James Cameron said he would not change the “frame” of his Oscar-winning film Titanic, ahead of the 25th anniversary of its release.
The multi-award-winning director said that during his long career he learned not to “second-guess yourself” and, given the chance, “would probably make the same damn movie now”.
It precedes a special theatrical re-release of the critically acclaimed film, first released in 1997.
Jack and Rose stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and Titanic received multiple Oscar nominations and won 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 nominations for the Academy. We got 11 wins, made more money than any movie in history. We continue to make a lot of money with it.
“I don’t think I’m any 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, don’t make up your own mind.
“That’s a picture of who you are and what you thought and believed at that time. And what I find looking back at all my films, and there aren’t many. I haven’t changed that much.
“I still believe the same stuff I believed then.
“If someone, you know, was looking at the Titanic book on my desk and said ‘make that a movie’, I’d probably make the same damn movie now as I did 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 second theatrical re-release of the film, 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 have nothing to say that hasn’t been said,” he told PA.
“I think of it as a fun social experiment to watch. You know how much Titanic still means and in the zeitgeist – we know it meant a lot 10 years ago when we re-released it.
“Is that kind of interest still there or have people moved on? Or does it still have that kind of meaning to them?”
He added: “It’s a theatrical experience, right? It is a form of guarantee. In life there are not too many guarantees, but there is a guarantee that you will cry. Let us face it.”
Cameron said that an exact remake of his exact story, that of Jack and Rose, would be “dumb” and “silly” but that he “couldn’t ever rule it out”.
“I’m still alive, the second I’m dead people can do whatever they want.
“The Titanic is a historical event… and anyone can access that and tell their own version of it.
“A remake of the exact story of Jack and Rose? It would be quite silly.
“But you know, they waited until after Hitchcock died to remake Psycho with the same script so anything is possible in this entertainment business.”
Cameron’s latest blockbuster, Avatar: The Way Of Water, has earned multiple Oscar nominations this year, including best picture.
Last month he and Jon Landau, who produced both Titanic and Avatar, were honored at a celebration in Los Angeles, where they cast their hands and feet in cement outside the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.