THE SHIP OF DREAMS

The king of the world!

James Cameron was the big winner at Oscar night in Los Angeles in March 1998. His 1997 movie was named Best Picture, winning ten other Oscars, too. As Cameron held up the Oscar, he repeated a famous line from the movie: "I'm the king of the world!" He later joked that "size does matter."

It was a dream that Cameron had for a long time. He loved history and he was always interested in the story of the Titanic. Cameron's early movies, for example, The Terminator and Aliens were full of action. Titanic had plenty of action, too, but the heart of the movie was a love story. Cameron chose two young actors for this.

Leonardo DiCaprio played Jack Dawson. Born in 1974, DiCaprio was first seen on TV at the age of five. He became famous in the 1990s with movies like What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and This Boy's Life. Work on Cameron's Titanic was long and difficult for DiCaprio.

Kate Winslet played Jack's lover, Rose. The British actress was also born in 1974. Winslet was not interested in small parts in Hollywood movies. She wanted to act in the theater. But soon Kate was in the biggest movie that was ever made.

While Cameron was making the movie, not everybody was so sure about its success. It took a long time to make the movie. As it continued, the cost went up and up. It finally cost between $185,000,000 and $200,000,000. The movie's opening was changed from the summer of 1997 to December.

Many newspapers and magazines wrote stories about the movie like "Titanic Sinks."

Titanic was more expensive than any other movie:

· For the first part, Cameron filmed the real Titanic at the Bottom of the ocean. He had to go down to the ship in a submarine twelve times.

· Cameron filmed most of the movie on a model that was almost as big as the Titanic. He wanted everything on the ship to be like the real Titanic. Clothes, furniture, machines— everything had to be exactly right.

Not all newspapers and magazines liked the movie. One called it "dead in the water." But people around the world loved it. The world's most expensive movie became the biggest success. It earned over $1,600,000,000!