James Cameron has spoken out about an “offensive” rumor that has been reported in various UK publications about the Titan submersible tragedy.
Sun first reported the anonymous origin story that claimed the Oscar winner Titanic The director was in talks with a major streamer to direct a movie or series about Titan’s ill-fated final voyage, which claimed the lives of five people.
“I don’t normally respond to offensive rumors in the media, but I need to now.” Cameron wrote on Twitter. “I am NOT in talks about an OceanGate movie, nor will I ever be.”
The original story quoted a source as saying, “The Titan disaster is already considered a major series for one of the biggest streamers in the world, and James is the first choice for the director. It is a subject close to his heart. He told the story of the Titanic with such compassion that it feels like a natural step for him to take this on. Retracing the steps of those aboard the Titan is a daunting task, but he would spend a lot of time, money, and resources on himself.” The story further claimed that Cameron was trying to field A-listers like Matt Damon for the series.
After the tragedy unfolded last month, Cameron, a deep-sea submersible expert, gave several interviews explaining what went wrong from a technical point of view.
Cameron told ABC News at the time: “Many people in the community were concerned about this sub and even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental and needed to be certified.” He added: “I am struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about the ice ahead of his ship and yet he sped onto an ice field on a moonless night and many died.” as a result. It’s a very similar tragedy in the exact same spot. It’s amazing and really quite surreal.”
Cameron noted that he is a submersible designer himself and understands the challenges of making such a vessel operate safely and successfully, and defended the practice of deep-sea diving as a whole.
“It’s absolutely critical that people get the message that deep submersible diving is a mature art,” Cameron said. “Safety record is the gold standard, absolutely, not just fatalities but accidents. … Of course [what happened to the Titan is] the nightmare that we have all lived with, we have lived in the back of our minds.
Speech to BBC newsCameron added that he knew the submarine was doomed shortly after news broke of its disappearance. “I felt in my bones what had happened,” Cameron said. “For the sub’s electronics to fail, and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously, the sub is gone. He knew that the sub was sitting exactly below its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it. [It] It felt like a long nightmarish farce where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all these other things.”
Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic Highly displayed footage of the actual wreck site and the use of submersibles to explore the wreckage.
The US Coast Guard said the missing submarine imploded during its dive near the wreck site, killing everyone on board instantly.
The assessment was based on a search and rescue team finding debris from the Titan on the ocean floor.
The submarine was operated by OceanGate Expeditions, whose CEO, Stockton Rush, was among the dead. Rush had been criticized for previous interviews in which he expressed a casual attitude toward safety and for using off-the-shelf components for some aspects of his submarine that had not been certified.
