WTF Happened to TITANIC (1997)?

i want you to hit me as hard as you can james cameron's titanic was one of the most nominated and decorated films in academy awards history the oscar winner would also live up to its mighty title at the box office reigning as the highest grossing champ for over a decade but the production itself was more like its nautical namesake promising disastrous legendary near far wherever you are let's find out what the [ __ ] happened to this movie in the mid-1990s director james cameron had multiple reputations in hollywood for one he was known for projects that were difficult to get a green light productions that were often problematic for cameron's almost tyrannical filmmaking style for another his spectacles made huge money for the studios despite their budgets not one of cameron's films lost money in the decade between 1984's the terminator and 1994's true lies his films grossed nearly 1.2 billion dollars worldwide even the abyss cameron's least impressive box office performer was not considered a failure and it gave him a venue to demonstrate his prowess in the field of advanced cinematic technologies often these sides of cameron overlapped and studio chiefs knew they would be getting a little bit of both trouble and success after the impressive performance of true lies which raked in almost 380 million dollars worldwide and nabbed an oscar nomination for best visual effects it was still unclear what cameron would dive into next and then he did just that he went underwater an enthusiast of all things aquatic and an amateur diver cameron decided he would make a movie about the rms titanic the doomed ocean liner whose encounter with an iceberg in 1912 left more than 1500 people dead interestingly enough cameron did not have a true passion to make a narrative about the disaster instead partly inspired by imax movies and national geographic documentaries he just wanted to visit the wreckage of the titanic and so he used a meeting with fox as a setup cameron pitched the idea to fox that he and a crew could go to the depths of the wreckage around two and a half miles straight down and use footage he shot to promote the film in a way that had never been done before fox was already familiar with the real life disaster having produced a successful 1953 version that earned two oscar nominations winning for best original screenplay and so they gave the go-ahead to cameron's endeavour after all cameron was acquainted with underwater features having helmed the abyss and of course the roger corman low budget chomp fest piranha 2 the spawning throughout 1995 cameron made a dozen expeditions into the deep bringing back footage that while not as high quality as the director hoped would eventually be used in the final cut of what would become titanic cameron pitched his idea as romeo and juliet on the titanic and despite so much already hinting at what would become a heavily troubled production that it would be a three-hour romance a hard sell to audiences and that cameron and company had caused further damage to the actual titanic while exploring fox did green light the picture still they had obvious reservations about their production including its bank busting budget and so they partnered with paramount for financing and distribution the caveat was that if titanic exceeded its initial cost then estimated around 100 million fox would have to handle the overages fox agreed unable to foresee that titanic would soon become what at the time was the most expensive movie in history with some promotional footage shot cameron began writing the actual screenplay one of his goals was to make it something of a tribute to the crew and passengers and not just a typical disaster movie like those that flooded the theaters in the 1970s such as airport and the poseidon adventure the movie would be told in flashback with the central story revolving around the romance between a poor artist and a blossoming socialite to portray the starboard crossed lovers jack dawson and rose dewitt boucader cameron would audition numerous potentials prior to leonardo dicaprio being cast names like billy crudup chris o'donnell and matthew mcconaughey were all considered but deemed too old tom cruise also expressed interest but was proved to be too expensive the closest anyone else got to landing the part of jack was clueless's jeremy sisto who even screen tested with eventual rose kate winslet winslet herself bumped major names from the shortlist including claire danes gwyneth paltrow and rhys witherspoon rose's fiancee wealthy snob cal hockley would be played by billy zane even after mcconaughey had also auditioned for the role modern day scenes in which a team of researchers aboard a vessel scoured the ocean for a valuable diamond-encrusted necklace would bookend the film the head of the research team would be played by cameron regular bill paxton while the 100 year old rose recounting her days aboard the titanic would be portrayed by gloria stewart who was popular during hollywood's golden age but had not appeared in a feature in over a decade it would also be historical figures including captain edward john smith titanic designer thomas andrews and the unsinkable molly brown given a pivotal role in jack's persona the inclusion of these figures would help contribute to cameron's quest for authenticity indeed a sizeable chunk of the budget went towards nailing details the greatest undertaking would have to be the ship itself the production crew didn't merely look at photos or 80-year-old footage but rather contacted shipyard harland and wolff who built the rms titanic and requested the actual blueprints such access allowed the production crew to design their very own version of the vessel of course cameron's own titanic couldn't be built to scale that would be expensive and irresponsible so instead the team would be forced to scale it down to 90 percent at 775 feet long the fox funded ship allowed for the cast and crew to move about freely with lighting rigs dollies cranes and so on there would be rotating and hydraulic sections allowing the ship particularly in the extensive sinking sequences to be snapped shifted and pieced together again for retakes one curious note about the massive ship was that only the starboard side or right side was constructed however it was the port side the left side that was docked in southampton where the titanic departed in 1912. that might be a minor quibble for history buffs but not james cameron the switch required that the entire departure sequence be reversed in post-production necessitating a complicated shoot with numerous background extras and signs