Shortly after news broke about the submarine accident that took the lives of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 19-year-old Suleman Dawood and British billionaire Hamish Harding, Netflix subscribers noticed James Cameron‘s Titanic was slated to return to the streaming platform July 1.
Users were quick to call foul, with one noting, “People died in a tragic accident [at] the Titanic site and now to capitalize on the moment to garner viewers is beyond distasteful.”
However, it appears the “poor timing” many complained about may have just been an unfortunate coincidence: The movie appeared in the streamer’s upcoming movie slate that was posted two weeks ago — before the sub was lost.
Further, it takes time to work out rights and other legal matters to get a movie to stream to a platform, The Hollywood Reporter argues.
On Sunday, June 18, the 21-foot Titan submerged at 8 a.m. ET bound for the famous wreck. About an hour and 45 minutes later, the sealed craft lost contact with its operator, OceanGate Expeditions.
On Thursday, June 22, a remote-operated vehicle found debris from the sub. A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that day that an underwater acoustic system detected the sound of an implosion the day the missing submersible began its descent.
Incidentally, Cameron, a veteran of many underwater missions to study and film the doomed luxury liner, told ABC News he was “struck” by unfortunate echoes between this tragedy and the deadly 1912 sinking of the “unsinkable” ship.
“[T]he captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result,” he said. “It’s a very similar tragedy where warnings [about Titan] went unheeded.”
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