It’s no secret that often when human tragedies occur in the public sphere, a siphon of unfounded rumors can follow that skew established facts and even put unsuspecting people in incredibly awkward positions for the sake of headlines.
The OceanGate Titan submarine tragedy gained international attention last month, and fueled a heavy retrospective discourse on how ignoring standards of safety in lieu of profits can clearly lead to catastrophe. One of the biggest figureheads approached about that discourse was director and seasoned deep sea explorer James Cameron, and while he gave plenty of his own perspective, his words were eventually manipulated by certain media outlets such as The Sun to create the prospect of Cameron actually planning a series about the tragedy itself. Per a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron has since come forward to adamantly deny any notion of such a project.
It was exactly one month ago that OceanGate’s Titan submarine took the plunge with five passengers down to explore the infamous wreckage of the RMS Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Soon after embarking the submersible lost all contact, leading to a days-long search that ended in tragedy with all passengers declared dead, only fragments of the sub wreckage recovered awhile later. The incident grabbed international headlines and led to intense scrutiny of OceanGate’s operations and severe disregard of safety standards.
Award-winning director James Cameron, who not only helmed the legendary 1997 film Titanic, but also became famous for his dozens of successful submarine ventures to the actual wreckage, was predictably approached by media from all directions about the tragedy and OceanGate’s questionable practices. As a decorated sub-aquatic professional, his remarks echoed the same concerns, and in the aftermath of the Titan incident some rather insensitive rumors started to swirl that Cameron was actually debating directing a feature series all about it. Most notably, The Sun had actually published a story that Cameron was looking into the project, and was even considering hiring Matt Damon to star in it. An excerpt from the article read:
“The Titan disaster is already being looked at as a major series for one of the world’s biggest streamers — and James is the 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.”
Cameron Takes Personal Obligation to Shoot Down Tasteless Rumors
Unfortunately it’s not too surprising that Cameron, given his experience in the field and notoriety with the Titanic in general, and A-listers like Matt Damon would be sniped for such a crude and ill-timed story. As certain magazines and newspapers clearly look to continue profiting off the attention around the disaster, the director has vehemently and repeatedly denied the prospect, even taking to Twitter to declare on the social forum that it will never happen, ever.
Despite inevitably needing to clear the air about such a thing, Cameron has plenty of other film work keeping him occupied. The long-planned Alita: Battle Angel sequels are back in the works, along with the third installment Cameron’s ongoing epic fantasy film franchise Avatar.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
