Tag: Titanic

Titanic and Avatar producer dies at age 63

Jon Landau, the acclaimed producer behind some of the highest-grossing films in history, including “Titanic” and “Avatar,” has passed away at the age of 63.

Landau, a long-time collaborator with director James Cameron, succumbed to cancer after battling the illness for over a year. His sister, Tina, confirmed his death on social media, paying tribute to him as “the best brother a girl could ever dream of.”

“My heart is broken but also bursting with pride and gratitude for his most extraordinary life, and the love and gifts he gave me – and all who knew him or his films,” Tina wrote in her heartfelt post.

Born to Hollywood producers Ely and Edie Landau, Jon Landau carved out his own remarkable career in the film industry.

He served as an executive at 20th Century Fox, where he oversaw iconic films such as “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Die Hard 2.” His partnership with James Cameron led to the creation of “Titanic” in 1997, which became the first film to surpass $1 billion at the global box office.

Landau’s success continued with the release of “Avatar” in 2009 and its sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water” in 2022, both of which went on to break the records set by “Titanic.”

Beyond these blockbusters, Landau co-produced other popular films, including “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and “Dick Tracy.” He also held a significant management role in Cameron’s production company, Lightstorm Entertainment.

Following the news of Landau’s passing, James Cameron expressed his profound sorrow in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“A great producer and a great human being has left us,” Cameron said. “Jon Landau believed in the dream of cinema. He believed that film is the ultimate human art form, and to make films you have to first be human yourself. He will be remembered as much for his vast generosity of spirit as for the movies themselves.”

Director Sir Peter Jackson and his screenwriter wife Fran Walsh, whose visual effects company was instrumental in the production of the “Avatar” films, also mourned Landau’s loss. “Jon brought unparalleled passion to the projects he worked on and his influence will continue to inspire for years to come,” they said in a joint statement.

Zoe Saldaña, who starred in the “Avatar” films, shared her grief on Instagram, noting that Landau’s death was “hitting really hard.” She acknowledged the profound impact he had on her life and career, writing, “Your wisdom and support shaped so many of us in ways we will always be grateful for.”

Jon Landau’s legacy in the film industry is marked by his dedication to storytelling and his ability to bring cinematic dreams to life.

His contributions have left an indelible mark on Hollywood, and he will be remembered fondly by those who knew him and the millions who enjoyed his films.

July 7, 2024
Titanic ‘door’ prop that kept Rose alive sold for $718,750

The iconic floating piece of wood that famously kept Titanic‘s Rose alive in the blockbuster film has been sold for a staggering $718,750 (£569,739) at auction, reigniting discussions about its size and capability to accommodate Jack as well.

The auction, featuring props and costumes from various films, including the door panel, was conducted by restaurant and resort chain Planet Hollywood.

The panel, which has sparked debates among fans since the release of the 1997 movie, was highlighted in the listing as a subject of much discussion and speculation.

In Titanic, Leonardo Di Caprio’s character Jack insists that the panel, part of a door frame, was only large enough for Rose, played by Kate Winslet.

This leads to his tragic demise in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

James Cameron, the director of Titanic, addressed the ongoing debate in a 2012 episode of Mythbusters, acknowledging the criticism directed towards Rose’s character as “selfish” and Jack as an “idiot.”

However, he clarified that Jack’s fate was scripted, stating, “Maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a tiny bit smaller, but the dude’s going down.”

The prop, often mistakenly identified as a door, was actually based on a piece of debris from the actual 1912 Titanic disaster, according to Heritage Auctions, the auctioneers responsible for the sale.

Regarding the dimensions of the panel, the listing mentioned that it measures approximately 8 feet long (2.4 meters) and 41 inches wide (1 meter), addressing the ongoing debate about its size.

Alongside the Titanic panel, other notable items sold at the auction included Indiana Jones’s whip from The Temple of Doom, which fetched $525,000, and a Spider-Man suit worn by Tobey Maguire, sold for $125,000. An axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining also garnered $125,000.
The auction concluded on Sunday evening, raising a total of $15.68 million and marking one of the most successful sales of a prop and costume collection, as announced by Heritage Auctions’ Joseph Maddalena, who noted the numerous bidding wars that took place during the event.

March 28, 2024
New animation shows how deadly Titan submarine might have exploded

A video showing how the Titan sub imploded and killed five men on board, has gone viral on social media.

