While it takes James Cameron years to make a movie, it seems new versions of films he’s already released are on the horizon. For a while he’s been talking about converting Titanic to 3D, and now it seems he’s firming up his plans and wants to release the movie in spring 2012, to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the ship’s ill-fated voyage.
USA Today spoke to him after he filmed The Black Eyed Peas concert in Times Squares in 3D on Wednesday, and got him to dish the dirt. However we was keen to point out that to convert an old film to 3D properly takes between six months and a year, and he didn’t seem too impressed with the automated process that’s allowing Warner Bros to turn Clash Of The Titans 3D in only eight weeks, saying, “If you use some automated process or some cost-effective process for that type of programming its going to look like crap. It’s like colorization looked like crap.”
While Cameron hinted to USA Today about a possible extended cut of Avatar coming to 3D Blu-ray in the autumn, THR is reporting we may be able to see it sooner than that, as Fox is thinking about bringing a longer version to cinemas this summer. The reason is that last weekend Alice In Wonderland took all the 3D screens, and as a result the studio feels they may have missed out on making another couple hundred millions, which they might be able to recoup with an extended cut release later this year.
Cameron apparently has 40 minutes of extra footage that didn’t make the original version, however a bigger issue is to do with IMAX. The longest an analogue IMAX film can run is 170 minutes, meaning that those venues would be cut out of any re-release if the director adds back in more than 10 minutes of extra footage.
However whatever they decide, a 2D version of the theatrical cut should be coming to DVD and Blu-ray in the next few months.