Director James Cameron has announced that he wants to take a break from his Avatar franchise to make the ‘uncompromising’ Last Train From Hiroshima.
Early last year, James Cameron was talking about making a movie about the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, stating that it was something that he’d love to do if a window of opportunity ever opened up amid the ceaseless stream of Avatar films he is directing.
With two Avatar films already out and three more in various states of production, Cameron clearly has his hands full in the world of Pandora, but that hasn’t stopped him from announcing that he will be tackling a Hiroshima film, just as soon as time allows him to.
According to Deadline, the Piranha II director has not only purchased the rights to Charles Pellegrino’s 2015 book, Last Train From Hiroshima, but he’s also snapped up the rights to the author’s forthcoming follow-up, Ghosts Of Hiroshima and plans to adapt the novels into an ‘“uncompromising theatrical film.”
That film will be called Last Train From Hiroshima – and if it happens, it’ll be the director’s first non-Avatar film since 1997’s Titanic. We’ve heard Cameron talk up plans for other projects before, only for them to fail to come to fruition, but this one does feel different, with Cameron revealing that he feels compelled to make this project.
“It’s a subject that I’ve wanted to do a film about, that I’ve been wrestling with how to do it, over the years,” he said. “I met Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just days before he died. He was in the hospital. He was handing the baton of his personal story to us, so I have to do it. I can’t turn away from it.”
When Cameron’s steely resolve kicks in, wonderful things can happen, and we just hope he can find room in his schedule to get this one up and running as soon as possible.
Pellegrino’s book covers the devastating effects of the atomic bomb, from its detonation on the 6th August 1945 to the suffering left behind in its wake.
Avatar 5 isn’t set to arrive until 2031 and will likely mark the end of Cameron’s role as director of the franchise. However, we’re hoping that the filmmaker will find a window between now and then to make his Hiroshima film. Cross everything and we’ll let you know when we hear more.
