MNN - Mother Nature Network

When the calendar flips to from March to April in a few weeks, expect the coverage surrounding the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic to saturate the media like it's 1912. 

 

The doomed luxury liner sank on the evening of April 15 on her maiden voyage after a collision with an iceberg. More than 1,500 people perished in the icy Atlantic in what remains one of the most tragic peacetime maritime disasters ever recorded. 

 

A century later, James Cameron has teamed up with the National Geographic Channel to host a two-hour special titled "Titanic: The Final World." The director has long been fascinated with the disaster, culminating with his record-breaking box office hit "Titanic" in 1997. After "Avatar" (another Cameron film), it remains one of the top-grossing films of all-time. 

 

"I wanted to dive the wreck more than I wanted to make the movie," Cameron says in a release. "Diving the wreck was my way into the story."

 

During the television event, set on an empty sound stage in the shadow of a massive 42-foot replica of the Titanic, Cameron will invite engineers, naval architects, artists and historians to "solve the lingering mysteries of the ship's sinking."

 

"An investigation of this magnitude has never been attempted before, and some of the revelations may alter the fundamental interpretation of what exactly happened to the Titanic on April 14, 1912," the release states.

 

"Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron" premieres on April 8 from 8-10 p.m. EST on the National Geographic Channel. Check out a trailer below.