YouTube account AiTelly has created new footage showing how and why the sub, heading for the wreckage of the Titanic, collapsed in on itself due to immense underwater pressure.

The Titan submersible lost communications with its support vessel last month, during a descent to the wreck of the historic ship 12,500 feet beneath the surface.

Just over four days later parts of the ship were recovered after it was said to have suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’.

Just yesterday it was revealed the five passengers aboard the Titan would have known their fate for a minute before they died, according to an expert.

$Implosion Titan Oceangate How it Happened | Submersible Submarine Parts #3d hat is Implosion? Implosion is a process of destruction by collapsing inwards the object itself. Where explosion expands, implosion contracts. In the case of the Titan Submergible. the Implosion was caused due to very high hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water, which happen within a fraction of a millisecond, as shown in the animation. At the depth the Titanic rests, there is around 5600 pounds per square inch of pressure. That's almost 400 times the pressure we experience on the surface. As the submersible is deep in the ocean, it experiences the force on its surface due to the water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently. But why did this Implosion happen to the Titan Submersible. (Existing technology is based on) Current hull materials used are steel, titanium, and aluminium. These are what kept other submarines from being Crushed. But the Titan has had an experimental design. It used mostly carbon fibres, which have the advantage of being lighter than titanium or steel. The properties of carbon fibres for deep sea applications are, however, not that well understood. It can crack and break suddenly. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aitelly3d/ Twitter https://twitter.com/aitelly3d We make it on Blender Download it is free and Safe https://www.blender.org/download/ Peace Out As a Small Channel We encourage you sharing our Videos , But Kindly be advised that any unofficial translations or editing of our work in any medium will be considered a breach of our intellectual property rights. Apologies for the Legal Language, This happens because we had faced a lot of Duplicates Contents through Experiences ;) This has been a result of Big Channels Duplicating our Contents Ripping our original hard work which we have created from Scratch from Modeling to Rigging to Animation to Rendering.So we had to involved Lawyers.$
The video has been viewed millions of times (Picture: Youtube/AITelly)

$Implosion Titan Oceangate How it Happened | Submersible Submarine Parts #3d hat is Implosion? Implosion is a process of destruction by collapsing inwards the object itself. Where explosion expands, implosion contracts. In the case of the Titan Submergible. the Implosion was caused due to very high hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water, which happen within a fraction of a millisecond, as shown in the animation. At the depth the Titanic rests, there is around 5600 pounds per square inch of pressure. That's almost 400 times the pressure we experience on the surface. As the submersible is deep in the ocean, it experiences the force on its surface due to the water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently. But why did this Implosion happen to the Titan Submersible. (Existing technology is based on) Current hull materials used are steel, titanium, and aluminium. These are what kept other submarines from being Crushed. But the Titan has had an experimental design. It used mostly carbon fibres, which have the advantage of being lighter than titanium or steel. The properties of carbon fibres for deep sea applications are, however, not that well understood. It can crack and break suddenly. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aitelly3d/ Twitter https://twitter.com/aitelly3d We make it on Blender Download it is free and Safe https://www.blender.org/download/ Peace Out As a Small Channel We encourage you sharing our Videos , But Kindly be advised that any unofficial translations or editing of our work in any medium will be considered a breach of our intellectual property rights. Apologies for the Legal Language, This happens because we had faced a lot of Duplicates Contents through Experiences ;) This has been a result of Big Channels Duplicating our Contents Ripping our original hard work which we have created from Scratch from Modeling to Rigging to Animation to Rendering.So we had to involved Lawyers.$
It tries to detail what would have happened in the vessel’s final moments (Picture: Youtube/AITelly)

