Titanic director James Cameron in talks to create Titan submarine disaster drama series
The Canadian-born director has visited the wreckage of the Titanic 33 times.
Reuters/PA
James Cameron is rumoured to be in discussion with a major streaming network over turning the Titan submarine disaster into a drama series.
Five passengers went missing for four days on the Titan submersible last month and were later pronounced dead after debris was found in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
Going out on a limb early on in the crisis, Cameron confidently predicting that the submarine had imploded while others held out hope that the sub would be found.
A deep sea exploration expert as well as a director, Cameron has since been vocal in his criticism of OceanGate.
An image of a Titan submarine used for such expeditionsOceanGateA source told The Sun: “The Titan disaster is already being looked at as a major series for one of the world’s biggest streamers — and James is first choice for director.
“It is a subject close to his heart. He told the story of the Titanic so compassionately it feels like a natural step for him to take this on.
“Retracing the steps of those on board the Titan is a massive undertaking but there would be a lot of time, money and resources dedicated to it.”
Matt Damon and Kumail Nanjiani are reportedly on the wish list for a potential series.
James Cameron is also known for directing the Avatar movies, Terminator franchise and Alien.
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When the sub went missing, Cameron was convinced he knew what had happened.
He said "I feel it in my bones what had happened.”
He explained: "I immediately got on the phone to some of my contacts in the deep submersible community. Within about an hour I had the following facts.
“They were on descent. They were at 3500 metres, heading for the bottom at 3800 metres.
The port bow railing of the Titanic which lies about 400 miles east of Nova Scotia
Reuters"Comms were lost and navigation was lost, and I said instantly, you can’t lose comms and navigation together, we’re now at an extreme catastrophic event, a highly energetic catastrophic event.
“And the first thing that popped to mind was an implosion."
The Canadian-born director, who won three Oscars for Titanic in 1998 including Best Picture, has visited the wreckage of the Titanic 33 times.
Cameron used a different submersible called the Deepsea Challenger for his dives, which also took him down 10,912m (35,800ft) below sea level to the bottom of the deepest known oceanic trench.
TITAN SUB IN FOCUS:
Several pieces of debris from the Titan, including the nose cone, were found approximately 1,600 feetReutersIn comparison, the Titanic wreck sits at around 3,800m (12,500ft) below sea level at the bottom of the ocean.
Coming from a place of experience and knowledge, Cameron has not held back in his criticism of OceanGate: "People in the community were very concerned about this sub.
"A number of the top players in the deep-submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that needed to be certified and so on.”
OceanGate’s former marine operations director David Lochridge, who worked for the company between 2015 and 2018, was fired after raising concerns about the safety of the vessel.
Former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush ReutersLochridge emailed project associate Rob McCallum, who joined him out the door over safety fears, shortly after he was dismissed.
“I don't want to be seen as a Tattle tale but I'm so worried he kills himself and others in the quest to boost his ego,” The New Yorker has claimed Lochridge wrote.
He added: “I would consider myself pretty ballsy when it comes to doing things that are dangerous, but that sub is an accident waiting to happen.
“There's no way on earth you could have paid me to dive the thing.”