The drama that threatened to ruin Titanic

'Titanic' earned a spot as one of the greatest films of all time, and managed to break nearly all box office records upon its release in 1997.

That reception was a shock and surprise however to many at the time, including those who had worked on the very over-budget and incredibly delayed production, which had been written off by some Hollywood insiders as a guaranteed flop.

Not helping public perception were rumours about the nightmare atmosphere on the set, with feuding executives and a tyrannical director.

In the new Sherry Lansing biography Leading Lady, which will be released on Tuesday, Stephen Galloway of The Hollywood Reporter writes that tensions and tempers reaching a boiling point on the Mexico set with the two studios financing the picture at odds, an overworked crew and Cameron's leading lady admitting to being scared of her director. 

At one point towards the end of the shoot, things were so bad on the Baja, Mexico set of the film that Cameron received a visit from Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman and CEO William Mechanic, with the film being a joint venture between Fox and Lansing's studio, Paramount. 

Photo: Facebook/Titanic

'Production delays grew worse as building the ship took far longer than anticipated. The film’s director of photography was replaced; several cast members came down sick with the flu; and almost everyone cowered at the sight of Cameron, terrified of his temper,' writes Galloway.

'Mechanic was so alarmed that he drove down to Baja, armed with a list of proposed cuts. There he confronted Cameron in the middle of the night.'

Mechanic gave an overview of what happened next in the book.

'Jim exploded. It was 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, and if he’d had a gun in his trailer he would have shot me. The gist of it was: "If you’re so f***ing smart, you direct the picture,' said Mechanic.

He then revealed that Cameron, in classic Hollywood fashion, stormed out of his trailer and ordered his driver out of his chauffeured car before driving off into the night.

 'It was terrible,' said Lansing of the mood towards the end of the shoot. 

'The picture was going over and over. Everybody had written it off: ‘It’s going to be the biggest disaster ever.'

Cameron eventually returned to the set after the argument, rejoining a cast and crew that viewed him as a 'tyrant.'

Kate Winslet also said on multiple occasions that she was 'genuinely frightened of [Cameron].'

The British thespian, who acted her way to an Oscar nomination despite her on-set fears, was lucky enough to have a shoulder to cry on however in Leonardo DiCaprio, who would become one of her closest friends after the two worked together on the epic picture. 

Both Cameron and Winslet have spoken in depth about the difficulties and challenges of shooting the film in the past, while the notoriously tight-lipped DiCaprio has said little of the film that launched him to superstardom. 

Lansing meanwhile said she was in love with the film from the second she got her hands on a script, and did everything in her power to join Fox in helping produce the movie.

'It was a great love story, with an underlying message about female empowerment,' said Lansing, was was immediately drawn to Winslet's character. 

'Rose was strong and feisty from the beginning — she’s an independent woman who breaks with her class to be with the man she loves. People underestimated the strength of those characters and how unconventional they were.'

She then got her chance to jump in and join the Titanic team when Fox was forced to find a second studio to help found the giant financial strain the film was causing, with Paramount winning out in the end.

Lansing quickly grew irritated however with what she viewed as an unreasonable budget plan. 

'I hadn’t produced such an elaborate movie, but I knew it was light by millions of dollars,' said Lansing, who soon began to think that she and the studio had been duped by Fox and put her foot down.

As a result of her complaints, it was agreed that there would be a cap that Paramount would pay, and everything above that number would be absorbed by Fox, who still agreed to split profits.

'We’d never have to pay a dime more, no matter how over-budget the movie went,' explained Lansing.

It proved to be the best deal of her career too after 'Titanic' managed to earn $2.19billion at the worldwide box office.

It also managed to snag a record-tying 11 Oscars after being nominated for 14 awards at the annual ceremony. 

Among those wins was one for Best Original Song, despite Lansing admitting that she was personally not a fan of Celine Dion's ballad 'My Heart Will Go On.'

She said that after hearing it she told Cameron: 'Jim, isn’t this a little corny?

This article was first published on dailymail.co.uk and is republished here with permission.