234    INT. NUMA HEADQUARTERS – DAY                                                                     234

 

            This is an elaborate assembly room.  Like a small theatre.  Press conference in progress.  Sandecker is at the

            mike.  Thirty REPORTERS.  In the B.G. we SEE a side view diagram of the Titanic, showing the long gash

            in her hull.  Sandecker is as smooth as a snake-oil salesman.  Seagram, Kemper and Nicholson sit near the

            back of the room.

 

REPORTER #1

                                                                        Why do it?  It’s sixty-five years

                                                                        since she sank.  Why raise her

now?

 

SANDECKER

                                                                        We’re testing our equipment and

                                                                        our personnel.  We’ve never tackled

a job like this and we feel it’s important

to see if we can do it.

 

REPORTER #2

                                                                        Byzanium.  That’s a material most

                                                                        of us have never heard of.  Can

                                                                        you tell us something about it?

 

SANDECKER

                                                                        I’d be glad to if I could, but I

                                                                        only know what I read in our

                                                                        scientific reports.  They say that

                                                                        byzanium is a little-known mineral.

                                                                        As far as we can tell there is

                                                                        absolutely none in existence in

                                                                        the world today.

 

REPORTER #3

                                                                        After all this time won’t the

                                                                        Titanic be rusted away to nothing?

 

Back to the Alternated/Deleted/Extended Scenes Page