Written by new-contact on Mar 20, 2012. Posted in On Location

James Cameron prepares for epic dive into the Pacific's Mariana Trench

Filmmaker James Cameron is preparing for an historic journey to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The trench lies in the western Pacific Ocean and at seven miles down is the deepest place on Earth. Cameron’s aiming to become only the second person to have ever completed the dive.

The filmmaker has a lot of experience exploring the ocean depths, having filmed the wrecks of both German World War II battleship Bismarck and, of course, the Titanic. He’s also been instrumental in reintroducing the filming industries to 3D, having co-designed his own camera rig and steered Avatar to massive box-office success. Back-to-back sequels are in the works.

Every single dive, I'm going to see something no-one's ever seen before. I'm going to do my best to image it, light it properly, bring it back in 3D, grab samples if I can, grab rocks if I can.

James Cameron

Cameron spoke to the BBC about his Pacific dive adventure: “Every single dive, I'm going to see something no-one's ever seen before. I'm going to do my best to image it, light it properly, bring it back in 3D, grab samples if I can, grab rocks if I can. We are there to do science, but we are also there to take the average person who only imagines these things and show them what it is really like.”

Footage from Cameron’s nine-hour solo dive will be used for a documentary about life in the trench. The craft itself, named the Deepsea Challenger, weighs 11 tonnes and has an internal diameter of just over a metre, making for a cramped ride but specialist protection from a thousand atmospheres of deep-sea pressure.