$Implosion Titan Oceangate How it Happened | Submersible Submarine Parts #3d hat is Implosion? Implosion is a process of destruction by collapsing inwards the object itself. Where explosion expands, implosion contracts. In the case of the Titan Submergible. the Implosion was caused due to very high hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water, which happen within a fraction of a millisecond, as shown in the animation. At the depth the Titanic rests, there is around 5600 pounds per square inch of pressure. That's almost 400 times the pressure we experience on the surface. As the submersible is deep in the ocean, it experiences the force on its surface due to the water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently. But why did this Implosion happen to the Titan Submersible. (Existing technology is based on) Current hull materials used are steel, titanium, and aluminium. These are what kept other submarines from being Crushed. But the Titan has had an experimental design. It used mostly carbon fibres, which have the advantage of being lighter than titanium or steel. The properties of carbon fibres for deep sea applications are, however, not that well understood. It can crack and break suddenly. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aitelly3d/ Twitter https://twitter.com/aitelly3d We make it on Blender Download it is free and Safe https://www.blender.org/download/ Peace Out As a Small Channel We encourage you sharing our Videos , But Kindly be advised that any unofficial translations or editing of our work in any medium will be considered a breach of our intellectual property rights. Apologies for the Legal Language, This happens because we had faced a lot of Duplicates Contents through Experiences ;) This has been a result of Big Channels Duplicating our Contents Ripping our original hard work which we have created from Scratch from Modeling to Rigging to Animation to Rendering.So we had to involved Lawyers.$
The video explains how the sub would have imploded (Picture: Youtube/AITelly)

$Implosion Titan Oceangate How it Happened | Submersible Submarine Parts #3d hat is Implosion? Implosion is a process of destruction by collapsing inwards the object itself. Where explosion expands, implosion contracts. In the case of the Titan Submergible. the Implosion was caused due to very high hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water, which happen within a fraction of a millisecond, as shown in the animation. At the depth the Titanic rests, there is around 5600 pounds per square inch of pressure. That's almost 400 times the pressure we experience on the surface. As the submersible is deep in the ocean, it experiences the force on its surface due to the water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently. But why did this Implosion happen to the Titan Submersible. (Existing technology is based on) Current hull materials used are steel, titanium, and aluminium. These are what kept other submarines from being Crushed. But the Titan has had an experimental design. It used mostly carbon fibres, which have the advantage of being lighter than titanium or steel. The properties of carbon fibres for deep sea applications are, however, not that well understood. It can crack and break suddenly. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aitelly3d/ Twitter https://twitter.com/aitelly3d We make it on Blender Download it is free and Safe https://www.blender.org/download/ Peace Out As a Small Channel We encourage you sharing our Videos , But Kindly be advised that any unofficial translations or editing of our work in any medium will be considered a breach of our intellectual property rights. Apologies for the Legal Language, This happens because we had faced a lot of Duplicates Contents through Experiences ;) This has been a result of Big Channels Duplicating our Contents Ripping our original hard work which we have created from Scratch from Modeling to Rigging to Animation to Rendering.So we had to involved Lawyers.$
Images show the immense pressure the sub would have been under (Picture: Youtube/AITelly)

Spanish submarine expert José Luis Martín says the submersible, would have ‘popped like a balloon’ after freefalling for around 3,000 feet due to the rapid change in pressure.

He suggested the ‘freefall’ would have lasted between 48 and 71 seconds, with the vessel’s five passengers aware of what was about to happen

Tourists Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19, French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush all died on the submersible.

The new animation, using an open-source software called Blender, showed how Titan’s ‘experimental design’ was different to existing sub technology which uses steel, titanium and aluminum.

The YouTube channel took 12 hours to plug in data about OceanGate into the 3D modelling software to create the dynamic animation for viewers.

Ultimately, the experts claim, it was Titan’s carbon fiber construction that was the problem, since the material can ‘crack and break suddenly.’

The animators even created what the inside of the sub would have looked like, saying: ‘This is probably one of the basic deep diving submarine you will ever see [sic].’

July 13, 2023
Ex-finance director of OceanGate ‘resigned’ after being asked by CEO to manage Titan sub

Former OceanGate finance director claims she left the company after CEO Stockton Rush requested her to take over the Titan submersible’s controls.

After the former chief pilot David Lochridge was let go in 2018 for raising safety concerns, the unidentified woman claimed she was unable to trust Mr. Rush.

The Titan submarine owned by OceanGate collapsed last month while travelling to the Titanic’s underwater remains off the Canadian coast.

All five people on board were killed, including Mr Rush.

She told the New Yorker: ‘It freaked me out that he would want me to be head pilot, since my background is in accounting.

‘I could not work for Stockton. I did not trust him.’

She said as soon as she was able to secure a new job she quit the company, which sends sends submersibles down to the wreckage of the Titanic for paying passengers to look at.

She also claimed several of the engineers were in their late teens and early 20s – and at one point were only being paid $15 an hour.