adorned with backwards lettering that's the level of detail cameron insisted on but where do you store something as big as an almost to scale ship shots of the high seas quite a few in case you haven't seen the movie would be filmed at fox baja studios in mexico a multi-million dollar facility constructed just for the making of titanic the key feature at the studio was a specialized 17 million gallon horizon tank designed to depict the vastness of the atlantic ocean it was the largest in movie history more than twice the size of the massive tank where the cast and crew of the abyss had been submerged and it didn't just give cameron his own underwater playground but would provide means for future productions like deep blue sea pearl harbor and master and commander the far side of the world fox baja now called baja studios was one of the selling points for fox the estimated 20 million dollar studio would be added to the budget which started around 100 million and was already swelling cameron's insistence on period accuracy didn't stop at the exterior as shooting neared the interior of the titanic had to be completed to perfection rooms were recreated furniture was precisely placed dishware was etched even the original manufacturer of the carpeting was consulted some of these would be intentionally damaged for the modern day underwater sequences illustrating how time and the elements had worn the ornate interiors of the ship costumes too would have to be period accurate with even extras being tied into corsets despite some of their garments never appearing on screen as cameron put it if you didn't appreciate the ship you couldn't appreciate the sinking one of the most dazzling and iconic facets of the entire ship was the grand staircase and although the production team made the movies set out of oak just like the real ship they couldn't work with the original dimensions and widen the sides by a foot and a half to accommodate equipment and modern body structures apparently people had physically expanded so much through the 20th century the team had to also expand an entire staircase when the majority of the work was done cameron enlisted historians to visit and scrutinize the set they gave their immediate approval filming on titanic began in july 1996 with 138 days on the schedule and a designated release for july 1997 to capitalize on the increased audiences of the summer movie season the schedule would inflate to 160 days and the movie would not meet its deadline the most extreme departure however was the budget by the time titanic hit theaters the overall cost had doubled to 200 million dollars it was the most expensive film ever made at the time drawing inevitable negative comparisons to kevin costner's water world as per the original agreement fox had to shell out for the overages as a convenience to the schedule and perhaps a way to ease tensions in his cast cameron first shot the new drawing scene in which jack sketches an image of a topless rose the drawing done by cameron himself would later sell at auction for around sixteen thousand dollars or point zero zero zero zero eight percent of the budget it wouldn't take long after this first day of shooting for the cast and crew to get a glimpse at iron jim's approach to filmmaking one of the many preparations for the cast including background actors were emily post-inspired lessons on mannerisms and etiquette of the 1910s but judging by reports from the production james cameron neglected to attend the sessions himself cameron is a self-proclaimed uncompromising hard-charged perfectionist labeled by others as the filmmaking equivalent of attila the hun and this isn't just from titanic his reputation practically culminated here but he had been shaping his autocratic style for years never mind the rumors that bathroom breaks on the set of true lies were forbidden or that he would lose his mind over the british crew's customary tea time during aliens really all one would need to know about james cameron's methodology could be found on t-shirts for both aliens and terminator 2 judgement day crew member shirts read you can't scare me i work for james cameron but titanic had by far the widest selection of cameron related slogans for crew shirts including you either do it my way or you do another [ __ ] movie jim's a hands-on director and i have the bruises to prove it and no animals were hurt during the making of this film but the actors were tossed around like styrofoam cups judging by what kate winslet went through one can only imagine she contributed some of these quips the actress claimed the director had quote a temper like you wouldn't believe actively frightening her on a regular basis in one instance winslet reportedly almost drowned while filming part of the sinking sequence but cameron clarified we simply let kate think she was nearly drowning oh yes that's much better winslet remembered wishing she hadn't pursued the role at all and declared she would never work with cameron again unless the salary was just right considering she signed on for upcoming avatar sequels we can assume her salary was around one zillion dollars but it wasn't just the marquee stars experiencing cameron's iron fist even though behind the scenes footage shows a certain camaraderie the extras background cast and stuntmen would not escape entirely unscathed broken bones infections and ruptured organs didn't seem uncommon up to a point that cameron had to scale back the number of stuntmen on set replacing them with cgi characters this was probably a good call considering cameron's reputation might find him tossing an unruly crewman into a propeller blade there was even an investigation launched by the screen actors guild but they ultimately found the production to be acceptable despite the all clear from sag the press was taking note with stories appearing in gossip rags and industry papers regarding the onset injuries the 90-hour work weeks and of course the cameron dictatorship cameron on the defense penned an op-ed in the la times to address the issues he ended it am i driven yes absolutely out of control never unsafe not on my watch and cameron wasn't responsible for every hospital visit three weeks into production while shooting in nova scotia 50 members of the titanic cast and crew were hospitalized someone had laced that day's lobster chowder with pcp resulting in a mixture of laughing crying and vomiting one of the victims was cameron himself who had one eye turn a vibrant red which one cast member appropriately likened to a t-800 the case was and remains a real whodunit since no one has ever been caught or confessed to the great lobster