One of the undisputed kings of Hollywood blockbusters, whose high-concept tent pole films have grossed nearly $7 billion in worldwide box office receipts, James Cameron relocated during last year’s COVID-19 quarantines to New Zealand, where he has long owned a vast and semi-remote rural spread. Not too long after, the three-time Oscar-winning Canadian filmmaker’s longtime compound in Malibu, Calif., popped up for sale with The Altman Brothers at Douglas Elliman with a $25 million asking price.
Comprised of two side-by-side estates tucked into the tranquil and guard-gated Serra Retreat in the rolling foothills above the Malibu Pier, Cameron’s compound was taken off the open market shortly after the first of the year. However, tax records now reveal the smaller of the two homes, a ten-room single-story Spanish hacienda-inspired sprawler with a detached guest cottage that together measure around 9,000 square feet with a combined six bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, has been sold in an off-market deal for $8.2 million — not quite twice the $4.4 million paid for the place in late 2003 — to film and television producer John Linson. (There are signs and scuttlebutt the second, larger home has also been sold but tax records do not yet reflect a transfer.)
Initially a music video producer, Linson transitioned to film and television projects in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After he co-produced the anachronistic 1999 romcom “Great Expectations,” based on Charles Dicken’s 1861 novel of the same name, Linson went on to produce the acclaimed TV series “Sons of Anarchy,” Robert De Niro’s 2016 box office flop “The Comedian” and, currently, the well-regarded Kevin Costner-starring cable series “Yellowstone,” the latter of which he co-created with screenwriter Taylor Sheridan.