Not many people could claim director James Cameron's attention to detail. But with
astrophysicist Neil degasses Tyson; the man has met his match.The director of
"Avatar" apparently made only one
change to his re-release of the three-hour-plus drama "Titanic": the sky. And he did this
following the incessant lobbying of one very
annoying astrophysicist.As recounted by Tyson, he noticed that in a pivotal
scene with (SPOILER ALERT) Kate Wins let as
Rose clinging to a piece of the boat under the night sky, the left half of the
sky was a reflection of the right half. In other words, not the stars she would
have seen that night, but a Hollywood fake-out.Tyson mentioned the story at a
panel discussion back in 2009, saying, "There she is looking up. There is
only one sky she should have been looking at ... and it was the wrong sky!
Worse than that, it was not only the wrong sky; the left half of the sky was a
mirror reflection of the right half of the sky! It was not only wrong, it was
lazy! And I'm thinking, 'This is wrong.'" Since Cameron went to such
lengths to get so many details of the ship and that night right, Tyson felt
justified in complaining about the sky, even if the only people who notice the
error are astronomers.
As James Cameron confirmed with Discovery,
"Neil degrease Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that
time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose (Kate Wins
let) is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is
not the star field she would have seen."He added, "And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in." As the director told the U.K. magazine Culture, "So I said, 'All right, you (so and so), send me the right stars for the exact time, 4:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, and I'll put it in the movie.' So that's the one shot that has been changed."
The new 3D version of the film, with the right night sky, is out this week.
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