James Cameron announced he will finally settle the longstanding Titanic debate to rest in an upcoming television special.
As reported by The Toronto Sun, the Avatar director told Postmedia, "We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie and we're going to do a little special on it that comes out in February." To be precise, scientists recruited two stunt people with the same body mass as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to test the controversial theory.
A Long-Standing Gripe With Titanic
"We tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive," the Titanic filmmaker revealed. Since its release in 1997, many fans have speculated that there was enough room on the floating door for both Jack and Rose. However, only Rose remained on the door, while Jack froze to death in the frigid waters of the Atlantic.
In addition to Cameron's National Geographic special, the hit series MythBusters also experimented with the idea 10 years ago. Unlike the Avatar director's findings, cohost Jamie Hyneman believes both Jack and Rose could have survived on the door if they'd "MacGyvered her life jacket." Despite the 25-year-long rally for Jack's life, Cameron stresses the importance of sacrifice in Titanic and that DiCaprio's character "needed to die."
Alongside the scientific special, Titanic will also receive a 3D 4K re-release to commemorate the film's 25th anniversary in early 2023. In 2012, Titanic returned to theaters to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the original ship. Its re-release led the iconic film to become the second film to reach $2 billion at the box office twice.
Since Titanic catapulted DiCaprio's status as a teen heartthrob, Cameron remained active in the film industry. The director's sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, had a successful opening. However, Cameron previously revealed that the film would need to become the third or fourth highest-grossing of all time to regain its budget. The sequel's 2009 predecessor earned over $2.9 billion at the global box office.
Despite Way of Water recently hitting theaters, Cameron is already mapping out the next installments. To create the fourth and fifth films, the second and third movies must perform well. "Scripts are already written, everything's designed. So just add water," he said.
Titanic is available to stream on Pluto TV. Avatar: The Way of Water is playing in theaters now.
Source: The Toronto Sun