As the clock ticks down toward the December start date of James Cameron's next project, the director is shifting his full attention from "Battle Angel."

Although he has publicly identified that film as his next movie, he also is readying a parallel project, tentatively titled "Project 880," according to sources at Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment.

Both films would be shot in 3-D with custom-designed high-definition cameras. Whichever film Cameron does next, he also plans to use a photo-real version of the performance capture technology used by Robert Zemeckis on "The Polar Express."

Seven years after "Titanic" took the all-time global boxoffice crown ($1.8 billion), the 50-year-old writer-director had said that he plans to return to directing with a big-budget studio picture for 20th Century Fox after producing TV and movie projects ("Dark Angel," "Solaris") and experimenting with 3-D Imax documentaries.

Cameron had focused much of his attention on "Battle Angel," based on Yukito Kishiro's 12 popular Japanese graphic novels about a nymphette who morphs into an action heroine. Cameron has reworked a script from "Alexander" screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis that could serve as the beginning of a franchise.

While Lightstorm would not reveal a final title or story line for the new project it is calling "Project 880," Cameron could decide to film that feature before tackling "Battle Angel," which has proved to be a difficult script to adapt.

Cameron also has been developing an underwater adventure, "The Dive," with screenwriter Dana Stevens ("City of Angels"). That project is based on a Sports Illustrated story about freedivers Francisco Ferreras and his wife Audrey Mestre, who expired while trying to break her own depth record. Rights have only recently been disentangled and because that script is not ready, it is not one of the two projects Cameron is readying, Lightstorm said.

Eager to use the latest technology toolbox on his next film, which will be effects intensive, Cameron has had a team of technicians working behind-the-scenes to build customized solutions that will enable the director to bring his visions to the big screen.

Working from scratch, "Titanic" visual effects supervisor Rob Legato is building a prototype virtual cinematography system for previsualization on Cameron's next project. The system that Legato is building will allow Cameron such freedoms as choosing lenses, framing, Steadicam, dolly, pan and tilt, focal lengths and other camera controls during the previsualization stage rather than on location. The frame-by-frame setup will allow Cameron to envision the entire film in a computer before he shoots a single frame of the live-action, performance-capture material. Legato also is helping Lightstorm configure a visual-effects "pipeline" to get a new system up and running within weeks. Cameron is scheduled to screen Legato's test footage Wednesday.Cameron also is expected to start CamNet, a new camera distribution business with his longtime camera technician Vincent Pace, who recently customized a Sony HDCAM SR F-950 unit by detaching the optical block from the camera body and adding a wireless accessory for motion and lens control, thereby allowing remote-control wireless HD lensing via a fiber link from up to 10 miles away. This camera system would allow camera crews to remain above water during deep sea shoots.

With the latest innovations in motion capture, Cameron also will be able to film actors on dry land as they play characters underwater. Just as Tom Hanks was able to body surf an a fast-moving train in Sony Imageworks' "Polar Express," actors will be able to explore the depths of the ocean from the safety of a motion capture stage.

Legato contributed innovative visual effects work to Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," for which he shot second-unit visual effects photography, and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Legato supervised both films at Imageworks, which he left this year to work as an independent with plans to direct. Lightstorm execs are interviewing visual effects supervisors to whom Legato is expected to hand over the previsual system he has developed under heavy security. Brooke Breton, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" effects producer, is said to be a strong candidate.

Intrigued by 3-D technology ever since he made 1996's "T-2 3-D: Battle Across Time," a 12-minute short for the Universal Studios theme parks, Cameron conducted research and development for the new film's technology, while making two 3-D Imax documentaries, 2003's "Ghosts of the Abyss" and this year's "Aliens of the Deep."

Having declared that he "will never shoot on film again," Cameron will deploy the same side-by-side, 3-D high-definition video Sony cameras that he used on "Ghosts of the Abyss" on his upcoming feature, Lightstorm sources said. Cameron also hopes to release his next film in 1,000 theaters equipped with digital projectors.

Cameron, George Lucas, Robert Rodriguez and Robert Zemeckis made strong pitches at March's ShoWest exhibitor convention for exhibitors to install 3-D digital projectors to support their upcoming 3-D projects, including planned 3-D versions of the "Star Wars" films.

Rodriguez used Cameron's specially-adapted hand-held Sony F-950 cameras (or "J-cams") for "Spy Kids 3-D," but Rodriguez adopted the old-fashioned red and blue anaglyphic 3-D format in postproduction, which is slightly more antiquated than Cameron's digital 3-D HD capture method.