'Titanic' director says 3-D could save the movies

Canadian born director James Cameron, whose Titanicis one of the most popular films ever made, says moviemakers should be making more 3-D films.

Hollywood has to give filmgoers an experience in theatre they can't get anywhere else, he says.

The 3-D film could be that experience, said Cameron, speaking to the National Association of Broadcasters' Digital Cinema Summit in Las Vegas earlier this week.

Filmmakers have to think big to keep the industry alive, he said. Box office revenues have been slipping for several years as people stay home to watch movies on DVD and video.

The Motion Picture Association of America reported box office revenueworldwide fell 5.6 per cent in 2005 alone.

Cameron urged filmmakers to abandon plans to rush films right to video to make more money, referring to a technique that directors such as StevenSoderbergh aretrying. Instead they should use today's better technology to improve the movie-going experience.

Cameron has made several 3-D IMAX films, including Aliens of the Deep, and is working on Battle Angel and Project 880 in 3-D. He said he'd consider creating a 3-D experience of Titanic.

George Lucas is about to re-issue the first Star Wars in 3-D, and Peter Jackson is thinking about doing the same with King Kong, Cameron said.

Sophisticated cameras that enable directors to view shots on location in 3-D have made shooting three-dimensional major motion pictures easier, though 3-D movies are 10 to 15 per cent more expensive to produce.

Cameron said the spread of digital cinema, which is expected to catch on over the next two years, makes it possible to offer more 3-D movies.

Cameron made an impassioned appeal to filmmakers to save the "big screen" experience for filmgoers, saying he would never make his films for an iPod or cell phone.

"I'm not going to make movies for people to watch on their cellphones. To me that's an abomination," he said.