Neil deGrasse Tyson Got James Cameron To CHANGE One Thing In ‘TITANIC 3D’

I’ve heard Neil deGrasse Tyson rail against an inaccuracy in Titanic  several times in my travels. His ability to pick up things like the patterns of the stars in the sky in a movie  is considerably bad ass, and he has leveraged that into several rants on accuracy. I just never expected his rants  to turn into changes.

Slashfilm:

Aside from the addition of 3D, this week’s rerelease of  James Cameron‘s  Titanicpromises to be just as you remembered – unless, perhaps, you’re a bit of an astronomy geek. After prodding from astrophysicist  Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director has made one small edit to his 1997 film concerning the star formation during the sinking of the ship. While most filmmakers probably wouldn’t concern themselves with such a seemingly minor detail, Cameron’s famed perfectionism compelled him to make the change. Read more after the jump.

The scene in question sees Rose (Kate Winslet) reclining on a piece of driftwood while gazing up at the sky. According to  Mashable, Tyson first sent Cameron an email years ago in which he noted that the star field she was looking at was incorrect for the night of April 15, 1912 at 4:20 AM, and brought the issue up repeatedly as the two ran into each other over the years. Finally, Cameron’s team asked Tyson to send over an accurate sky map for the date and time to be used in a 10th anniversary director’s cut version of  Titanic. The updated star formation will be seen in the new 3D rerelease of the film as well.

Cameron  described  Tyson’s original message “quite snarky,” but conceded that the scientist had a point. “With my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in,” Cameron acknowledged. “So I said, ‘All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I’ll put it in the movie.’

The legend that is NdGT continues to swell.