forever changed," he says. "I quit waiting tables and married my sweetheart, Ruthanne, to whom I am still happily married."

The screenwriter recalls Scott having a different duo of stars in mind for the lead roles. "Charlie Sheen and James Garner were going to play Utah and Pappas," he says. "But then the studio changed hands, and Ridley went off to direct *Black Rain*."

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Iliff says that the film then moved to a different company. "The project, my original screenplay, was sold again to Larry Gordon’s new company Largo on the Fox lot," he explains. "Kathryn Bigelow was now the director and went on to make a fantastic, iconic movie."

The screenwriter explains how the future *Titanic* filmmaker got involved with *Point Break*. "Kathryn was then married to Jim Cameron and he was on the Fox lot finishing post on *The Abyss*," he remembers. "One of my favorite days ever was when Kathryn and Jim picked me up at my home in Santa Monica and took me on a 'surf safari' through Malibu so I could show them the locations that inspired me when I wrote the original screenplay."

James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow in 1989.

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Iliff says that Cameron and Bigelow went on to rewrite the film, and notes one particular moment that the *Terminator* auteur brought to the story. "Jim (and Kathryn) did the production draft," he explains. "Jim took an Executive Producer credit. Jim added scenes such as Utah jumping out of the plane without a parachute. He told me that he had the idea while flying in a plane over Spain. This sort of work is commonplace on studio pictures."

The screenwriter says that the Writers Guild of America ultimately determined who received the final credit for the film's screenplay, as is common practice for any project with more than one writer.

"The WGA arbitration process is one of fellow writers reading all the drafts and rendering a credit decision," he says. "It is a jury of our peers. And that jury gave me sole screenplay credit for *Point Break*. With shared story credit with Rick King." (A representative for the WGA and representatives for Cameron did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.)

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Iliff reiterates his admiration for the *Aliens* director. "That said, Jim Cameron is my hero and I remain so thankful for his work on *Point Break*," he says. "Jim helped give me a long writing career and I am forever in his debt. Can’t wait to see the new *Avatar*!"

Iliff also tells EW that he hasn't seen Cameron "in years," but reiterates, "I always enjoyed Jim."

James Cameron in Los Angeles on Nov. 25, 2025.

Araya Doheny/Getty

*Point Break* ultimately released in July 1991 with Iliff receiving sole screenplay credit and sharing story credit with King. Cameron received credit as an executive producer.

The film starred Keanu Reeves as athlete-turned-FBI-agent Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze as thrill-seeking bank robber Bodhi. It grossed over $80 million on a reported $24 million budget, and inspired a 2015 remake with the same title.

Cameron and Bigelow divorced the same year that *Point Break* hit theaters, but they still went on to collaborate on the 1995 sci-fi thriller *Strange Days*, which Bigelow directed and Cameron produced and wrote (sharing screenplay credit with Jay Cocks and receiving sole story credit).

Iliff went on to write films like the Jack Ryan thriller *Patriot Games*, the sports drama *Varsity Blues*, and the crime drama *Under Suspicion*. He recently received an executive producer credit the new film *Turbulence*, and will have that same credit on Renny Harlin's upcoming movie *Deep Water*, which he says he served as a "script doctor" on. "This is the way of Hollywood," he says.

The screenwriter says that he still feels the love for *Point Break* every day.

"I literally today have two new letters on my desk from fans who write to tell me how the film changed their lives," he says. "These letters have come for the past 30 years. Bravo to Kathryn Bigelow."**

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