Avatar Sequel: Cameron to Film 7 Miles Below Ocean's Surface

Only two people have ever visited the deepest point in the ocean. If James Cameron has his way, that list is about to get a lot longer.

Cameron has reportedly commissioned a special submarine that can go down seven miles below the ocean's surface as part of his plans for a sequel to Avatar. The movie will be set in the oceans of the film's fictional alien planet of Pandora.

According to the Mail Online the sub will be made of "high-tech, man-made composite materials and powered by electric motors, which will be capable of surviving the tremendous pressures at a depth of seven miles from which he will shoot 3D footage that may be incorporated in Avatar's sequel."

Until now, only two explorers have made it down to the lowest depth of the ocean. On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, used a so-called `bathyscaphe' submarine to set their record. Since then, nobody has gotten that close. How Cameron is planning to film at that depth is still not clear. As the Mail notes, sunlight can't penetrate that far and everything is pitch black - not to mention freezing cold. Swimming around at that depth without protection is an automatic death sentence.

"At these pressures the body's many air-filled cavities would implode. Despite this there is, amazingly, life. Piccard and Walsh, peering through their tiny porthole and playing the Trieste's external electric lamps onto the seabed through the crystal-clear water, saw several creatures, including a flounder-like flatfish and some shrimps. Oddly, the fish had eyes, even though there was no light with which to see. The presence of clearly healthy marine animals shows that at these depths some oxygen must be present in the water - something thought unlikely before the expedition.

Who knows? If they're around for the filming, maybe they can snag a cameo when Cameron's cameras start rolling?