"Why build the Titanic? Why go to the moon? Why did Hong Kong and Macau stand up and become part of China? Because they could. And they can. And we can build the Titanic." That right there? That is the spectacular logic behind Australian billionaire Clive Palmer's crazy (like a fox?) idea to build an exact replica of the Titanic. Which, in case you had forgotten, is really happening. We love this story so much.
Tickets for the 2016 maiden voyage of the Titanic II, which will try and repeat the original's ill-fated trip from Southampton to New York City, aren't on sale yet. But that doesn't mean that Palmer and his buddies aren't already promoting this fate-tempting ocean liner hard. Especially in China. Because, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Titanic is still huge there. Well, the movie is. Seriously:
Celine Dion was invited this year to sing “My Heart Will Go On”-the film’s theme song-at the country’s annual Lunar New Year gala, which is televised by CCTV and typically attracts some 700 million viewers. Last year, its 3D re-release racked up $67 million during its first weekend opening in China.
It also helps that the Titanic redux is being built in China (which has apparently caused some "microbloggers" to scoff). And so, Palmer and co. this weekend held a gala to promote the boat—which Palmer says 40,000 people have expressed interest in riding for her maiden voyage (35 percent of them from China). The Titanic II will be able to accommodate 2,400 guests when she's all done.
Wanna be the next unsinkable Molly Brown? Better start saving. According to promoters "several customers have said they’d be willing to pay as much as $1 million for a seat on the maiden voyage." Us? We're just going to keep trying to come up with non-iceberg ways that this boat can live up to its, er, promise. Disabled, filled with feces and slowly towed back to shore is already taken. So is being run aground. Meteor?
