Do We Really Need Another Titanic Film? Too Bad, We’re Getting One Anyways

This story comes from a press release that just landed in my inbox. As it says in the release, “Peak Time Entertainment, the venture between ‘Rush Hour” producer Arthur Sarkissian and China’s Bruno Wu, is to chart a new course with “Titanic Code.”

The release goes on to tell a bit more about the film’s story, which “focuses on a conspiracy plot behind the ship’s sinking.” It’s currently set to start filming in early 2017 with an eye at a release in either Christmas 2017 or January 2018.

If the title sounds like some bean counter combined the titles of Titanic and The Da Vinci Code, there’s a good reason for that. I want to point you to this paragraph from the release:

Peak Time reports enduring global interest in the sinking of the iconic passenger ship in 1912 while on its maiden commercial voyage. “As a heartfelt cinematic icon, the word ‘Titanic’ remains one of the most searched words on Google worldwide, with over 300 million daily searches by more than 50 million fans and followers,” the company said.

While I completely respect this from a marketing perspective, it makes me want to puke from an artistic standpoint. Making a film that will most assuredly suck with the sole justification being keyword searches is exactly why the movie industry is in the toilet and the best creative storytelling is now happening on television and streaming services.