Everybody knows about the classic 1990s movie 'Titanic,' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. What fewer people know is that various studios had tried to bring the story of the Titanic to the big screen before, and that most of those attempts proved to be as doomed as the vessel itself. 'Raise the Titanic' was ITC Entertainment's attempt to put a new spin on the legend of the ship, and came out only eight years before the Celine Dion-soundtracked epic.
From the start, the plot of the film sounded strange. Instead of focusing on the plight of the passengers, it revolved around an attempt to raise the stricken ship to access a precious mineral contained within the cargo - a mineral that would give supremacy to either the U.S. or Russia at the height of the Cold War. The Cold War was coming to an end, people weren't interested in this strange blend of reality and fiction, and barely $7m was made back against a budget of $40m. The studio was forced into the sale of its assets.