Hollywood director James Cameron is exploring a world as alien as the one in his movie "Avatar." Cameron is attempting to descend to the deepest place on Earth later this month.

On Wednesday, James Cameron dived five miles in the New Britain Trench off Papua New Guinea and broke by a mile the world depth record set by a Japanese submersible. This achievement is only a prelude to Cameron's next challenge: this month, Cameron plans to dive seven miles to the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench of the Pacific Ocean, an alien world that has only been visited once before by a two-man U.S. Navy team in 1960. He plans to spend six hours in the undersea world filming the bizarre sea creatures inhabiting the deep.

The director famous for such blockbuster hits like "Avatar" and "Titanic" said he wasn't frightened by the challenges posed by diving that far down.

"Certainly not nervous or scared during the dive," Cameron told The Associated Press in a ship-to-shore phone interview. "You tend to be a little apprehensive ahead of the dive about what could go wrong. When you are actually on the dive you have to trust the engineering was done right."

There is a reason for Cameron to be worried since two people have died in a submersible. He is using a one-man, 12-ton lime green sub that he helped design in Australia. So far the sub called DEEPSEA CHALLENGER has outdone other submersibles in ferrying people in the deep sea's crushing pressure. For the ground-breaking attempt in the Marianas Trench Cameron is partnering with the National Geographic Society where he holds the title of explorer-in-residence.

"The deep trenches are the last unexplored frontier on our planet, with scientific riches enough to fill a hundred years of exploration," Cameron said in an earlier statement.

Cameron has made 72-deep sea submersible dives. He will collect samples for research in biology, microbiology, astrobiology, marine geology and geophysics. The public will be able to follow Cameron's expedition at www.deepseachallenge.com. If the project is successful there will be two documentary films that Cameron will release for wide-screen theaters and for a National Geographic TV special.