BOULDER, Colo. -- The quickest way to get to Mars is still by dedicating government funding, which requires getting the public interested in the quest toward Mars, movie director James Cameron said Saturday. Cameron, who directed "Titanic," and laughingly described himself as a mars-"wacko," spoke at the second annual International Mars Society conference.

"We can't wait for a John F. Kennedy to come along and whip Congress into a lather. We're going to have to build this thing up from the grass roots by infecting the public with Mars fever," Cameron said.

"To do it we have to galvanize the public, make it tangible for them and ignite their passion. Then the next time a congressman is tempted to make political hay by ripping into the NASA budget, he or she may have to think twice."

Cameron said he is hoping to foster public enthusiasm for Mars exploration with two upcoming films. During the next year and a half, Cameron will be producing a 5-hour TV mini-series and an IMAX 3-D film about the first human journey to Mars. He is also writing an accompanying novel.

"Our goal is to emphasize two ideas. The first: that the technical challenge is enormous, an order of magnitude beyond Apollo. And two: that we're basically ready. We don't need some pie-in-the-sky breakthrough in advanced propulsion to make this thing possible."

Cameron said his goal is to make people see the goal of going to Mars as a fantasy humans can achieve in the near future, and make them eager to see the live footage from Mars that would inevitably accompany the first human landing on the surface of another planet.

What if Mars is a bore?

While admitting that it sounded a bit heretical, Cameron said many of the movies related to space, including his own "Aliens," actually have done a disservice to space exploration. "By showing a commonplace abundance of intelligent humanoid aliens from all over the galaxy and interstellar planet-hopping in a matter of days or hours, these fantasies have raised the expectations of the youthful public to absurd heights which can never be fulfilled by the realities of space travel," he said. On the real Mars there really isn't much to do.

Cameron assured his audience that his upcoming films, scheduled to be released in 2001, will be nothing if not realistic. No alien ruins, no hyperspace time travel, no glitz, just realistic cold, relentless environment, with humans trying to survive and explore.

The movies will dramatize the extreme difficulties and triumphs of a humans-to-Mars mission, Cameron said. "I want the audience to feel that this is something that is just about to happen and be able to project themselves into it as if it's real and it's now."