Cameron: The day the 9/11 terrorists murdered 3,000 people in New York and Washington, I was just diving to the Titanic. Twelve hours later, I came back to our mothership. I was presumably the last man in the Western Hemisphere to learn about what had happened. For a while, I thought: Why are we diving into history while new parts are made, while the very ground we are standing on is shaking? But, some days later, I realized that (the film) "Titanic" gave us help in interpreting the new disaster, in exploring the feelings of loss and anger. Why do people watch "Titanic"? It's partly because they can cry. Loss is a part of our life; it's about love and death and about death partly defining love. And these are things we all have to cope with.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/titanic-director-james-cameron-speaks-about-lasting-fascination-of-ship-a-826121.html
SPIEGEL: Shouldn't you do a movie about that?
Cameron: The day the 9/11 terrorists murdered 3,000 people in New York and Washington, I was just diving to the Titanic. Twelve hours later, I came back to our mothership. I was presumably the last man in the Western Hemisphere to learn about what had happened. For a while, I thought: Why are we diving into history while new parts are made, while the very ground we are standing on is shaking? But, some days later, I realized that (the film) "Titanic" gave us help in interpreting the new disaster, in exploring the feelings of loss and anger. Why do people watch "Titanic"? It's partly because they can cry. Loss is a part of our life; it's about love and death and about death partly defining love. And these are things we all have to cope with.