The woman, who has a background in accounting, claims she was asked to take over the controls of the doomed submersible (Picture: PA)

Lochridge, who is a former Royal Navy marine engineer an ship’s diver, was fired after he demanded more safety checks, including ‘testing to improve its integrity’.

But the company argued it would take years and be ‘anathema to rapid innovation’.

In 2019, OceanGate said seeking classification for the Titan submersible would not ‘ensure that operators adhere to proper operating procedures and decision-making processes – two areas that are much more important for mitigating risks at sea’.

Classification involved an independent organisation being called in to ensure vessels meet industry-wide technical standards.

OceanGate also claimed Lochridge ‘desired to be fired’ and had shared out confidential information and wiped a company hard drive.

He had moved from the UK to Washington to work on the development of the doomed Titan submersible.

OceanGate has since said it has ‘suspended all exploration and commercial operations’.

All five people on board were killed, including UK citizens Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.

CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, and the submersible’s pilot, French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet also died in the incident.

July 7, 2023
I was invited to join ill-fated Titan submersible – Ned Nwoko

Actress Regina Daniels’ husband, Ned Nwoko has disclosed that his national responsibilities prevented him from participating in the ill-fated Titan submersible adventure.

Nwoko, a Senator representing Delta North in the country’s South South zone, is known to be friends with one of the deceased persons aboard the submersible, Captain Hermish Harding.

He posted on his social media handles on June 23 that he had lost a friend and business partner, detailing a number of past adventures that they had undertaken.

On the issue of the widely-reported upon submersible and the invitation extended to him by Harding, he wrote: “he also invited me on his space shuttle last year and this very Titan ill-fated adventure but I was tied down with national duties.”

Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media have been mocking the account of Nwoko with some asking what national assignment in particular had obstructed him.

Read Nwkoko’s full post on Instagram below

I have lost a very dear friend and business partner. Captain hermish Harding. We both went on a very dangerous expedition to the Southpole Antarctica few years back.

He was a gulf stream pilot who flew across the world in a record breaking expedition by Guinness world record for circumnavigation of the earth some years ago.

He descended into the Mariana. he also invited me on his space shuttle last year and this very Titan ill-fated adventure but I was tied down with national duties.

Above all he was a partner on the various researches into eradication of malaria in Africa project. He was very enthusiastic about it and always gave his support at every given opportunity.

His last message to me was this last Sunday when he told me they were ready to dive to the titanic if the weather permits. He loved adventure and challenges. My heart bleeds for his dear wife and kids who have become family friends over the years. We will surely miss his wealth of experience.

Reuters report about the accident

A deep-sea submersible carrying five people on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic was found in pieces from a “catastrophic implosion” that killed everyone aboard, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday, ending a multinational five-day search for the vessel.

A robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on Thursday morning on the seabed some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, 2 1/2 miles (4 km) beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters.

The Titan, operated by the U.S.-based company OceanGate Expeditions, had been missing since it lost contact with its surface support ship on Sunday morning about an hour, 45 minutes into what should have been a two-hour dive to the world’s most famous shipwreck.

“The debris field here is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle,” Mauger said.

Even before the Coast Guard’s press conference, OceanGate issued a statement saying there were no survivors among the five men aboard the Titan, including the company’s founder and chief executive officer, Stockton Rush, who was piloting the Titan.

The four others were British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens; and French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who had visited the wreck dozens of times.

June 24, 2023
5 in missing Titanic sub believed to be dead

Tributes are being paid to the five individuals who tragically lost their lives aboard the Titan submarine, which U.S. officials have described as experiencing a “catastrophic implosion.”

The victims have been identified as Hamish Harding, 58; Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77; and Stockton Rush, 61.

The families of the deceased have expressed deep sorrow and honored their loved ones for their dedication to exploration.

Following the Titan’s loss of contact on Sunday, the U.S. Navy initially detected an “acoustic anomaly consistent with an implosion.”

Subsequently, a robotic diving vehicle discovered significant remnants of the submarine on the seabed, approximately 1,600 feet (480 meters) from the Titanic shipwreck, on Thursday.

James Cameron, the director of the 1997 Titanic film and an experienced diver who has completed 33 dives to the wreck, voiced his concerns about a potential disaster when the submarine went missing.

