James Cameron has confirmed that a long-standing story about his pitch meeting for Aliens is in fact completely true.

The Avatar filmmaker directed the 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi-horror classic Alien.

According to the story, which some fans had previously thought to be an “urban legend”, Cameron went into a meeting with studio executives to try to get Aliens made.

As the crux of his pitch, he wrote the word “Alien” on a piece of paper, before drawing vertical lines through the final letter, turning it into a dollar sign.

Cameron recalled the meeting in an interview with Empire.

“I had lunch with a bigshot producer when I was about to start Aliens who said, ‘This is a no-win for you. If your movie’s good, Ridley will get the credit. If it’s bad, it’s all you. It’s a career ender.’ I said, ‘Yeah, buuuuuut... I like it.