A Newcastle-based deep ocean and science consultancy has developed a connection with Hollywood director James Cameron.
Armatus Oceanic, which is based in the National Centre for Subsea and Offshore Engineering in Wallsend, featured the Avatar filmmaker on the company podcast, The Deep-Sea Podcast. Best known for his films such as The Terminator and Titantic, Mr Cameron is an Oscar-winning director who has recently seen the release of science fiction epic Avatar: The Way of Water.
Mr Cameron's own interest in oceanography has led him to travel alone to the deepest known part of the seabed - the Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench. Armatus chief executive officer Prof Alan Jamieson is a leading authority on this area, known as hadal science, and discussed the nature of deep ocean exploration technology with the director.
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Speaking on the podcast, Mr Cameron said: "I think where people have consistently gotten it wrong is that they think my primary focus in life is to make entertainment films for mass audiences – and it really isn’t. My primary focus in life is curiosity, and wherever that takes me.
"Whether that's curiosity about what narratives can work with people or curiosity that might drive documentary filmmaking. So, when I go into the ocean it's as a documentary filmmaker. And I've had a surprisingly large number of arguments with journalists who say: 'Oh, come now, you're just down there trying to find new alien species so that you can make a better Avatar movie'. I say: 'Are you kidding me?' We've got some of the best designers in the world making up aliens left and right, and nothing that we do can compete with the imagination of nature itself."
Armatus consults on a range of oceanography projects, working with universities and businesses. The team was part of the initial Deepwater Horizon spill response and has published more than 120 peer reviewed scientific papers covering new species descriptions, deep-sea biology and ecology and new methods of ocean depth exploration.
Prof Jamieson, CEO of Armatus Oceanic and a deep-sea researcher, said: "Early last year, we were lucky to speak with James Cameron on our light-hearted monthly podcast. We chatted about his passion for the ocean, some of his own deep-sea adventures, and he even gave us some spoilers about the newly released Avatar 2 film.
“The podcast has been gaining traction and is now reaching the top 2.5% of all global podcasts and charting under Life Sciences regularly."
He added: "Cameron reached out to us after our autonomous deep-sea landers caught his attention. He has since been involved in several of our deep-sea projects. This pioneering technology allows us to send cameras, sensors and traps to the bottom of the ocean in order to capture images and data about the species that live at such depths."
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