James Horner was the heart of 'Titanic': Cameron

Los Angeles: Having worked with composer James Horner on three big Hollywood projects, his death came as a personal loss for James Cameron who was looking forward to reteam with the musician again on ‘Avatar’ sequels.

Horner died in a plane crash on Monday. He was 61.

Cameron and Horner, who first worked together on 1986's ‘Aliens’, teamed up on iconic films ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’.

"He was a very young 61 and raring to go on that. I'm not thinking about the problem of replacing James right now. I'm just feeling really, really sad that I won't experience that teamwork again. Both of us were really looking forward to doing it again," Cameron told the Entertainment Weekly while paying tribute to Horner.

While they started off on a bad start in ‘Aliens’, Cameron said when he was making ‘Titanic’ he approached Horner again as he wanted the best for the movie. Horner went on to win two Oscars for the period romance.

"He was the heart of the film, absolutely. And you could say that literally, too, because he wrote the music for the song, 'My Heart Will Go On,' which was so much of the pop-culture propulsion of the film. The score album is still to this day the highest grossing instrumental soundtrack album of all time," Cameron recalled.

The director said he had met Horner just six weeks ago for a live performance of ‘Titanic’ in Royal Albert Hall in London.

"It was a really good reunion. Myself and Jon Landau, my coproducer, had flown over just to pay homage to James. Jon and I wound up going up to the podium to take a bow at the end, but James made us do it. I resisted because I wanted it to be all his evening. We were there only to honor him, quite consciously. And to say, 'Look at what this incredible artist created'," Cameron said.