Cameron is an expert on ROVs. He and his brother have built some of the most advanced ROVs. I’d describe him as an inventor who directs movies. He wouldn’t be involved in designing a 3D camera system for a Mars rover if he was just a dilettante.
You are putting far too much faith in Hollywood “publicity” BS.
In reality the guy went down on a Russian sub, he was told to sit in a corner and keep his mouth shut and fer ogsky’s sake not to touch a damn thing while the actual deepwater experts actually ran the operation.
As for networking, specialised industries are small worlds. I’d bet that the top ROV guys all know one another to a far greater degree than some film director.
As for him being involved in designing a 3D camera system for Mars rover, or the “most advanced ROV’s” you do understand gaffa that when a news story says:
That means Cameron has his name associated with the project for publicity and finance raising ability and comes along to the workshop for the photo ops and press conferences while Malin’s real tech guys wait for him to piss off so they can get on with the actual work, don’t you?
Cavemike, it’s a publicity move because a large percentage of the public (a) think that the movies are the real world and (b) don’t give any credit to someone who isn’t a star they’ve heard of. Also, Cameron’s name being associated with this new committee mean that it has got about ten times the airplay it would have if it had comprised entirely people who no one had heard of but who knew ten times as much. Which suits the government’s need to be seen to be doing something very nicely.
Sure! BP can’t fix it, God can’t fix it - better call in “The King of the World!”
Hmmm…what other film directors can we call in when disaster strikes?
Quentin Tarantino.
Don’t call William Shatner.
I disagree. Putting a ‘lightweight’ on the task force reduces the gravitas of the task force and is poor publicity. It opens the administration up to another angle of criticism and it reinforces the fear that the administration is not taking the spill seriously enough.
I also disagree with your assertion that a large number of people think movies are ‘real’.
Can’t hurt… unless, of course, he yells “Cut!” at the wrong time.
Btw, Halliburton has more experience and expertise than anyone in the world cementing wells and they do also have Boots & Coots as a subsidiary. Trust me, they’re already deeply involved in this endeavor as is most every other industry player. They all want this one done yesterday.
Obligatory xkcd link.
Beat me to it UncleRojelio
Actually, it’s a pretty good choice. Hasn’t James Cameron been working a lot recently with Bob Ballard?
Obviously, Cameron isn’t being brought in because of his extensive oil rig experience (that’s why they have Bruce Willis and Michael Bay), but because he is one of the foremost experts on filming under deep water with ROVs. I would imagine that have a clear veiw of what is going on down there could only be an asset.
My very thought.
This very thread shows you are wrong. Look at all the people in this thread who think a movie director who used the services of expert ROV technicians is highly qualified in ROV’s.
Right…his publicist must have put Cameron’s name on this patent.
As a counter-point, consider the very title of the thread and the OP where the decision is likened to an Onion article.
Hey, why not Bob Ballard from the Woods Hall Oceanographic Institute?
Not bad, Wikipedia sez I remembered most of that line from Seaquest DSV pretty well 
So yeah, him and Michael Ironside.
Probably a typo but “Hole”, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
(Or am I missing something? I checked the link but didn’t see anything about a Woods Hall.)
It is indeed Wood’s Hole. Lovely town.
Well, it’s likely the film director had a bigger budget to spend designing these ROVs. More to the point, the “guys who actually work on underwater wells” have a terrible record of unrelenting failure, incapacity, and not-getting-it-done in this case, so I wouldn’t hold them up as particular exemplars of competence here.
For example, in the congressional testimony, they admitted they restarted drilling with 270 failure modes showing on the blowout preventer.
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