Merrick here...
Astrophysicist extraordinaire Neil deGrasse Tyson - currently prepping a television revisitation Carl Sagan's COSMOS alongside Seth MacFarlane - has apparently taken James Cameron to school regarding an inaccuracy in Cameron's TITANIC movie. The picture was re-released in 3D today to commemorate April 15's 100th anniversary of the incident.
Per THIS piece in the Telegraph, Cameron reveals...
“Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen. And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in. So I said ‘All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I’ll put it in the movie.’"
The change, it seems, is among the very few (perhaps the only?) physical alteration made to this new issuance of TITANIC beyond its 3D conversion.
For my money, Tyson is easily the closest person we have right now to the unequalable Sagan in terms of his ability to illustrate and communicate astronomical concepts both effectively and poignantly. I love the guy, so...as nerdy as this particular story admittedly is...the notion of Tyson snarking at Cameron puts a smile on my face.
Last I heard, Tyson's COSMOS - with which Sagan widow and collaborator Ann Druyan is also associated - is targeting a 2013 airdate. More as we know more.
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