Academy-award-winning director James Cameron, famous for his blockbuster films like Avatar and Titanic on Monday celebrated his 56th birthday on the bottom of the world’s largest freshwater Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Cameron, who arrived here on Sunday is known for his passion for underwater driving and was invited by his Russian friend Anatoly Sagalevich, who had helped the film director in the under water shooting of Titanic in 1997.
Sagalevich heads the Science Academy’s deep diving research programme of Mir-1 and Mir-2 mini submarines. “James Cameron dove to the bottom of Lake Baikal in the south near Cape Tolsty on the Mir-1 piloted by Anatoly Sagalevich,” a spokesman for the Lake Baikal preservation foundation was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
He said Cameron had already submerged over 200 meters during the last three hours and the crew plans to explore the shoreline. Scientists have so far fixed the maximum depth of the lake at 1. 68 km, and each dive on a submersible costs some $64,800.
Cameron is joined on board the Mir-1 submersible by an Australian explorer, Michael MacDowell and Maria Wilhelm the author of the book that inspired 3-D blockbuster Avatar.