You knew James Cameron couldn’t venture to the deepest parts of our planet’s oceans without a camera.
Unless you are living … well, under the sea, you probably know that Titanic Oscar winner Cameron recently piloted a custom-made submarine to the floor of the Challenger Deep, a section of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific that has been designated as the deepest known point on Earth.
The subs were fit with 3D cameras, which Cameron revealed during a press conference, will help him assemble a television special for National Geographic as well as a 3D theatrical release documenting the seven-mile voyage to the ocean’s mighty depths.
Why not just remake The Abyss while you’re at it, Mr. Cameron?
“I see this as the beginning ... of opening up this frontier to science and really understanding these deep places," said Cameron, who also directed the deep-sea-diving Ghosts of the Abyss in 2003 to capture video images of the Titanic’s submerged frame.
In talking about the technology used to record the most recent 3D images in the Mariana Trench, Cameron told the AP, “They're a tenth of the size and weight of the 3D camera that I used to go down to Titanic depth. We spent a fair bit of the development budget of the sub figuring out how we would be lighting it and how we would do 3D photography at full ocean depth. We did tackle a lot of challenges, but always, the thinking was this expedition is going to get paid for by a film."
Or maybe two films. Rumors continue to swirl that Cameron might use the visual knowledge that he obtained at the bottom of the ocean to develop the look of his upcoming Avatar sequels, which allegedly will move the action to underwater portions of the mythical planet of Pandora.
But for now, Cameron has to focus on one of the other projects that was fueled by his obsession with deep-sea diving: Titanic, which will be re-released in theaters in 3D on April 4. In fact, Cameron touched on that very same point on his Twitter feed.
“It's right to go from @DeepChallenge dives to the #Titanic3D premiere b/c the same driving force inspired both, my fascination w/deep #oceans,” the famed director Tweeted as he trekked to London to attend the premiere of his 3D retrofit.
Poignant. And what might Cameron’s deep-sea feature look like when it eventually hits theaters? National Geographic helps tease the director’s unprecedented project with one minute of footage from the Challenger Deep expedition. It’s our pleasure to share it with you below, courtesy of the Telegraph UK.