Experts are now questioning the safety of the Titan submersible and the regulatory measures governing private sector deep-sea expeditions.

James Cameron believes OceanGate Titan imploded before reaching Titanic. #OceanGate #OceansGate #Titan #Titans📷 #submarino #Submarine #Submersible #implosion #imploded #Titanic #TitanicRescue #titanicsubmarine #sousmarin pic.twitter.com/wGtWvXR0V7
— Ak Cheema (@AkCheema777) June 23, 2023

Guillermo Söhnlein, a co-founder of OceanGate, has rejected some of the criticisms directed at the company over safety and certification.

Söhnlein left the company 10 years ago but still retains a minority stake.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said those commenting on the Titan’s safety, including film director James Cameron, were not fully informed.

“People keep equating certification with safety and are ignoring the 14 years of development of the Titan sub,” he says.

“Any expert who weighs in on this, including Mr Cameron, will also admit that they were not there for the design of the sub, for the engineering of the sub, for the building of the sub and certainly not for the rigorous test programme the sub went through.”

Söhnlein said it had been a “tragic loss for the ocean exploration community” but anyone who operates in the deep ocean “knows the risk of operating under such pressure and that at any given moment… you run the risk of this kind of implosion”.

He added that he thought technology and innovation can outpace regulation and developers are in a better position to understand the risks and best minimise them.

June 23, 2023
British explorer allegedly aboard Titanic submarine that has gone missing

A British explorer is reportedly one of the passengers in a submersible that vanished while transporting tourists to the Titanic.

Coastguards lost communication with the vessel, which is being run by Oceangate Expeditions, and are now conducting a search and rescue operation in the north Atlantic Ocean.

It is one of many vessels that sporadically convey visitors, specialists, and scientists to the renowned shipwreck.

Oceangate confirmed to the BBC that a crew is on board and it would be ‘exploring and mobilising all options’ to bring them back.

In a statement, the company said: ‘Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families.’

It continued: ‘We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.’

The US Coastguard confirmed a search operation was underway, with the Boston team leading.

None of the identities of those on board have been confirmed, but British explorer Hamish Harding, the chairman of aircraft sales firm Action Aviation, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that he was joining the latest Oceangate expedition to see the Titanic.

The billionaire holds the Guinness World Record for the longest time spent at the deepest point of the ocean, which was earned when he spent four hours and 15 minutes at the bottom of the Marianas Trench with fellow record-holder Victor Vescovo in March 2021.

Mr Harding said in the post: ‘The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet.’

He appears to be referring to French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Titanic wreck site, who is also believed to be on the vessel.

Sky News reported that Mr Harding’s stepson Brian Szasz had posted on Facebook saying: ‘Thoughts and prayers for my stepfather Hamish Harding as his Submarine has gone missing exploring Titanic.’

It can reportedly take eight hours for a submersible to take people down to the wreck – which lies 13,000ft below the surface of the ocean – and back up again, as part of a multi-day trip.

The missing submersible is understood to have a life support system designed to last 96 hours.

Last year, it was reported that one such excursion run by OceanGate cost a group of guests $250,000.

The mission was 10 days long, with eight of those days at sea, according to a tourist brochure.

It is understood that only five people are able to travel in the submersible. The number on board when it went missing is unknown.

Earlier this year, the company said it planned an expedition to the wreck for summer 2023, which would further document the Titanic and its ‘rate of decay’.

The Titanic lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic, about 600km (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

It was the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its launch on April 10 1912, but it sank after colliding with an iceberg just four days later.

There are believed to have been around 2,224 people on board at the time, of whom more than 1,500 died.

Since the wreck was rediscovered in 1985, a number of people have journeyed to the sea floor to take a look – including James Cameron, who directed a massively successful film about the disaster in 1997.

June 19, 2023
Tourist boat that carries visitors to see Titanic disaster vanishes in the Atlantic

A search and rescue operation has been launched in the wake of the disappearance of a submarine that was used to transport visitors to the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean.

On Monday, the Boston Coastguard informed the BBC that a search operation was being conducted for the submersible.

It is unclear how many, if any, passengers were on board when it vanished.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.

June 19, 2023
Scans unveil Titanic Wreck in full size, revealing unseen depths

The world’s most famous shipwreck has been revealed as never seen before.

The first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, which lies 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic, has been created using deep-sea mapping.

