James Cameron, the mastermind behind Titanic and Avatar, is setting his sights on a new project. Following the completion of his work on the Avatar franchise, Cameron will adapt Charles Pellegrino’s forthcoming book Ghosts of Hiroshima. This grand endeavour will combine material from this new book as well as Pellegrino’s prior work, Last Train From Hiroshima which was published in 2010.
Due to be published by Blackstone Publishing in 2025, the book will be timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings. Ghosts of Hiroshima describes the true story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the Japanese engineer who was exposed to both bombings in World War II.
Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima city on August 6, 1945, when the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. He then returned to Nagasaki, only to experience another bombing in the subsequent days. These bombings were tragic, they led to presumably 110,000 – 210,000 deaths, leaving a profound mark in history.
Cameron told Deadline, “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 also recalled the time when Yamaguchi invited him to visit him right before his death, asking Cameron to convey his experiences to future generations.
The film will be Cameron’s non-Avatar cinematographic project since the Titanic in 1997. His filmography includes iconic titles such as The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar: The Way of Water.
According to Deadline, the adaptation will be an “uncompromising theatrical film,” given that it will retell the experiences of the survivors and the history of the bombings. Shane Salerno of The Story Factory helped to broker the deal for this project, as per the publication. He has worked with Cameron on several scripts for the Avatar sequels. Pellegrino also collaborated with Cameron by serving as a scientific consultant both in Titanic and Avatar.
This announcement has arrived at a time when there is an increased discourse on stories revolving around the atomic bombings and their impact, especially due to the release of a film by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer, that centred on the construction of nuclear weapons without detailing the damage inflicted on Japan. That’s why Cameron’s project seems to be quite relevant – it narrates historical events from the point of view of regular people affected by it.
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