James Cameron’s Titanic ambition
The director had a selfish reason for making Titanic.
James Cameron had a selfish reason for making Titanic, said Chris Heath in Men’s Journal. The director had been obsessed with deep-sea exploration since elementary school, and as a child once built a miniature diving bell using a mayonnaise jar and an Erector Set. He put his pet mouse in the contraption and lowered it into a nearby creek. “The mouse went to the bottom of the river, sat there for half an hour, and came back up,” he remembers, still satisfied with his achievement. Cameron went on to have a hugely successful Hollywood career, directing blockbusters like The Terminator and True Lies. But he always wanted to return to the water and explore what he calls the “ultimate shipwreck,” the Titanic. There was just one problem—how would he fund such a hugely expensive dive? “I don’t think the studio executives believe it, but I wanted to make Titanic because I wanted to dive the wreck.” So the biggest-grossing movie in motion picture history was the side effect of a personal whim? “Exactly,” he says, before reconsidering the question. “It’s not a whim. A whim implies, ‘I think I’ll go play
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Aid to Ukraine: too little, too late?
Talking Point House of Representatives finally 'met the moment' but some say it came too late
By The Week UK Published
-
5 generously funny cartoons on the $60 billion foreign aid package
Cartoons Artists take on Republican opposition, aid to Ukraine, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Knife: Salman Rushdie's 'mesmeric memoir' of brutal attack
The Week Recommends The author's account of ordeal which cost him his eye is both 'scary and heartwarming'
By The Week Staff Published