James Cameron loves the water, but he isn’t diving into the story of the OceanGate submersible anytime soon. The “Avatar” and “Titanic” director has denied false reports that he is developing a new project based on the Titan submersible explosion.
On Thursday, British tabloid The Sun published an “exclusive” story claiming that Cameron is in discussions with a major streaming service to direct a drama series based on the destruction of the Titan, which occurred in June. In a tweet Saturday, Cameron denied the story, calling it an “offensive” rumor and saying he will never direct any project about OceanGate.
“I don’t respond to offensive rumors in the media usually, but I need to now,” Cameron wrote. “I’m NOT in talks about an OceanGate film, nor will I ever be.”
A submersible operated by American sea tourism and expedition company OceanGate, Titan went missing for four days while carrying 5 passengers, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, on an expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic. On June 22, debris of the vessel was discovered on the ocean floor and all passengers were declared dead. The Titan’s disappearance attracted global attention, and controversy over OceanGate’s poor safety precautions caused the company to seize all operations.
Cameron, who famously dramatized the sinking of the Titanic in his 1997 film, is an expert on deep-sea exploration, becoming the first person to dive solo into the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point of seabed on Earth, in 2012. After the Titan passengers were declared dead, Cameron issued a statement on the tragedy criticizing Rush and OceanGate for their reckless safety practices.
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night. And many people died as a result, and for a very similar tragedy, where warnings went unheeded, to take place at the same exact site, with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think it’s just astonishing,” Cameron said. “It’s really quite surreal, and of course, PH [Paul-Henry Nargeolet], the French legendary submersible dive pilot, is a friend of mine. It’s a very small community. I’ve known PH for 25 years for him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process.”
Currently, Cameron doesn’t have much time to be working on an OceanGate film, as his priorities are largely in Pandora. The director’s third “Avatar” film is scheduled to release in December 2025, followed by “Avatar 4” in 2029, 20 years after the original film was first released.
