A 20 Oct 1979 LAT article stated that Marble Arch Productions president, Martin Starger, and partner, Lord Lew Grade, purchased film rights for $450,000 in mid-1976.
       A 22 Dec 1976 HR news item stated that writer-producer-director Stanley Kramer had been hired to co-write the screenplay with screenwriter Adam Kennedy. According to the 20 Oct 1979 LAT, writers Arnold Schulman, Eric Hughes, and Millard Kaufman were brought on to polish and revise the script. Although the filmmakers considered hiring another screenwriter, Kennedy, who had generated three earlier drafts, returned to write the final screenplay.
       During the 1976 Operation Sail event that celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, Kramer, with the help of six cameras and a crew, shot footage of the parade of ships in New York Harbor and the Hudson River. Through optical effects, the hope was to insert the Titanic in the midst of the pageantry for the film’s memorable climax. However, a brief in the 29 Dec 1977 DV announced that Kramer withdrew from the project after a year, due to “creative differences.”
       According to a 26 Feb 1980 HR article, actor James Stewart read Clive Cussler’s source novel in 1978 while vacationing at a secluded ranch in Mexico, and recommended it to producer William Frye. However, as Frye was aware of Kramer’s involvement, he did not pursue the project. Later, the film’s director, Jerry Jameson, called Frye to tell him that Kramer had left the production, and Frye met with Starger. Two weeks later, he was hired as producer. A 15 Jun 1980 LAHExam reported that Frye later observed that work on the production felt more like “doing three movies at the same time.” A complete underwater unit filmed in Malta, while a separate unit worked in England out of Pinewood Studios with painters, artisans, and matte work. Another American crew worked in Los Angeles, and San Diego, CA, Washington, D. C., and Alaska.
       A 28 Mar 1977 LAHExam “Letter to the Editor” announced that actor Charles Bronson would star in the picture but he does not appear in the film. According to a brief in the 21 Nov 1979 Var, thirty-one employees worked as background actors in the newsroom of the Washington Star newspaper, which was used for filming.
       A 30 Nov 1979 HR production chart and the 20 Oct 1979 LAT announced that principal photography began 16 Oct 1979 with additional locations in Greece, and England. A six-month schedule was divided into twelve-weeks of first-unit photography, and an additional twelve-weeks to accommodate second-unit photography with models and miniatures. Although the 29 Dec 1977 DV stated the film’s budget was $14 million, costs would escalate to $40 million, according to a brief in the 30 Jul 1980 HR.
       The 20 Oct 1979 LAT reported that the production began shooting on Stage 3 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, CA. According to production notes in AMPAS library files, interiors of three submersibles were filmed at the Studio City location. The sets corresponded to floating vessels filmed in San Diego Bay, and radio-articulated miniatures filmed in a tank in Malta. In addition, a natural cave in the Hollywood Hills was disguised to look like a byzanium mine in the film’s opening sequence by liberally spreading twenty-three tons of shaved ice on tunnels coated in white and clear plastic. Afterward, piping hot steam hoses were brought in to melt the ice. Additional outdoor scenes were filmed in San Diego at U. S. Naval facilities. The navy provided aircraft, vessels, personnel and equipment that included “a flotilla of seven working ships.” Of these, the U. S. S. Denver was used as the command center for the Titanic salvage operation, and C. S. Longlines, a ship used to lay telephone cable in international waters, was used to portray the Mikhail Kurkov, a Russian spy ship. Other U.S. locations included Rockwell International in Anaheim, CA, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D. C. Scenes were also filmed aboard a luxury yacht on the Potomac River, at Andrews Airforce Base and the National Archives in Maryland. The Wilson glacier in Anchorage, AL, doubled as the remote island on which the byzanium mine was located.
       A 16 Jan 1980 Var news item stated that the production finished two weeks of location filming in Athens, Greece. Articles in the 26 Feb 1980 HR and Jul 1980 Los Angeles magazine reported that Athenai, an abandoned American luxury liner in a ship graveyard in Port of Athens was towed to sea every morning by tugboats for certain sequences, where the raised Titanic was needed. The lookalike ship only had two smokestacks instead of four, and was half the length of Titanic, but the right camera angles and sharp editing minimized the differences. For the sequence in which the raised ship arrived in New York City, the cast and numerous Greek background actors wore American fashions on the docks in Athens when the cost of towing the ship to the real location proved to be prohibitive.
       A Jun 1980 Millimeter article reported that a sequence in which submersibles repaired Titanic’s hull was accomplished by outfitting the underwater equipment with a diver equivalent manipulator system (DEMS), provided by General Electric. Additional advanced electronic equipment was leased at a cost of $500,000 from Hewlett-Packard of California and the U. S. Navy.
       The 26 Feb 1980 HR and Millimeter articles stated that the film’s second unit ran into problems using the nine million-gallon tank built in Malta at a cost of $2 million. Three remote-controlled submersibles that had tested well in Marineland aquarium located in Palos Verdes, CA, jammed due to the higher salt content in Malta’s water, and adjustments had to be made. When radio signaling was not possible, articulation was accomplished with the help of invisible wires, according to production notes.
       Action sequences aboard the raised Titanic were also filmed, using a ten-ton, fifty-five foot replica of the real luxury liner, built from original blueprints of the Titanic, provided by Belfast, Ireland’s, Harland and Wolff Shipyards, according to the 20 Oct 1979 LAT and Los Angeles. A 6 Aug 1980 LAT article reported that the raising of the prop ship was accomplished using cables attached to its sides pulled by a crane arm, as well as an elaborate catapult that propelled the ten-ton model to the surface.
       In the 15 Jun 1980 LAHExam, Frye indicated that the picture would have to earn between $70 million and $75 million to break even. However, a news item in the 20 Jan 1982 Var reported that the movie’s receipts were just under $7 million upon its release in the United Kingdom, and much less in foreign territories, although exact figures were not made public at the time.

      End credits state: “Filmed at Studio Center, Hollywood, and on locations in the United States, Greece, England, and at Malta Film Facilities, Malta.” The following acknowledgments appear in end credits: “Producers wish to acknowledge the contribution of the following companies or organizations in the making of this picture: Amatek, Straza Division Equipment, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Klein Associates, Sony Video Products, Spectra Physics, Rockwell International, Lockheed Ocean Laboratory, Enline Camera Systems, Hill Production Service, Transoceanic Cable Ship Company, Meridian House International, Oceanic Navigation Research Society and Charles Ira Sachs, Transatlantic Research, Sandecker’s Office provided by National Trust for Historical Preservation.”