James Cameron slams 'offensive rumors' that he may direct movie about Titanic submersible tragedy

James Cameron is publicly condemning rumors that he's planning to direct a movie about the recent Titan submersible tragedy that killed five people on their voyage to the Titanic wreck site.

"I don't respond to offensive rumors in the media usually, but I need to now," the Titanic director and deep-sea explorer tweeted Saturday. "I'm NOT in talks about an OceanGate film, nor will I ever be."

It's not entirely shocking to see people speculating that Cameron could potentially helm a film about the disaster given that he directed the Oscar-winning 1997 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and has conducted more than 30 visits to its wreck site over the years. 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."

Jon Kopaloff/Getty James Cameron

Cameron, who helped design the Deepsea Challenger submersible, added, "For a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site — with all the diving that's going on all around the world — I think is just astonishing. It's really quite surreal."

The day after Cameron shared his remarks, OceanGate founder Guillermo Söhnlein told BBC Radio 4's Today show that the Titan went through a "rigorous test program" before its ill-fated voyage. "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 program the sub went through," he said.

Last month, OceanGate Expeditions issued a statement saying it suspected that all five individuals aboard the submersible were dead after a days-long search that captivated global attention. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the sub suffered a "catastrophic implosion" roughly halfway into its planned voyage to the Titanic wreck site.

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