WTF: Australian Titanic Enthusiast Plans to One-Up James Cameron With New Film
Posted on Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013 by Russ Fischer
It’s a potent cocktail: money mixed liberally with delusions of grandeur. Recall, if you will, the name Clive Palmer. He’s the billionaire in Australia (at current conversion rates there’s not even a need to qualify him as a billionaire only in Australian dollars) who last year announced his plans to build a full-size, working Titanic replica of his very own. That announcement was followed by a report that Palmer was talking to sheep-cloning scientists with the idea of building his own Jurassic Park.
Palmer denied the JP report, and as far as commercial ideas go, the notion of a working Titanic replica is actually genius. He says he’s lined up thousands of people interested in a Titanic II voyage, and I believe it. It’s an expensive venture, and one loaded with serious risk — against capricious fate, if nothing else — but one which could make money.
Here’s where the crazy kicks in: now Palmer says he’s going to make two Titanic films. One will be a documentary about building the ship, which makes sense. The other is a dramatic film that he claims “should be a lot better movie” than Cameron’s Titanic. Read More »
