The Big Read: James Cameron

James Cameron gives two thumbs-up as he emerges from the Deepsea Challenger submersible after his successful solo dive to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. Photo / National Geographic

Bringing you our favourite features from 2014. If you missed them the first time around, now’s the perfect time to catch up. And remember to come back tomorrow for the next instalment.

James Cameron talks to Russell Baillie about being king of the undersea world.

There are, of course, lots of things to ask James Cameron. Like, how are those next Avatar movies going (scroll down to read more)? Do you really, really, really like New Zealand? What are you wearing to go trick-or-treating with your kids?

Some of those we'll get to later in our phone conversation to his Californian office.

But the first question that occurs after seeing James Cameron's Deep Sea Challenge 3D - a documentary about how the director built his own luminous green one-man submarine then piloted it solo to the deepest part of the world's ocean, 11,000m below - is, well, ... are you mad?

"Well, thank you. Coming from a Kiwi, I see that as a compliment. No, not all."

Director James Cameron. Photo / Mark Thiessen, National Geographic

Yes, Cameron has done plenty of underwater docos before. He's been down to his beloved Titanic (a mere 3800m) many times and the Bismark (5700m) in Russian-made Mir submersibles.

And his passion for the deep has manifested itself in his movies - most obviously in The Abyss and Titanic, and, less obviously, in the immersive underwater-inspired look of Avatar's world of Pandora, a planet where humans require breathing apparatus.

The National Geographic-backed JCDSC follows Cameron on a mission to repeat the feat of US Navy submersible the Trieste, which went to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench - the "Challenger Deep" - with two crew on board in 1960. No one has been that deep since.

That meant building something that would withstand the 16000psi, and bring back Cameron and his footage in one piece.

Cameron has been a scuba diver since he was 16. He started doing deep submersible diving in the mid 90s. Going to 11,000m was just the next stage. "I never saw it as a stunt. I saw it as a natural progression of work that had been done before." ...

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- nzherald.co.nz