Winslet, Cameron at 3D premiere of ‘Titanic’

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Director James Cameron and actress Kate Winslet pose at the ‘Titanic 3D’ UKfilm premiere at the Royal Albert Hall. AP photo

“Titanic” director James Cameron hit the red carpet in London on March 27 for the launch of the Oscar-winning film’s 3D version, as the 100th anniversary of the legendary ship’s sinking approaches.

The US filmmaker jetted into the British capital fresh from his 11.2 kilometer submarine dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the ocean’s deepest point.

He was joined on the red carpet by the film’s British star Kate Winslet and US actor Billy Zane for the premiere at the Royal Albert Hall.

“The 3D enriches all of Titanic’s most thrilling moments and its most emotional moments,” Cameron said on the red carpet.

“More than ever, you feel you’re right there going through all the jeopardy that Jack and Rose go through,” he added, referring to the film’s two main characters, played by Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Diving the wreck 12 times

Cameron dived the wreck 12 times before filming the original, saying it “had a huge impact” on the end result.

“We shot the real wreck -- we didn’t just build models of it,” he explained.

He said he had told set-builders: “It’s got to be exactly like you went back in a time machine and you were on the deck of the Titanic.”

In “Titanic”, Winslet played socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater alongside DiCaprio as male lead Jack Dawson, in a dramatization of the real-life maritime disaster that claimed more than 1,000 lives.

The new release comes 15 years after the original. The film entered into movie history when it picked up 11 Oscars.

“It is a long time ago and it also feels like yesterday,” Winslet told Sky News. “It completely changed my life and it gave me the opportunity to make creative choices.

“It’s really great to celebrate it all over again. It’s a very different experience, you really do feel as though you’re on the boat, the water rushing round you,” she added.

The Oscar-winning actress admitted that viewing her younger self would be “weird.”

“It is a long time ago and it also feels like yesterday. It completely changed my life and gave me the opportunity to make creative choices, said Winslet.