Moviemaker James Cameron has confirmed he will bring Titanic back to the big screen in 3D.

The director recently joked about updating the 1997 blockbuster using the same technology, which brought his Oscar-winning epic Avatar to life.

And now he has confirmed he is serious about plans to re-release the historical film in 3D - but the new version won't hit cinemas until 2012, to mark 100 years since the legendary ship sank.

He tells USA Today. "We're targeting spring of 2012 for the release (of a 3D version of Titanic), which is the 100 year anniversary of the sailing of the ship."

Cameron also revealed he will be putting Avatar back into movie theatres by releasing a director's cut later this year.

He adds, "The wildcard is that we might be re-releasing the movie this fall. It's kind of gotten stomped out (in theatres since the release) of Alice in Wonderland. The word we're getting back from exhibitors is we probably left a couple of hundred million dollars on the table as a result. The question is the appetite still going to be there after the summer glut of movies. We're going to assess that. We're talking about maybe adding in additional footage and doing something creative."

Avatar made movie history this year by overtaking Titanic as the best-selling international movie release of all time.