Jon Landau Opens Up About How Close Titanic Came to “Sinking” Behind the Scenes

Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer behind Titanic, has shared new behind-the-scenes stories about how close the film came to falling apart before it became one of the biggest movies of all time.

The stories come from his new book, The Bigger Picture, which will be published by Hyperion Avenue on November 4.

In the book, Landau talks about the massive challenges he and director James Cameron faced while trying to make Titanic.

One of the hardest parts, he says, was finding a place to build the ship and film the movie. They needed somewhere big enough to build large sets and control the water, weather, and light. The search took a year and included several countries.

At one point, Landau thought they had found the right location in Poland, near the Gdańsk shipyard, but it didn’t work out. The final choice turned out to be much further south—in Rosarito, Mexico.

The area was better known for sunshine than ice, but Landau saw potential. “If you used your imagination,” he writes, “you could almost see it — the build that would be the ship and the ice-filled sea.”

He even sketched the whole setup on a napkin, imagining where every piece of the ship and set would go. The challenge then became convincing Cameron to visit. But there was a problem: Cameron refused to go without a green light from the studio, while the studio wouldn’t approve the movie until the location was confirmed. It was a standstill.

Eventually, Fox agreed, and Cameron made the trip. When he saw the model ship at the site, his first reaction wasn’t positive. Landau remembers Cameron yelling, “Landau! What were you thinking? There are lights over there! There’s a hill over there! How the hell is this going to be the middle of the ocean?” But after moving the model slightly, Cameron’s mood shifted completely. “Landau! It’s perfect! It’s the only place we can make the movie!” he shouted.

That decision marked the start of what would become one of the most expensive productions in Hollywood history. Costs nearly doubled during filming, and rumors quickly spread that the project was out of control. Landau writes about the pressure and the bad buzz that surrounded the movie before its release. Some in the media compared Titanic to other costly flops like Waterworld and Cleopatra.

Even inside the studio, tension was high. Landau says people at Fox were worried about the movie’s length, effects, and performances. He and Cameron even ran into Rupert Murdoch, who owned Fox at the time, during postproduction.

Landau joked, “I guess we’re two of your least favorite people in the world right now.” Murdoch replied, “I’ll wait until I see the movie, then I’ll let you know.”

The turning point came during a test screening at the Mall of America in Minnesota. The audience had no idea what film they were about to watch. At first, the silence in the theater made everyone on the production team panic. Landau recalls thinking, “Oh my God! We’re dead.” But soon, the crowd got caught up in the film, reacting emotionally to the story.

Afterward, they found out why those first minutes were so quiet, the audience had been told they were going to see Great Expectations, another Fox release. “They thought they were watching a trailer for Titanic,” Landau writes. Once they realized it was the full movie, the mood completely changed.

From near-disaster to box office legend, Titanic went on to become a global hit, winning 11 Oscars and making over $2 billion worldwide.

Landau’s new book, The Bigger Picture, offers more personal stories like these, showing just how close one of Hollywood’s greatest successes came to sinking before it ever left port.

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