You may not like his movies. You may not like that he’s fairly opinionated and defends big-budget blockbuster filmmaking. However, no one can accuse James Cameron of being a man without a bit of integrity. For decades now, Cameron has been a huge believer in environmental awareness and the protection of our oceans. He’s included these messages prominently in both “Avatar” films, and in his spare time, he has made a name for himself as one of the preeminent ocean explorers. All that to say, even though the filmmaker made comments about how preventable the OceanGate tragedy was, James Cameron isn’t trying to capitalize on it by making a film about the subject.
For those unaware, James Cameron spoke up after the tragic news that several people on the OceanGate submarine vessel were killed when they attempted to visit the remains of the Titanic. At the time, Cameron pointed out that safety was always a concern with the company chartering the sub, but he recognized that it was still a sad situation, regardless.
Last month, Cameron told ABC News that he was “struck by the similarity” of the ill-fated craft and the Titanic itself.
“Many people in the community were very concerned about this sub,” he said. “And 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 it needed to be certified, and so on.”
People were a bit surprised that Cameron was even making media appearances about the OceanGate situation, to begin with. However, most looked at it as the filmmaker who is tangentially linked to the tragedy (“Titanic” is a film that captivated the world and drew immense interest to the ship’s story) and has expertise in the situation offering up his own thoughts. Others took it as maybe Cameron would be the type of filmmaker who would make a feature about the OceanGate incident. Before that rumor gained steam, Cameron took to social media to flatly refute any claim like that.
“I don’t respond to offensive rumors in the media usually, but I need to now,” the filmmaker tweeted. “I’m NOT in talks about an OceanGate film, nor will I ever be.”
So, there you have it. As much as Cameron would likely be the most well-equipped filmmaker to take on the challenge of dramatizing the OceanGate situation, he clearly has no interest in doing it. In fact, he calls it “offensive” to even suggest. And since we know Cameron is a person who appears to stick to his guns regarding his advocacy, you have to assume there’s no chance in hell he’d be interested in making a film about it.
Of course, it’s Hollywood, and there is definitely someone who will attempt to tell that story, and probably very soon.