Whether we like it or not, there are plenty more Avatar movies on the horizon. Especially in the light of the fact James Cameron has just beaten [checks notes] himself by directing the third highest-grossing film ever in The Way of Water; the honour previously held by the one and only Titanic.
But before he spends another decade or so on Avatar 4 – Avatar 3 is already in the can – James Cameron wants to set aside the time for another history-based passion project that’ll also break the bank, this one about Hiroshima and, unlike Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Oppenheimer featuring an all-star cast led by Cillian Murphy, told from the perspective of the victims.
Based on The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles R. Pellegrino, the adaptation has been on Cameron’s radar since 2010 when the Academy Award-winning filmmaker reportedly visited and interviewed Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only known survivor that was present when atomic bombs were dropped in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Yamaguchi passed away soon after while Cameron would be impeded by his own success. This time, however, it won’t stop the latter from fulfilling his decade-long ambition to give Pellegrino’s book the big screen treatment.
“We live in a more precarious world than we thought we did,” James Cameron told The LA Times, reflecting on the war in Ukraine and resurgent nationalism.
“I think the Hiroshima film would be as timely as ever, if not more so. It reminds people what these weapons really do when they’re used against human targets.”
It’s unclear whether James Cameron’s Hiroshima movie will ever actually become a material reality. Granted, the man isn’t exactly a stranger to taking his sweet time; the first Avatar, for example, was initially penned all the way back in 1994. Although there have been occasions wherein plans eventually went nowhere, i.e. his oddly sexual Spider-Man flick starring Leonardo DiCaprio which (thankfully) fizzled, an earlier version of Robert Rodriguez’s Battle Angel Alita.
As always, I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.
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