James Cameron, director of not just one but the two highest grossing box office films in the world, ‘Titanic’ (1997) and ‘Avatar’ (2009) has revealed that he intends to convert his drama romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into a 3D feature (like Avatar) for a April 2012 release, in time for the 100th anniversary of the ship’s fateful voyage from Southampton, England.

The director showed everyone last year what a film created in 3D could look like and expressed his displeasure towards ‘The Clash of the Titans’ (directed by Louis Leterrier) from earlier this year and of it’s poor 2D to 3D conversation-
“They ignore the fact that we natively authored the film (Avatar) in 3-D, and decide that what we accomplished in several years of production could be done in an eight week conversion.”

The film, which on initial release garnered international acclaim, pretty much launched the careers of two of Hollywood’s best known stars and became the biggest grossing film with just over $1.8 billion at the box office. This was only beaten last year by another Cameron film, ‘Avatar’ starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana which made a little over $2.7 billion. (This is being followed up by Avatar: The Special Edition with around eight minutes of extra 3D scenes set in Pandora, due for release this year!)

‘Titanic’ follows Rose DeWitt Bukate (Winslet) as she travelled on RMS Titanic and her love story with the drifter, Jack Dawson (DiCaprio). The three hour epic captured the imaginations of audiences all over the world and the heartbreaking tale of love and survival is often cited as one of the greatest films.

So at this point, two points can be discussed. First, with two years for a conversion, do you think that Cameron will be able to take ‘Titanic’ and successfully make it 3D, creating a product/remake that is successful in its own right and does not scar the name the film has made for itself. Secondly, and personally more importantly, the concept of 3D; despite films being released in 3D in recent years (due to conversion) and as Cameron showed, being made in 3D, I still ask the question about what this technology does for the film world. Is it still a gimmick, a way for studios to make that extra buck (is that what is happening here?) or is there another, more transcendent level of cinematography and entertainment made?