‘Point Break’ Writer Responds to James Cameron’s Claim He Wrote Movie (Exclusive)

The screenwriter who wrote Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze’s 1991 action hit Point Break is responding to James Cameron’s comments that he should have received credit for the movie’s script.

In a Wednesday, Dec. 17 profile for The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release of his new movie Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron, 71, claimed that he wrote the film, which was directed by his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. “I wrote Point Break,” Cameron told the outlet. “I flat out got stiffed by the Writers Guild on that. It was b——-.”

Cameron is credited as an executive producer on Point Break, which was released at the tail end of his marriage to Bigelow, 74. (Cameron is now married to actress Suzy Amis.) In a statement shared with PEOPLE on Wednesday, the movie’s screenwriter Peter Iliff says that Cameron added scenes to the film as its executive producer, but not enough for the Writers Guild of America to rule that he should be credited as a screenwriter.

“Jim Cameron is my hero,” Iliff tells PEOPLE in a statement. “I am perhaps his biggest fan, and so grateful for his fabulous work on Point Break.”

Iliff notes that he wrote the screenplay for what became Point Break from an original idea by director Rick King, whom he shares the screenplay credit with on the movie. The movie passed from director to director (Iliff says at one point Ridley Scott was scheduled to direct) before Bigelow picked up the script “and went on to make a fantastic, iconic movie.” 

Reeves, now 61, and Swayze, who died at age 57 from pancreatic cancer in 2009, costarred in the movie, which followed Reeves’ FBI agent Johnny Utah, who investigates a series of bank robberies committed by criminals who wear the masks of former United States presidents. As Iliff notes, the work Cameron did as an executive producer on the movie included adding scenes to the film, which he said is “commonplace on studio pictures.”

“There’s enough glory for everybody and it’s great that Jim should be recognized for his work that made Point Break the movie that it became,” Iliff tells PEOPLE during a phone conversation. “It’s funny, the film just seems to endure as the years go by, but he’s the king and I can’t wait to see his new movie. We’ve all loved everything he has ever done.” 

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Cameron has not spoken often about his work on the movie in the past. A fan-ran website dedicated to his career claims that Cameron “wrote a final, uncredited draft” of the movie’s script “that juiced up the action” throughout the movie before filming began.

“The Writers Guild of America arbitrates credit for all screenplays with multiple writers. The WGA arbitration process is one of fellow writers reading all the drafts and rendering a credit decision,” Iliff tells PEOPLE in a statement. “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. That said, Jim Cameron is my hero and I remain so thankful for his work on Point Break. Jim helped give me a long writing career and I am forever in his debt. Can’t wait to see the new Avatar!”