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James Cameron gets ready to dive to the Mariana Trench

Hollywood director James Cameron may be close to making a dive to the deepest place on Earth.

In a one-man submarine, he plans to dive 11km (seven miles) down beneath the waves to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific.

There has only ever been one manned dive there, and that was half a century ago.

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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”

James Cameron
Mr Cameron and his team have set sail to reach the trench and are now waiting for calm weather to begin the dive.

The BBC met up with the director in Guam, just before he set out for the high seas. This tiny tropical island is the nearest major landmass to the Mariana Trench - the focus of Mr Cameron's ambition.

In the balmy heat, the team was making last-minute preparations for this journey to the deepest depth in the seas.

The Abyss and Titanic director has had a long-standing obsession with the oceans, but now he has created for himself the ultimate part.

In a prototype submarine, called the Deepsea Challenger, that fits just one person, he plans to make the first manned mission to the bottom of the trench for 50 years.

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He says he came up with the idea while he was using submersibles to film a documentary on the wreck of the Bismarck, a German battleship that lies 4,800m (17,500ft) underwater.

"I started to think about what would it take to go deeper, what would it take to go to full ocean depth - that was kind of the holy grail from an engineering standpoint," he told BBC News.

"So you start 'noodling' up designs, and thinking how it would be possible and what would it take. And then there is suddenly this moment that seems to transpire with no transition where you are suddenly doing it."

He adds: "I seem to have that curse that once I imagine something being built, I have to build it."

Mr Cameron and his team have spent the last few days in Guam, docked at the port, re-supplying the ship that has been their home for the last few months.

They arrived straight from Papua New Guinea, where the filmmaker performed a successful 8,200m test-dive. But the ultimate challenge will be to see whether their vessel can plumb the ocean's deepest point.

They will need calm seas to launch and recover the sub - but while in the harbour, a strong wind has blown in, white caps topping the waves.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
From what I heard he did take a camera and will have hours of footage to sift through (given he's supposedly stayed down there 6 hours).

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Maybe you don't watch the right stations?

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