Martin Campbell to Direct THE DIVE

20th Century Fox has set Casino Royale director Martin Campbell to helm the diving story The Dive. The film was previously set up as a directing vehicle for James Cameron (that guy really loves water), but he’s a bit busy with two sequels to Avatar and an actual diving project of his own. The film tells the tragic true story of freediver Francisco “Pipin” Ferraras and his wife Audrey Mestre. Freediving is the insane sport of diving without any artificial oxygen whatsoever; you take a deep breath and start swimming. Mestre died during an attempt to better her world record of 557.7 feet.

Deadline reports that Campbell is attached to direct with J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling) tapped to write the script. While Green Lantern was a pretty substantial misfire, I’m still a big fan of Campbell’s work and I think he’s a good fit for The Dive. He recently directed the ABC pilot The Last Resort and is poised to helm the conspiracy drama Umbra from screenwriter Paul Haggis (Crash).