ONE of Hollywood’s leading directors called yesterday on studios, film-makers and distributors to wake up to the role that 3-D films can play in winning back audiences.

James Cameron, who was showered with Oscars for Titanic and who is directing a science-fiction 3-D film for 20th Century Fox, said that the technology enables cinemas to offer something that home entertainment cannot.

“I want to inspire people to come back to cinemas with an experience they can only have there,” he said. “Theatre owners, exhibitors and distributors should work to bring a sense of showmanship back to the cinema experience. Cinemagoing won’t go away, but it can get eroded. This is a wake-up call. Are we just going to lie down and let change roll over us, or do something about it?”

The latest 3-D technology boasts an unsurpassed clarity, making audiences feel that they are in the picture. Two reels of film go through the projector and fool the brain into merging them and seeing them in 3-D.

Although audiences still have to wear special glasses, advances mean that the eye strain and headaches associated with the green-and-red ones of past decades have been eliminated.

Cameron was speaking to The Times yesterday as Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer, has become the first live-action picture to have segments converted into 3-D.

Both the 2-D and 3-D versions are being released next month. Some 20 minutes of the film have been converted to 3-D, with visual cues — a green glasses symbol appears at the bottom of the screen — to indicate when to don the aids.

On Wednesday night, 450 delegates at a trade conference in Amsterdam were given a preview. They included Dennis Laws, general and technical manager of the Imax cinema in London, which will screen Superman Returns from July 14.

He said: “You felt you were there as part of the action. There are moments when you want to reach out and touch Superman as he whizzes past.”

But Cameron called for films to be shot completely in 3-D: “Superman was shot in 2-D, and then they dimensionalised part of it. I’m not a big fan of the dimensionalising process. If you’re making a film now, just shoot it in 3-D — not as an afterthought.”

The writer, producer and director, who produced hit films such as The Abyss, Aliens and True Lies, broke box-office records with Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. It made £1.1 billion, and won 11 Academy Awards, including an Oscar for Best Director. He would have made that film all in 3-D if he were shooting it today, Cameron said.

Richard Boyd, the head of technical services at the National Film Theatre, described 3-D cinema as “the future”.

• The bfi London IMAX Cinema screens Superman Returns: An IMAX 3D Experience from July 14. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the cinema, online at bfi.org.uk/imax or from the box office: 0870 7872525.

  POPCORN AND . . .

  Sensurround Sound waves augmented screen action. Upset nearby multiscreen audiences

  Smell-O-Vision Machines wafted flower/herb scents at key film moments

  Interactive posters Made by US company with radar sensors to trigger film clips

  Open-air cinema Al fresco screenings in Britain on increase. This summer Stella Artois has first outdoor film festival in Greenwich Park

  Simulation cinema Hydraulic seats threw occupants around to screen action. Audience had to be strapped in