by James Cameron said he “wouldn’t change a frame” of his Oscar-winning film Titanic before the 25th anniversary of its release.
The multi-award-winning director said that throughout his long career he had learned not to “aware of himself” and that, given the chance, he would “probably make the same damn movie now.”
It comes before a special theatrical re-release of the critically acclaimed film, which was first released in 1997.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as doomed lovers Jack and Rose, Titanic garnered multiple Oscar nominations and awards in 1998.
Asked if he would change anything about the film more than two decades later, Cameron told the PA news agency: “Why would I change a frame?
“We got 14 Academy Award nominations. We had 11 wins, we made more money than any movie in history. We continue to make a lot of money with it.
“I don’t think I’m smarter now than I was then, (in fact) I’ve probably lost a few brain cells since then.”
He continued: “I think I’ve learned over the years, artistically, not to question yourself.
“That is a snapshot of who you were and what you thought and believed at the time. And what I discover looking back on all my films, and there aren’t that many. I haven’t changed that much.
“I still believe in the same things that I believed back then.
“If someone, you know, dropped the Titanic book on my desk and said ‘make a movie of that’, I’d probably make the same damn movie now that I did back then.”
The remastered version of Titanic will be released in 4K 3D theaters on February 10.
Cameron said that he and producer Jon Landau “had nothing to prove” with the film’s second theatrical re-release, but that it was a “fun social experiment”.
“I feel like it’s all a bonus at this point. It’s all icing. So, you know, we have nothing to prove. We really don’t have anything to say that hasn’t been said,” he told PA.
“I think it’s just a fun social experiment to watch. You know, how much Titanic means and in the spirit of the times: we know it meant a lot 10 years ago when we relaunched it.
“Is there still that kind of interest or have people moved? Or does it still have that kind of meaning to them?
He added: “It’s a theatrical experience, right? It is a kind of guarantee. In life there are not too many guarantees, but there is a guarantee that you will cry. Let’s face it.”
Cameron said that an exact remake of his exact story, that of Jack and Rose, would be “silly” and “silly”, but that he would “never rule it out”.
“I’m still alive, the moment I die, people can do what they want.
“Titanic…exists as a historical event and anyone can access it and tell their own version.
“A new version of the exact story of Jack and Rose? It would be pretty silly.
“But you know, they waited until Hitchcock died to remake Psycho from the same script, so anything is possible in this entertainment business.”
Cameron’s latest blockbuster, Avatar: The Way Of Water, also garnered multiple Oscar nominations this year, including the coveted best picture.
Last month, he and Jon Landau, who produced Titanic and Avatar, were honored at a celebration in Los Angeles, where they placed their hands and feet in cement outside the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