It provides a unique 3D view of the entire ship, enabling it to be seen as if the water has been drained away.

The hope is that this will shed new light on exactly what happened to the liner, which sank in 1912.

More than 1,500 people died when the ship struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

“There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst, told BBC News.

He said the model was “one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research – and not speculation.”

[Image source, Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The bow of the Titanic is still instantly recognisable even after so long underwater

The Titanic has been extensively explored since the wreck was discovered in 1985. But it’s so huge that in the gloom of the deep, cameras can only ever show us tantalizing snapshots of the decaying ship – never the whole thing.

The new scan captures the wreck in its entirety, revealing a complete view of the Titanic. It lies in two parts, with the bow and the stern separated by about 800m (2,600ft). A huge debris field surrounds the broken vessel.

The scan was carried out in summer 2022 by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project.

Submersibles, remotely controlled by a team on board a specialist ship, spent more than 200 hours surveying the length and breadth of the wreck.

They took more than 700,000 images from every angle, creating an exact 3D reconstruction.

The scan is made up from 700,000 images captured by submersibles

The large hole to the right of the boat deck opens over where the grand staircase once stood

Magellan’s Gerhard Seiffert, who led the planning for the expedition, said it was the largest underwater scanning project he’d ever undertaken.

“The depth of it, almost 4,000m, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too – and we’re not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck,” he explained.

“And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimetre – even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects.”

The scan shows both the scale of the ship, as well as some minute details, such as the serial number on one of the propellers.

[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The stern, which has separated from the bow, is a chaotic tangle of steel

[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The stern corkscrewed into the seabed as it plunged into the depths

The bow, now covered in stalactites of rust, is still instantly recognisable even 100 years after the ship was lost. Sitting on top is the boat deck, where a gaping hole provides a glimpse into a void where the grand staircase once stood.

The stern though, is a chaotic mess of metal. This part of the ship collapsed as it corkscrewed into the sea floor.

In the surrounding debris field, items are scattered, including ornate metalwork from the ship, statues and unopened champagne bottles. There are also personal possessions, including dozens of shoes resting on the sediment.

[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] Extraordinary detail can be seen of the ship

[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The serial number on a propeller can be made out

Parks Stephenson, who has studied the Titanic for many years, said he was “blown away” when he first saw the scans.

“It allows you to see the wreck as you can never see it from a submersible, and you can see the wreck in its entirety, you can see it in context and perspective. And what it’s showing you now is the true state of the wreck.”

He said that studying the scans could offer new insight into what happened to the Titanic on that fateful night of 1912.

“We really don’t understand the character of the collision with the iceberg. We don’t even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as is shown in all the movies – she might have grounded on the iceberg,” he explained.

[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The hope is that the scan could reveal more about what happened on the night the Titanic was lost

Studying the stern, he added, could reveal the mechanics of how the ship struck the sea floor.

The sea is taking its toll on the wreck, microbes are eating away at it and parts are disintegrating. Historians are well aware that time is running out to fully understand the maritime disaster.

But the scan now freezes the wreck in time, and will allow experts to pore over every tiny detail. The hope is the Titanic may yet give up its secrets.

May 17, 2023
James Cameron wants to put debate around Jack’s death in ‘Titanic’ to rest ‘once and for all’

Ever since “Titanic” came out 25 years ago, a debate has arisen about a pivotal scene toward the end that has become almost as iconic as the film itself.

Now, director James Cameron is hoping to put a definitive end to the speculation that Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) could have survived after the sinking of the infamous oceanliner, if only his beloved Rose (Kate Winslet) had scooched over just a bit on the floating door that kept her out of the freezing waters that eventually claimed so many lives. (It’s a conundrum that has drawn commentary from Hollywood luminaries such as Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, as well as Winslet herself in the past).

Cameron said he conducted a “forensic” study to show that the door could not possibly have supported them both.

“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” Cameron told The Toronto Sun on Friday.

“We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie,” he continued, adding that they used “two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived.”

“Only one could survive,” Cameron said.

The study will be the subject of a special for National Geographic, timed to the 25th anniversary re-release of “Titanic” in 4K, according to Cameron. Though, the network has yet to reveal specifics.

CNN has reached out to National Geographic for comment.

Cameron, who previously commented on an episode of “Mythbusters” that explored whether Jack had to die, ultimately copped it all to an artistic decision.