lacing of 1996 in different interviews cameron further acknowledged his demanding reputation noting that quote filmmaking is war admiral cameron would rarely listen to insight when one crew member suggested a different approach to one of the shots involving lifeboats cameron replied thanks for your opinion now i'm going to make it exciting given that it's probably not surprising that one of the other crew shirts said don't get creative i hate that as production slogged on fox would try to contain some of the apprehension fox ceo bill mechanic visited cameron on set one day remarking that the budget was wildly out of control and that the run time was projected to be too long and numerous scenes would need to be scrapped you can probably imagine how cameron reacted despite recognizing how catastrophic things seemed to had gotten he told mechanic you want to cut my movie you're going to have to fire me you want to fire me you're going to have to kill me fox decided it was best not to drown their director so far into production however as a sign of good faith and to show his dedication cameron relinquished his producing and directing salary in addition to a share of the box office percentage points eventually costing him millions handling the film's hundreds of special effects shots were digital domain and pacific data images the former of which had received the oscar nomination for cameron's own true lies such work from the companies included the advancement of motion capture which was not yet commonplace and wouldn't see major utilization until later in the decade and into the 21st century there were also some practical effects like the usage of miniatures including a 45-foot recreation of the ship but many of the film's most impressive shots made use of both techniques illustrating a huge change in cinematic visual effects for example sweeping shots of the rms titanic in the atlantic were a composite of miniatures green screen matte paintings and mocap such meticulous work was the primary reason titanic would not make its original release date production finally wrapped in march 1997 a mere four months before titanic was scheduled to hit screens around the globe considering the amount of post-production that still had to be done the film clearly wouldn't make the summer lineup instead the movie would be delayed until december also a lucrative time of year for releases but not nearly the jackpot of the summer season with 200 million dollars to recoup fox and paramount were just hoping to break even at that point they would end up doing just fine in december of 1997 titanic debuted at number one bumping scream 2 from the top spot and besting bond entry tomorrow never dies its journey to becoming the highest grossing movie ever was slow sailing never collecting more than 36 million on any single weekend despite a run time over three hours the repeat business would ultimately take it to 600 million dollars domestic after 250 days and it would eventually gather 2.1 billion worldwide combined with three re-releases titanic still stands as one of the most impressive box office achievements in history critical response was also generally positive with high marks for the movie's blend of spectacle and melodrama and its eye on historical accuracy one exception was astrophysicist and notorious buzzkill neil degrasse tyson who pointed out that the star field of the night sky was not accurate to how it would have been on april 15 1912 going so far as to call the error outlined in an email to cameron years later lazy cameron would actually correct the night sky for the 2012 3d re-release of the movie of course even cinema's titanic had to be sunk eventually and james cameron was finally beaten at the box office by james cameron when avatar topped it in 2010 cameron would hold the top two spots for nearly a decade until avengers end game nudged out titanic in 2019 cameron was surprisingly humble congratulating marvel in the press an iceberg sank the real titanic it took the avengers to sink my titanic just two months into titanic's streak at number one and with celine dion's unavoidable song my heart will go on moving more than 18 million copies the academy award nominations were announced by the end of the morning titanic hauled in 14 nominations the highest in the nearly 50 years since all about eve although they hadn't seen eye to eye on aliens cameron had brought back james horner for the score giving the composer his first oscar in addition to best picture and director it practically swept the technical awards of the 14 nominations it would win 11 tying with ben hur losing only makeup best actress for kate winslet and best supporting actress for gloria stewart who is still the oldest woman ever nominated although it does make you wonder if she still would have received the nomination if cameron had gone with a bizarre alternate ending where she taunts bill paxton's treasure hunter and then casually chucks her priceless necklace into the depths how mean is that that really sucks lady james cameron explored the famous sunken vessel again with the 2003 imax documentary ghosts of the abyss but titanic's legacy would expand much further beyond becoming an omnipresent pop culture touchstone referenced in everything from love actually to rick and morty its massive budget and extensive groundbreaking visual effects set something of a precedent in hollywood in less than a decade major studios including fox would be more comfortable green lighting pricey effects heavy tentpole releases like spider-man harry potter and pirates of the caribbean triggering a wave of franchises including what will someday be the avatar series now about that door the debate still rages over whether jack could have survived on the floating door if rose had just scooched over a bit it was even mythbuster's most requested topic and by their episode's end jaime and adam determined that both rose and jack could have fit and floated if they had tied life jackets to the bottom of the door james cameron called the debate silly bluntly ending it on his own terms the script says jack died and who would know better than the king of the world himself [Music] thank you for watching if you like what you see please subscribe to our joe blow videos channel tell your friends who like this sort of content and turn on the bell to receive notifications for all our latest videos we are an independent company and we appreciate your support we'll keep checking them keep looking is there anyone alive out there you

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Id: Ivnhd_6SH7c

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021