Pioneer Productions Brings Science To Story Of Titanic

Independent producer Pioneer Productions has been commissioned by Channel 4, National Geographic Channel US and Discovery Canada to present the story of 'Titanic' from a new analytical perspective in a drama documentary.
Using drama, documentary and CGI, the film portrays the disaster as a freak accident, the culmination of a chain of improbable circumstances - had any one of them been different the sinking could have been avoided.
It looks at the journey of the 100ft high iceberg as key protagonist, in addition to exploring the moment of collision from the crew's multiple perspectives.
The Titanic was the largest ocean liner ever built: it set sail from Southampton on the night of April 10 1912 on its maiden voyage. Just a few days later it had sunk into the Atlantic, leaving 1,517 dead.
Based on government transcripts, official records and interviews with leading historians and scientists, Pioneer's 'Titanic' will examine the chain of misjudgments, human errors and sheer bad luck that led to the sinking of the vessel.
Parallel to these developments the moment of impact will also be explored with reconstructions from the crow's nest, boiler room, wireless room and underwater.
Jeremy Dear, Head of Development at Pioneer Productions, said: "Everyone thinks of the Titanic disaster as very straightforward - ship hits big lump of ice with inevitable result. But actually this wasn't the case - the iceberg shouldn't have been there; neither should the ship; and had any one of a number of other factors changed or decisions been modified, the Titanic would probably now be sitting in a museum somewhere as the most famous sinking in maritime history."
'Titanic' builds on Pioneer's previous experience with drama-documentary production, such as 'Hindenburg' (C4/ZDF/Smithsonian) which charted the disaster of the airship's final flight in 1937 or 'Krakatoa' (C4/PBS).
Pioneer also has a reputation as specialists in high-end factual programming, using scientific expertise and cutting-edge CGI, with credits including 'Journey to the Edge of the Universe' (NGC/Discovery Canada), 'The Day the Earth was Born' (Channel 4/WGBH) and 'The Wave that Shook the World' (C4).
'Titanic' is a Pioneer production commissioned by Hamish Mykura for Channel 4 and Ann Harbron for Discovery Canada.
The special is executive produced by Stuart Carter, produced by Vicky Matthews and directed by Patrick Reams. 'Titanic' will be distributed by FremantleMedia Enterprises.
(KMcA)