“No, he needed to die,” Cameron said in the new interview. “It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice.”

The “Avatar: Way of Water” filmmaker added that his hope with the new special on “Titanic” and Jack’s death scene is that “maybe… maybe… after 25 years, I won’t have to deal with this anymore.”

December 21, 2022
Titanic at 25: PEOPLE Celebrates the Epic Film with a New Special Edition

Are you ready to go back to Titanic? Get the inside story of the movie that made stars of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. “I was a little bit obsessed there,” director James Cameron tells PEOPLE.

Leonardo DiCaprio was not looking to make a special effects-filled blockbuster. “I don’t like these gigantic, huge films,” said the actor when he was 22. Meanwhile Kate Winslet, 21, not only lobbied to land her part of Rose Dewitt Bukater in director James Cameron’s big project, a love story set aboard the doomed RMS Titanic, she also leaned on DiCaprio to take the one he’d been offered, Jack Dawson. Only after shooting was well underway did it become clear that neither had known what they were in for. “Nothing could have prepared me for it,” Winslet told Los Angeles Times in 1997.

To be fair, no one could have prepared for it, as Titanic‘s production was unlike any before, both in the scope of Cameron’s ambition and the cost and innovation needed to execute it. The mammoth effort involved 12 dives to the real Titanic wreck site, more than 450 computer-effects shots and multiple reproductions of the legendary ship, including one 90-percent-scale set constructed from 300 tons of steel. Along with much of the sprawling cast and crew, the film’s two stars would risk hypothermia in frigid water, and endure workdays that stretched to 20 hours. As production blew past deadlines and budgets, the Hollywood press predicted an expensive flop and compared the filmmakers’ hubris to that of the owners of the real RMS Titanic, who had promoted the luxury ocean liner as “unsinkable.”

And then the movie opened.

When Titanic finally made it to theaters in December, 1997, all those “sinking feeling” headlines started to evaporate. The movie held the No. 1 box office spot for 15 straight weeks and became the highest-grossing movie of all time (ultimately earning $2.2 billion)—a record it held until Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar. Then came the 14 Academy Award nominations, of which it won 11, including for Best Picture and Best Director. Not to mention its Oscar- and Grammy-Award-winning theme, “My Heart Will Go On,” sung by Celine Dion. Now PEOPLE is celebrating the epic film on its 25th anniversary with a new Titanic special edition, filled with a behind-the-scenes look at its making and legacy.

Filled with photos, including some rarely seen on-set images, the new issue illustrates the beauty of the recreated luxury ship, from the china in the first class dining room to its passengers’ glorious costumes. Also inside: How the stunning Heart of the Ocean necklace came to life and was auctioned to raise funds for one of Princess Diana’s charities.

Plus, in an exclusive interview writer-director Cameron talks about reuniting with Winslet for Avatar: The Way of Water, and his ongoing obsession with the RMS Titanic. Since he finished work on Titanic, he kept up with discoveries about the real ship and returned to the wreck site for several documentaries, notably 2003’s Ghosts of the Abyss, which he produced with actor Bill Paxton, who had played Titanic‘s fictional treasure hunter, Brock Lovett. A planned 2023 National Geographic doc will be his sixth.

“Yeah, I was a little bit obsessed there for a while,” Cameron tells PEOPLE. For now, he adds, “I’m not going back out to the wreck. I’ve done my investigation. We are putting all our data together with some of the other experts . . . to do a definitive publication on the marine forensics of the wreck.”

December 16, 2022
A new mission to see Titanic

For many, seeing the world’s most famous shipwreck is a lifelong dream. And now, paying adventurers called “mission specialists” can get the chance to explore Titanic up close.

Four-hundred miles from St Johns, Newfoundland, in the choppy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, a large industrial vessel swayed from side to side. Onboard, Stockton Rush expressed a vision for the future:

“There will be a time when people will go to space for less cost and very regularly. I think the same thing is going to happen going under water.”

The Travel Show’s TV broadcast

The full story is airing this weekend on BBC World News’ The Travel Show. Check here for specific broadcast times.

Rush hopes that his company OceanGate will do for deep-sea exploration what innovators like Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are trying to do for space travel: allow anyone with enough money to venture to new worlds, even if they lack the specialist training.

