James Cameron Visits Moscow to Promote Russian Launch of 'Titanic 3D' (Video)

MOSCOW -- The growing importance of the Russian film market was underscored this week when director James Cameron and producer Jon Landua visited Moscow to promote the new Titanic 3D, which opens on April 5. When the original version of Titanic opened in Russia in February 1998, at a time when the theatrical distribution of Hollywood movies in Russia was still in its formative stages, the film grossed $5 million -- an impressive figure for that era. The re-release is expected to be even more lucrative.

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Speaking at a news conference on March 29, Cameron, who completed a record-breaking dive into the Mariana Trench just four days earlier, acknowledged his debt to Russian scientists. “Doctor Anatoly Sagalevitch, who is the head of the research submersible program here in Russia and his team became my other family,” he said. “Over the years since I started working with him…in 1995, I’ve made many many dives in Mir submersibles.”

“And the sense of what I'm doing now with research submersibles comes directly from that initial time when I wanted to explore Titanic,” he went on to say. “There's a direct connection in a funny way: I left my expedition to come here to talk about Titanic, but Titanic was made because I wanted to do that exploration then.”

PHOTOS: 'Titanic 3D' Film Stills

Cameron predicted that the new version of Titanic will prove that 3D is about more than just enhancing a movie’s visual effects. "Most movies are about two hours long. You get to the two hour mark in Titanic and the ship hasn't even hit the iceberg yet. So what's happening for the first two hours, it's just human interaction, it's just an intimate story of a relationship developing,” he explained. “Well, when I see the film in 3D now, I see how the 3D puts me right there with those characters and I feel the emotions strongly as a result of that, so I think that people are going to find out that 3D really enhances everything.”

Cameron also said he is willing to share the specifics of Titanic’s $18 million 4K conversion with Russian directors. “I would be happy to talk to any Russian filmmaker and say, ‘Ok, here are all of mistakes that we made early on. Don't you make those mistakes.'”

In addition to Titanic’s re-launch in Russia, next week will also mark the unveiling of THR's new monthly, The Hollywood Reporter: Russian Edition, which will be unveiled April 6.