OPEN WATER - OPEN WATER DIRECTORS SURVIVE TSUNAMI

Married OPEN WATER movie-makers CHRIS KENTIS and LAURA LAU have joined PETRA NEMKOVA and JET LI on the list of celebrity tsunami survivors.

The couple - who rose to prominence last year (04) when their indie tale of two scuba divers stranded in shark infested waters became a surprise box office hit - were visiting the resort island of Phuket in Thailand when the killer wave struck on 26 December (04).

Fortunately, Kentis managed to escape his hotel room unharmed while Lau and the pair's seven-year-old daughter SABRINA were forced to climb up a bamboo ladder to safety after they were blocked inside an internet cafe on the second floor.

Kentis says, "I heard people yelling, 'Run, run!'" I looked behind me and I thought, 'This is what happens in a movie when there's a tidal wave.' You could hear the rumbling and this wave was coming right at us."

The giant tidal wave, triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean, has so far claimed nearly 150,000 lives in 11 countries, including India, Thailand and Indonesia.