Rush’s location in the North Atlantic is unremarkable at first glance. However, it is here that one of the most renowned and tragic events in history took place: 3,800m below the surface lies the wreck of the Titanic, which sank in April 1912 after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

For Rush, who is trying to make deep-sea exploration for the masses commercially viable, the site of the world’s most famous shipwreck was a “must-do dive”. He added, “I read an article that said there are three words in the English language which are known throughout the planet. That’s Coca-Cola, God and Titanic.”

Watch the mission down to the Titanic

But to make his Titanic dream a reality, Rush has had to create a new type of submersible made of lightweight materials that could take up to five people down from the ocean vessel to Titanic’s depth. Many thought it couldn’t be done.

Now though, Rush was at the site (after successfully reaching the wreck in the submersible last year) with a large mix of people, including the crew aboard the vessel, OceanGate staff, scientists and a small but crucial group of paying adventurers called “mission specialists” who each paid up to $250,000 (about £225,000) for a chance to see Titanic up close.

While there, they would also have the chance to help as citizen scientists, gathering pictures and video of the deep-sea biodiversity.

This particular dive included banker Renata Rojas, businessman Oisin Fanning and television professional Jaden Pan, plus oceanographer Steve Ross and submersible pilot Scott Griffith.

Jaden Pan is one of several “mission specialists” who get to see the Titanic up close (Credit: BBC’s The Travel Show)

Rojas explained, “I’m not a millionaire. I’ve been saving money for a long, long time. I made a lot of sacrifices in my life to be able to get to Titanic. I don’t have a car, I didn’t get married yet, I don’t have children. And all those decisions were because I wanted to go to Titanic.”

For Ross, these dives offer a rare chance to study the deep ocean environment by taking water samples around the wreck site and making a record of the biodiversity with his camera. He said, “There is sort of a race to understand the deep sea, which is the largest environment in the oceans and the most poorly explored. Changes in the ocean have a huge impact over the whole globe.”

As the submersible descended for more than two hours to the bottom of the ocean with its passengers, onboard, Ross observed this biodiversity through the porthole window.

Dives to the Titanic wreck offer a rare chance to study the deep ocean environment (Credit: BBC’s The Travel Show)

“On the way down, we saw mesopelagic animals [that are] involved in the largest migration on Earth. Every evening, this big community migrates to the surface, and each morning they migrate back down to 500 to 1,000m. A lot of those animals have bioluminescence, so you get flashes of light here and there.”

When the submersible hit the ocean floor, it landed in the 15sq m debris field that surrounds Titanic’s severed bow and stern.

“All five of us unofficially had this moment of silence,” said Pan. “The first thing I see are pieces of coal. That’s the moment that connected me to the humanness of the Titanic. The fact that people had shovelled this, had brought it onto the boat, and during the sinking, it just all spilled out.”

Stockton Rush is trying to make deep-sea exploration for the masses commercially viable (Credit: BBC’s The Travel Show)

From the other end of the submersible, Pan heard pilot Griffith say, “Oh no. We have a problem.”

“When I’m thrusting forwards, one of the thrusters is thrusting backwards,” Griffith explained. “Now all I can do is a 360.” On the ocean vessel above, Rush considered remapping Griffith’s controller. “It’s not going to be easy”, he told his fellow support crew.

“I thought, we’re not going to make it!” Rojas said. “We’re 300m from Titanic and all we can do is go in circles.”

The solution which came to Rush was brilliantly simple: “Tell him to hold it the other way,” he said. After establishing that turning left on the controller will move the submersible forwards, he concluded that turning the controller 90 degrees clockwise will make the submersible possible to go forward again.

An large ocean vessel takes people from St Johns, Newfoundland, to the Titanic site (Credit: BBC’s The Travel Show)

Passing colourful tiles, plates and a sink in the debris field, they soon reached their goal: the bow of the Titanic – iconic from when romance blossomed between the fictional Jack and Rose in the movie Titanic. Selfies taken, the remaining hours on the ocean floor were spent exploring the rest of the bow and more of the debris field before ascending to the surface.

While the analysis of the data they collected (from the video) will take some months to complete, the mission was instantly gratifying. Soon after emerging from the submersible back on the ocean vessel, Rojas wiped away a tear, saying “I needed to do it to feel complete. I feel now complete.”

Source: BBC

October 9, 2022