Can Hollywood Save the Gulf?

It's been over fifty days since the Gulf-based oil drilling platform, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded and unleashed an oil leak which has been pumping out tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. British Petroleum (BP), the company who had contracted the platform to drill for oil and is being held accountable for the mishap, has been attempting to stymie the flow of oil for nearly two months with limited success. They tried capping the oil leak, they tried cutting the pipe and so far everything they have tried has failed. Oil slicks, tar balls, and the like have been washing up on shores as far as Florida. And if the gulfstream is any indicator, we could see oil washing up along the east coast in the not too distant future.

So what can be done? BP is trying but obviously they aren't succeeding. The federal and state governments have tried to intercede as well but the obvious problem is that they drank the Kool-Aid and believed the oil companies when they said that they had contingency plans in place in the event of an unexpected oil spill. I think it's safe to say that that was a bit of wishful thinking. The military is stepping in now as well but really, with them being spread so thin across the globe, is it really right (or fair) to expect them to do so much more for our country than they already are? So what are the people living along the Gulf Coast supposed to do? Well apparently turning to Hollywood isn't out of the realm of possibility. In the past few weeks I've heard of at least two Hollywood big shots planning on doing more than just telethons or making large donations to charity (for tax purposes). I suppose having expertise in making the impossible possible in the movies gives rise to the belief that perhaps they can do so in real life as well.

I first heard about Kevin Costner and his brother a few weeks ago. They are due to go before Congress sometime soon. Apparently the two developed a system shortly after the Exxon Valdez spill a few years ago and have been working on it on their own for just such an emergency. Basically it is a large centrifuge which will ingest tainted seawater and then spit out cleaned seawater. Now from what early reports indicate, tests have been successful and the system has worked to a limited degree so perhaps Kevin Costner will be able to take on a new name for himself. Rather than being Dances with Wolves he can be Cleans Up Oil Spills. There are those inevitable cynics and naysayers out there who wonder what an 'actor' like Costner will be able to do but I say unto them, at least he and his brother are trying to do something; at their own expense no less!

Then there's the self-proclaimed 'King of the World'... no not Leonardo DiCaprio but James Cameron. Some say that there could hardly be a worse choice from Hollywood to come in a step up with potential ideas. I mean sure, perhaps he had a mildly anti-military establishment message in "Avatar" but that aside he's actually had quite a deal of experience in dealing with extreme depth underwater situations. Cameron directed "The Abyss" which dealt with underwater oil rigs as one aspect of the complex story. He then directed "Titanic" and with the help of his engineer brother, managed to construct cameras that filmed the actual Titanic wreckage in stunning clarity for the first time in decades. The challenge there was working thousands of feet below the surface where robots and steady hands are a must. Not only that, but Cameron returned to the Titanic numerous times more in an effort to get more footage of the great ship. That being said, perhaps it isn't so far-fetched to believe that he could find a solution for stopping the oil leak in the Gulf.

But to me, I think the real reason there is hope in people like Costner and Cameron (and their brothers) is the fact that perhaps everyone currently involved in the spill clean up has realized that they are lacking the one thing that could help them come up with a solution and that one thing is imagination. Imagination is what helped Costner and Cameron create some unique cinematic worlds replete with conceivable technology and science that made the impossible seem possible. I suppose the assumption isn't a bad one and perhaps it's just the 'shot in the arm' needed to find a solution. One can only hope.