In the documentary of his record-breaking deep-sea dive, Deepsea Challenge 3D, James Cameron asks: "Am I a filmmaker who does exploration work on the side, or am I an explorer who does filming on the side?"
It's a good question. It's now been five years since Cameron's last feature film, Avatar, and, in that time, the priorities of the most bankable director in Hollywood have sometimes been as murky as the deep sea. He has spent those years producing a fleet of documentaries about ocean exploration and deepwater life forms.
His biggest project hasn’t been a mega-blockbuster, but building a deep-diving sub and piloting it more than 35,000 feet down into the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench.
“I make the Hollywood movies to pay for the exploration,” Cameron says.
Certainly, many moviegoers are eager for Cameron to get back on a film set. After some earlier postponements, he's on his way, currently finishing the scripts and design work for three planned Avatar sequels.
But, for now, he's releasing into US theatres a 3-D film for National Geographic that chronicles his 2012 dive into another alien world, "the last great frontier", as he calls the ocean. For Cameron, the movie is a testament to the spirit of exploration, which he feels is flagging in America.
Cameron’s dive, nearly seven miles deep, was only the second manned dive to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point of the seabed. About 68 new species were identified from the sub, which was equipped with 3-D cameras.
“I think explorers feel a sense of the sacred,” says Cameron of descending into such a remote abyss. “Something that’s beyond themselves, when they go to a place that’s never been witnessed before and bear witness for the first time.”
The Deepsea co-director John Bruno had to capture it all in stormy conditions and while coordinating 3-D cameras that each took two men to operate.
“The ocean hasn’t read the script, so it’s not going to cooperate,” says Cameron. “And the sub is a bit like a diva movie actress. You’re not always going to get it on camera when you want it.”
The similarities of leading an expedition team and a feature-film crew are, to Cameron, identical. Ever the taskmaster, the documentary shows him prodding his scientists on their timetables. In Cameron’s day job, the interaction would be the same.
Speaking of timetables, there is the pace of work on the Avatar films, which are scheduled for release in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Cameron earlier said the screenplays (which he's writing with Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Shane Salerno) would be finished by the end of the spring, but now says more time is needed to perfect the scripts. "It's going to be another couple of months, I would say, at least," says Cameron. "We will serve no wine before its time and I would be pretty stupid to run off and start shooting Avatar until the scripts are perfect. Whether that compromises our announced release date of Christmas 2016, at this point I can't really say until we break down the budget and schedule."
Cameron says he's working seven days a week on Avatar as the pages "pour in", but with one exception. He's taking a holiday to Tahiti for – what else? – a little scuba diving.
* AP
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Mubalada World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule
Thursday December 27
Men's quarter-finals
Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm
Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm
Women's exhibition
Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm
Friday December 28
5th place play-off 3pm
Men's semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm
Saturday December 29
3rd place play-off 5pm
Men's final 7pm
LEADERBOARD
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Match info:
Burnley 0
Manchester United 2
Lukaku (22', 44')
Red card: Marcus Rashford (Man United)
Man of the match: Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United)
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
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The biog
Marital status: Separated with two young daughters
Education: Master's degree from American Univeristy of Cairo
Favourite book: That Is How They Defeat Despair by Salwa Aladian
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Gulf rugby
Who’s won what so far in 2018/19
Western Clubs Champions League: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens: Dubai Hurricanes
West Asia Premiership: Bahrain
What’s left
UAE Conference
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Hurricanes II v Al Ain Amblers, Jebel Ali Dragons II v Dubai Tigers
March 29, final
UAE Premiership
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Exiles v Jebel Ali Dragons, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Hurricanes
March 29, final
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
