James Cameron has denied speculation that he is making a series about the Titan submarine disaster.

It had been reported that the 'Titanic' director had been approached by a streaming network to make a project about the catastrophe on the OceanGate submersible that led to the deaths of five men last month but he has taken to social media to make an emphatic denial.

James wrote on Twitter: "I don't respond to offensive rumours in the media usually, but I need to now. I'm NOT in talks about an OceanGate film, nor will I ever be."

Insiders had claimed that Cameron was seen as the ideal choice for the project after his work on the hit 1997 film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 while actors Matt Damon and Kumail Nanjiani were being eyed for parts in the series.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "The Titan disaster is already being looked at as a major series for one of the world’s biggest streamers — and James is first choice for director.

"It is a subject close to his heart.

"He told the story of the Titanic so compassionately it feels like a natural step for him to take this on.

"Retracing the steps of those on board the Titan is a massive undertaking but there would be a lot of time, money and resources dedicated to it."

James, who has dived to the Titanic's wreckage 30 times, previously described how he had been "struck by the similarity" between the Titan disaster and the tragedy from over a century ago.

The 68-year-old director said: "Many people in the [deep-submergence engineering] community were very concerned about this sub, and a number of you know of the top players in the community even wrote letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and needed to be certified and so on.

"I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night. And many people died as a result."