James Cameron likes 3D. He spent years developing/inventing cameras in order to facilitate his vision for his first film since 1997’s box-office monster Titanic. That follow-up was Avatar and it toppled Titanic as the highest grossing film ever. Leading up to and following the release of Avatar, Cameron was everywhere trumpeting 3D as the most important thing for movies in the history of things. The 3D trend caught on, and now Cameron is back with that other worldwide hit Titanic, now in 3D.
The director has been working on converting Titanic to 3D for a while, and the film is poised to be rereleased in theaters April 6th, 2012. The post-conversion process has been painstakingly long, but at the international exhibitor event CineEurope Cameron premiered 15 minutes of a 3D converted Titanic. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.
The 15 minutes of footage that Cameron showed to the audience at Amsterdam included the oft-imitated “King of the World!” scene where Leo nearly pushes poor Kate off the tip of the boat due to his ego and fist-pumping. He also showed some footage of the giant engine room. The audience, according to THR, reacted with “whoops, cheers and applause.”
Cameron spoke a bit at the exhibition, emphasizing that the rerelease of Titanic wasn’t just about 3D:
“There is a huge audience that has never seen Titanic on the big screen. This is more about Titanic returning to the theaters than just 3D.”
The director created a 4k digital master of the original 35mm print of the film before the conversion process began, so that the rerelease will be the cleanest and highest quality version of the film in every format (2D included).
Cameron appealed to the international exhibitors by crediting them with Titanic’s success:
“When I showed Titanic here (in 1997) it was a terrible time in my life. I was being excoriated in the press. If you remember at the time, it was the ’3 hour chick flick where everyone knew the ending.’ They were saying ‘I don’t think so’ but the international exhibition community saw something in that reel and they, together with 20th Century Fox, turned Titanic into an international hit.”
In closing, Cameron seems eager to hold as many box-office records as possible, as he alluded to breaking even more:
“Titanic broke all the rules and it broke all the records. Let’s break all the rules again and let’s break all the records again.”
Since Cameron is such a proponent of shooting in 3D as opposed to post-converting, it’ll be interesting to see just how good the new version of Titanic looks. With the director’s perfectionist nature and attention to detail, at least it’ll be really, really pretty when we watch Leo drown in that cold, icy water.
THIS IS 40 Bloopers Show Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segel, Megan Fox and More Cracking Up
13 Images from CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Reveal Food-imals Such as the Hippotatomus, Bananostrich and Fruit Cockatiel
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Comic Prequel STAR TREK COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS Provides New Look at Klingons
First Trailer and Poster for RED 2 Starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich
16 New Images from A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD Featuring Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney and Yuliya Snigir
I cant imagine anyone going to see this! What a waste of time and effort and money! not my mine though.
A Cunt. Thats what he is
i’ll see this again, and big possibility, it will break opening weekend record, then dark knight rises shows up and breaks it again
Seriously?
Its not a film i would consider a 3D movie. A few passing shots of a ship? a cheesy love story? £10+ for the 3D ?
Different strokes for different folks i guess. Chicks of course will lap it up.
this film would probably be AMAZING in 3d, its all about creating the feeling that you are on the ship with them-
if he pulls it off and you have the anxiety that you are on the ship- that will be terrifying.
if he doesn’t, its a waste of effort.
How did Titanic “break all the rules?” It’s a big budget romantic epic using fictional characters in a factual setting. Pretty sure Gone with the Wind did that a long time ago.
Trends changed in the 50 odd years between GWTW and Titanic. He’s simply stating that period romances tend not to gross 1.8 billion these days, or in 1997.
I’ll be seeing this again. Titanic is a fave of mine.
Titanic is not my cup of tea also. I would have preferred Aliens 3D or Terminator 3D instead.
“The 15 minutes of footage that Cameron showed to the audience at Amsterdam included the oft-imitated “King of the World!” scene where Leo nearly pushes poor Kate off the tip of the boat due to his ego and fist-pumping.”
I don’t think Winslet was ever in danger of being knocked off in that scene because she wasn’t in that scene. DiCaprio did that scene with Danny Nucci.
He did the “I’m flying” scene with Winslet.
The imagery in this film is often haunting and moves with long steady cam shots for many scenes as well. I imagine it will translate very well to 3D.
i’m on the “This will look amazing” boat. As people have already said….. there’s plenty sweeping shots of the boat. Boobs. Engine room. But every deck of the boat I have a feeling will have a different feel. As in the shitty deck with the party will feel claustrophobic while the deck will feel vast.
this guy is so fucking greedy
this guy is so f*cking greedy
Who ? Luca$ ? Yes I know.
I’m a big Cameron fan. Seen all his films except this one. Avatar is mediocre but I’ve see worse. It’s well made. Titanic, what I’ve seen of it, is also very high on detail.
I will go see this on the big screen next year. I’ve waited this long
At least Cameron scanned the original 35mm negative into a new digital master at 4k resolution- unlike a certain G. Luca$, who had the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy scanned at a ludicrous 2k resolution for the horrendous 2004 DVD ‘special edition’ versions (the only reason being to have it line up visually with the lower-resolution image of the digital cameras used on Episodes II and III), at least Cameron cares about the quality of his movie’s presentations, unlike a certain bearded recluse who shall remain nameless…
One of the biggest critics of 2D to 3D conversions and miss use of 3D saturating the market doing a 3D conversion to further saturate the market. Tell me I’m not the only one who sees a problem here?
Cameron said that he doesn’t approve of RUSHED 2D to 3D conversions, such as Clash of the Titans which was done in 6 weeks (as a mad money grab for 3D sales). He said that if its to be done properly, it needs to have the directors involvement and take at least a year. This conversion has been done over 2 years or more. So, as far as I can see, all you haters have HEARD of his critical views of 3D conversion, but not actually listened. As for me, i’m excited
It hasn’t been worked on for two years. Trust me. But it does look absolutely beautiful.
Avatar sucks but Titanic is one of the greatest films ever made. I don’t know if I’ll see it in 3D but I would like to see it as the highest grossing film of all time instead of that other piece of crap.
I can’t wait… I am going to spend all of my money on this film… i am talking about 500 dollars… i am going to see it over and over and over and over again… also watch ur language… and i hope to go to the red carpet and shake kate winslets hand
I think he knows what he is doing. This will definitely work, and I know lots of people who would love watching it. I’ll sure invest on Cameronesque 3D [I hate the format though].
Cameron has become an expert at churning out masterpieces. One of the few directors with a flawless oeuvre.
I just can’t wait to see it!! I think I will watch it every day ’til they remove it. Best movie ever!
PS. Avatar sucks
I recently watched my Titanic DVD. I think it is a great movie. Very well done. Everyone is may have there own opinion, but before some of you you get so negative, please first put a trailer of the great movies you created on youtube, so I understand what your high standard movies look like. Can’t wait to see you all top Avatar or Titanic.
What’s next? Is he going to convert “the terminator” in 3D also?!! What a waste of efforts! He could make new movie instead of titanic 3D, its just a new experience, no new ideas are here to learn?