James Cameron breaks down ‘insulting’ rumors about Titan Sub movie

James Cameron has spoken out about an “offensive” rumor which has been reported in several British publications regarding the Titan submarine tragedy.

The sun first reported the anonymous provenance story claiming the Oscar win Titanic the director was in talks with a major streamer to direct a film or series about Titan’s ill-fated final journey, which claimed the lives of five people.

“I usually don’t respond to hurtful media rumors, but now I need to” Cameron wrote on Twitter. “I’m NOT talking about an OceanGate movie, nor will I ever be.”

The original story quoted a source as saying, “The Disaster of Titan is already considered a major series for one of the biggest streamers in the world and James is the first choice to direct. It is a subject close to his heart. He has told the story of the Titanic in such a compassionate way that it seems like a natural step for him to address it. Retracing the steps of whoever was aboard the Titan is a daunting undertaking, but a lot of time, money and resources would be spent.” The story further stated that Cameron was looking to line up A-listers like Matt Damon for the series.

After last month’s tragedy, Cameron – an expert on deep-sea submersibles – gave several interviews articulating what went wrong technically.

Cameron told ABC News at the time, “Many people in the community were concerned about this submarine and even wrote letters to the company saying what they were doing was too experimental and what they were doing had to be certified.” He added: ‘I am struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned of ice ahead of his ship, yet, he went at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many died while a result. It’s a very similar tragedy in the same place. It’s amazing and really quite surreal.”

Cameron noted that he is a submarine designer himself and that he understands the challenges of operating such a vessel safely and successfully, and defended the practice of deep sea diving as a whole.

“It’s absolutely imperative that people get the message that deep scuba diving is a mature art,” said Cameron. “The safety record is the gold standard, absolutely, not just fatalities but no accidents. … Obviously (what happened to the Titan is) the nightmare we’ve all lived with, we’ve lived with it in the back of our minds.

About at BBC NewsCameron added that he knew the submarine was doomed soon after news of its disappearance broke. “I felt in my bones what had happened,” Cameron said. “If the submarine’s electronics fail, and its communications system fails, and its tracking transponder fails at the same time…the submarine is gone. I knew that submarine was exactly below its last known depth and position. That’s where they found it. (It felt like) a drawn-out, nightmarish charade where people were running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all these other things.

Cameron’s box office hit in 1997 Titanic Heavily showcased footage of the actual wreck site and the use of submersibles to explore the ship’s remains.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the missing submarine imploded during its dive near the wreck site and all aboard were killed 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 chief executive officer, Stockton Rush, was among the dead. Rush had been criticized for previous interviews in which he expressed a casual attitude towards safety and for using standard components for some aspects of his submarine that had not been certified.