alternatehistory.com

- Bill Paxton speaking about the production of “Titanic”, taken from the 2017 documentary: The Unsinkable Film: Titanic 20 Years On.


James Cameron had had a very successful decade so far, with Terminator 2: Judgement Day and True Lies furthering his reputation as a highly skilled director, and his work on the X-Men franchise was considered innovative. While only a producer, Cameron had brought his history of special effects innovation with him. As a result, the franchise had been visually stunning, even if many of the effects seem unimpressive by modern standards. However, he had his sights on a greater prize, one which would see him step away from the franchise.

James Cameron had long had a fascination with the underwater, perhaps most obviously showcased in his 1989 film The Abyss. The discovery of the wreckage of the RMS Titanic over 10 years prior had re-ignited interest, and Cameron was certain that a film set around the sinking of the Titanic would be a great success. In his eyes, the story of how the Titanic sank had become too much of a moral tale, and that the public deserved to be reminded of the fact that those involved in the disaster had lives as full as anybody else.


20th Century Fox were initially sceptical of the script, what was effectively a three hour romantic epic, but given their prosperous history with Cameron, decided to fund it. In preparation, Cameron not only travelled to the wreckage, but also spent six months researching the crew and passengers, so as to make the film as realistic as possible.

Cameron already had a reputation as a perfectionist, and the production of this film, simply titled “Titanic” would be no different. The production took place primarily at the Fox studios in Rosarita, Mexico, where he had a full-scale replica of the RMS Titanic constructed, with machinery in place so that the sinking could be simulated for the relevant scenes.

While initially promising, the production soon ran into many problems. Firstly, the film was almost certainly going to go over its original maximum budget of $130 million. Secondly, the use of cold water on set had led to many complaints of colds, flu, and even kidney infections from cast and crew, including star Gwyneth Paltrow. In a rare case where he caved in to crew demands, Cameron agrees to raise the temperature of the water on set. [1]


Cameron’s perfectionist nature on set was the cause of many issues. Many crew members left and had to be replaced, and in one notable incident, a disgruntled crew member spiked the soup given out to those working on set one day with PCP. This incident resulted in Bill Paxton and Cameron both being hospitalised, and the production was halted for two days. The perpetrator was never caught, though rumours have been aplenty. Jared Leto, the prospective male lead, suffered multiple injuries on set, including a bone fracture, though this would soon prove to be the least of the crew’s worries.

One of the scenes involved part of the ship being lowered into a water tank, as Rose (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) would run towards an elevator while water filled the corridor she was running through. However, when the scene was filmed, Paltrow unexpectedly tripped, and the crew were unable to stop the mechanism before she was submerged. Though she would be recovered, she was suffering greatly from hypoxia.

Though much of the crew had been trained in first-aid for drowning, panic overtook many of them, and Paltrow was not given first-aid properly. She was rushed to a hospital, where her hypoxia resulted in her slipping into a coma. A scan revealed that Paltrow had suffered brain damage as a result of her drowning. Almost three weeks after the incident, Paltrow would pass away, not having awoken from her coma. [2]


The death of prospective star Paltrow threw the remainder of the production into doubt. The film was being financed by Fox and Paramount, and if either pulled out, the film would effectively be cancelled, and all the work done would be for nothing. Paltrow, at the time of the accident, still had many scenes left to film, so if the film was to continue production, a new lead would need to be found, and all previous scenes would need to be reshot.

In addition, the Screen Actors Guild announced that they would be investigating the set, to determine if it was unsafe to work on. Though they found that the set itself was not “inherently dangerous”, they declared that Cameron’s film-making technique was “needlessly endangering”. In the days after this announcement, Paramount withdrew further funding, and abandoned ties with the film, cutting their losses, which now amounted nearly $100 million. Titanic was already gearing up to be the most expensive film production ever, and now, it was over.

Fox withdrew funding and left the film one week later, when it became clear that the negative press around the film meant that a box-office success, however unlikely to begin with, was now impossible. Cameron was forced to abandon the film. His own reputation was completely gone, and his prospective projects, which included a Spider-Man film, were cancelled by the studios he was working with. His career as a director, at least for the near future, was over. [3]

The prospective Spider-Man film also earned Cameron some criticism, as after the film was cancelled, the script was leaked to the press. Newspapers capitalised on a scene where Peter Parker would have performed a “spider mating dance” at Mary-Jane, and the finale, where he would swear profusely. This, coupled with other internal changes at Marvel later in 1997, would result in the film being canned completely, though talks of a live-action television show were soon abound. [4]


In the end, Titanic proved to be a $200 million project that amounted to almost nothing. Many documentaries have been made about the production, though much of the cast and crew refuse to take part in them. To many, the question of “What if the James Cameron Titanic film was finished?” is just as, if not more, interesting as “What if the Titanic never sank?”.

James Cameron would spend the next fifteen years working on camera technology, becoming a member of NASA’s Advisory Council, working on the technology in the Mars Ingenuity rover. In recent years, his film career has begun to recover, though many studios are still wary of working with him. [5]


Next Time: "The Storm", 1997 for Marvel and DC. [6]
[1] Basically all OTL up to here, minus the X-Men stuff. The casting is different, but for a couple of reasons, I won't be doing a full cast breakdown for the film.
[2] So, yeah. I've tried to shy away from killing anyone off in the timeline, unless it's really necessary. Given Kate Winslet's NDE on set, something like this isn't completely out of the question for happening. As for why Paltrow rather than anyone else? Well, I looked through the people who were considered for the role, and Paltrow was the only one I didn't really have any ideas for. I needed Cameron not only out of the picture, but his reputation pretty much destroyed. This isn't a "Brandon Lee shot as a result of a prop mishap" deal. A lot of people really blame Cameron for Paltrow's death ITTL.
[3] It's important to remember that basically nobody but the people on-set thought that Titanic would be successful until its release in North America. With this, the goodwill that Cameron was burning through is gone. The film is dead in the water.
[4] Both actual things from the prospective Cameron Spider-Man film from OTL. A little hint towards the future, too.
[5] Ingenuity is TTL's Curiosity equivalent. I'm quite interested in space exploration (I'm a Physics/Astronomy student, after all), but I reckon it will probably be tackled on the political side, as it's a governments thing. Also, I wanted Cameron to have some reprieve, and he did work on Curiosity, even though his tech wasn't done in time.
[6] I've been doing this on the political timeline (which will be getting an update in the coming days), and I like it a lot, so I'm bringing it over.

This update is what I'd describe as a turning point for the timeline. No more pulling punches. Things are about to get interesting.