This week I got a tantalising glimpse of a huge sheet of paper, crammed with tiny type, that contained all the Titanic-related special events planned for next year (that we know of… so far!). Concerts, services, displays, plays, lightshows, openings, commemorations, dramas, songs, orchestras, exhibitions… you name it! It is going to be a year like we’ve never known or seen in Northern Ireland – we’re at the centre of a story that just seems to get more famous, more captivating, more fascinating as time goes on.

Just one way in which the centenary is being marked is with a host of new or spruced-up film and TV versions of the story – with loads to look forward to.  One of them – a digitally-restored and remastered version of the seminal 1957 A Night To Remember – was premiered in Belfast a few weeks ago and will no-doubt be making its way onto crystal-clear Blu-Ray in time for the anniversary.

I’m especially intrigued by a TV series called Titanic – Blood and Steel, which will tell Belfast’s story – a 12-part mini-series concentrating not on the maiden voyage and the iceberg, but on the Belfast men who hammered together the largest man-made moving object in the world, right on the ground I walk every day.  A high profile-ish cast (Derek Jacobi, Neve Campbell), a massive budget, and a fascinating story with plenty of time to tell it.  Could be amazing, could be a hatchet job… (click on the link and see if it sounds like the old “the rivets were rubbish!”/”the Titanic-era shipyards were a hive of sectarianism!” stories are going to get another airing…)

And of course there has to be yet another version of the story of the sinking: this time scripted by Mr Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, starring Linus Roache and Toby Jones, and unfolding over 4 episodes on ITV.  No expense spared on the production of this one, and hopes are high that Julian Fellowes will recapture some of the upstairs/downstairs magic that made Downton such a huge hit, while a 2011 special-effects crew tackling the recreation of the sinking might even surpass the tremendous visuals of Cameron’s 1997 film.

Speaking of which, Leo and Kate won’t be left out of the party either: the movie’s being re-released next April with every scene painstakingly re-mastered in 3D by Cameron himself, who insists that this is a proper job and not a cheap gimmick.  A cash-in, or a glorious opportunity to wallow in Dion-themed multimillion-dollar emotion all over again (with stuff poking out of the screen)?  Decide for yourself with a glimpse of the trailer with an intro from the man himself (warning: contains traces of Celine):