THE HANS HASS FIFTY FATHOMS AWARD
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thousands of divers at the show, more so than the
Hollywood crowd he spent time with.
Among the headline speakers at the event
were Ernie Brooks, recipient of the first Hans
Hass Award, Hans and Lotte’s long-time American
friend Stanton Waterman, the award’s designer
Wyland, author and technical diving experts
Bret Gilliam and John Chatterton, and Richie
Kohler of TV’s Wreck Detectives.
Later, James joined the speakers and staff at the
after-party where he was able to discuss diving,
not Hollywood, with those who had helped make
the evening so special – particularly Maria Hults,
Bob Rickie and Armand and JoAnn Zigahn of the
Beneath the Sea management team. Back at his
Los Angeles HQ, James reconfigured his office to
centrally display the Hans Hass Award.
The Russian MIRs were deployed again in
James’ 2004 film Aliens of the Deep. James
journeyed to some of the Earth’s deepest, most
extreme and little-known environments in search
of strange creatures. It is worth observing the
detail in this movie, because what he discovered
appears in what would become the world’s
biggest movie box office hit a few years later.
Aliens of the Deep was the result of expeditions
to several hydrothermal vent sites in the Atlantic
and the Pacific. These are violent volcanic regions
where new topography
is literally being born and
where the interaction
between ocean and molten
rock creates plumes of
super-heated, chemicallycharged water that serve
as oases for animals unlike
anything ever seen before.
05
Six-foot tall worms with blood04 James and Hans
red plumes and no stomach,
Hass, New York, 2006
blind white crabs, and a
05 The highest-grossing
movie in world history
biomass of shrimp capable of
with box office receipts
“seeing” heat all compete to
of $2,788,000,000
find just the right location in
the flow of the super-heated, life-giving water.
With this material, James approached his next
major film project. Adapting creatures from the
deep ocean into creatures from outer space, he
became director, writer, producer and editor
of Avatar, which took almost 10 years to make.
Released in 2009, it was a landmark for 3D film,
and incorporated computer-generated life forms
inspired by deep ocean life. Avatar won three
Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography
and Best Visual Effects. At time of writing, Avatar
is the highest grossing movie in world history with
box office receipts of $2,788,000,000.
James is currently working
on a series of sequels to
Avatar, which include
developing an ocean for
the planet Pandora
Always preparing for the next adventure,
James then planned to visit the deepest place on
Earth, the Mariana Trench. Working with some
team members from earlier movie projects, he
developed the single-seat Deepsea Challenger
submersible. On March 26, 2012, he became only
the third person in history to reach the bottom
of the Challenger Deep, at nearly 11 kilometres.
Deepsea Challenge 3D, a movie of the dive, was
released in 2014.
James continues to push his career envelope
and is presently working on a series of sequels to
Avatar, which include developing an ocean for the
planet Pandora.
On April 14, 2016, during CinemaCon, James
announced four upcoming sequels to the Avatar
franchise. James said each of the four sequels
can stand alone, but will together create a saga.
His goal is to release Avatar 2 during the holiday
season of 2018, then new films in 2020, 2022
and 2023.
His adventure continues. SDOP