James Cameron refutes 'offensive rumors' about film on 'Titanic' submersible; here’s what he said

Filmmaker James Cameron has denied what he calls "offensive rumors" that he is making a film on the recent tragedy of the sinking of the OceanGate submersible.

Nicknamed the Titan, the submarine had five people on board when it imploded while moving underwater towards the Titanic wreckage. All five died in the accident on June 18, 2023.

Immediately after the accident and the search for the divers, Cameron had talked about how he "knew" what had happened, as soon as he heard that there was a loud noise. He knew an implosion had occurred.


"A loud bang on the hydrophone. Loss of transponder. Loss of comms. I knew what happened. The sub imploded," Cameron told Reuters.

Cameron is the director of the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic, based on the tragedy of the iconic RMS Titanic ship in 1912. The Titanic film won the director and his team 11 Academy Awards.

The director has refuted rumors about a film on the recent OceanGate tragedy. He posted on his Instagram stories: "I don’t respond to offensive rumors in the media usually, but I need to now. I’m NOT in talks about an OceanGate film, nor will I ever be."

James Cameron is a close-knit member of the deep submersion community. He has dived into the Titanic wreckage 33 times, but never with OceanGate.

After OceanGate’s implosion, Cameron regretted not speaking up about the experimental sub’s design. The director thought that the use of carbon fiber for the hull of the sub "was a horrible idea".

While speaking to Reuters, Cameron said, "I wish I'd spoken up, but I assumed somebody was smarter than me, because I never experimented with that technology. But it just sounded bad on its face."

The industry standard was to make submarine hulls out of "contiguous materials such as titanium, steel, ceramic or acrylic", he added.

Cameron also questioned the OceanGate company’s ethics of asking passengers to pay to ride the submersible, when it was all still "experimental".

"We celebrate innovation, right? But you shouldn't be using an experimental vehicle for paying passengers that aren't themselves deep ocean engineers," he said.

FAQs

What happened to the Titanic submarine?
The Titanic submarine was a luxury vessel that suffered an implosion on a trip down in the ocean in 2023. All the members of the sub died in the accident.

Who were the people who died on the Titanic submarine?
Suleman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood, Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Hamish Harding died on board the OceanGate Titan submersible.