It was almost 15 years ago that two movie forces collided.


Bill Mechanic, a Michigan State University English grad, wasn't accustomed to controversy and attention. James Cameron was.


There was shouting, stomping, storming out. Hollywood history wobbled.


Then it all worked out; Mechanic chose not to scuttle "Titanic." Now these two are back together:


• Cameron's "Avatar" has nine Oscar nominations, including best movie and best director.


• Mechanic is co-producing the Oscar telecast and his "Coraline" is up for best animated feature.


He and Adam Shankman have planned an overhaul, with two hosts (Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin), no nominated-song performances, some dance and some silliness.


And this is the year that reunites those old "Titanic" foes.


Mechanic has never been the domineering type, Paula Prisi wrote in "Titanic and the Making of James Cameron" (1998, Newmarket). "A low-key guy, soft-spoken and bespectacled, Mechanic was easy for some to write off."


He's been married 35 years to his MSU sweetheart; this is not the Hollywood norm.


Cameron is his opposite - tall (6-foot-2), talkative, easy to notice. "He's very creative and he works hard," said Roger Corman, his first boss (and an honorary Oscar winner this year).


After leaping from Corman quickies to "Aliens" and "Terminator," Cameron was ready for "Titanic," given a $110-million budget. As the costs doubled, the confrontation neared.


Mechanic had led Disney's home-video business, in eight years boosting its annual take from $30 million to $3 billion. He became head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, inheriting the "Titanic" project.


That's when he drove to the "Titanic" set to talk budget. Cameron fumed, then walked out. In "James Cameron" (Renaissance, 2000), Marc Shaprio quotes Mechanic: "It was my lowest point. He told me where to go. He walked off. Would he come back? Would we ever finish?"


Mechanic could have scuttled the film; he didn't, he told an East Lansing Film Festival audience in 1998, for two reasons: Cameron had already shot great scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet; more importantly, Cameron had apologized and returned to work.


"Titanic" made a fortune; "Avatar" made more. That's important now, because Oscar ratings tend to rise and fall with the popularity of the key films.


When "Titanic" won in 1998, the Oscar telecast had its biggest audience, 55 million viewers. When "No Country For Old Men" won in 2008, it had only 32 million. And now ...


Well, now Cameron has another movie. Mechanic's first Oscar telecast could do well.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010303080004