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James Cameron Options Story About Survivors of Hiroshima

by Ethan Anderton
January 8, 2010

James Cameron - The Last Train from Hiroshima

James Cameron is the "king of the world" yet again as Avatar keeps climbing the box office charts, just recently surpassing Lord of the Rings: Return of the King as the second highest grossing film of all time. Although Cameron has confirmed that there will be a sequel to the revolutionary blockbuster, it looks like his next project could potentially move into the real world as Variety reports he has used his own funding to option Charles Pellegrino's upcoming nonfiction book The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, a compilation of real life accounts from survivors of the two infamous WWII nuclear bombings.

While Variety says he's definitely eyeing this as a potential directing gig, I'm not so sure that this could turn out to be another narrative film. After all, Cameron is no stranger to documentaries, having produced several about the Titanic as well as nature's underwater marvels. Apparently while Cameron was in Japan promoting Avatar, he was able to step away from his busy schedule to meet with Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the last survivors of the devastating United States' bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that effectively ended World War II. Sadly, Mr. Yamaguchi, who was the only survivor to experience the full effects of the explosions at ground zero both times, died this past Monday.

However documentary friendly this story may be, it's still possible that a compelling ensemble narrative could be drawn from this book (not set to hit shelves until January 19th) "which takes place over two days and weaves together eyewitness accounts of the Japanese civilians and American pilots who experience the atomic explosions firsthand." With 30 people known to have fled Hiroshima only to be in time for the bombing in Nagasaki and still survive the blasts, there's plenty of source material to put together one hell of a dramatic and poignant historical film. But as of now, the film has not been set up at 20th Century Fox or even at Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment. So we'll have to wait to see what happens with this project.

Explore tags: Movie News, Opinions

People's Champ

Bring a pillow.
germs

As much as I like J.C., he is only good in small bursts. In fact, he should probably take ten years off now.
http://naviblue.com Naviblue

At least Cameron is revolutionizing the movie industry every time he comes up with something. When he does it, he does it big, unless it's a passion thing like his under water documentary. So I'm glad he works that way instead of being a Michael Bay kinda guy.
http://digaphobia.com/ Mark

Funny that this comes along right now, the only man to survive both blasts died a couple of days ago. He was interviewed in the book.
http://www.bradnewsoftheday.com Brad

James Cameron's big "thing" is nuclear war. I'm glad somebody still finds the subject important enough to bring it to people's mind. The Cold War is over, yet there are still nuclear weapons in the world. Everyone's worried about global warming destroying the earth when our governments got stuff in their tool sheds to destroy the earth many times over. With that said, there are plenty of documentaries on the subject. "White Light, Black Rain" is probably the best one. "Atomic Cafe" and "Trinity and Beyond" are some other good ones, but they focus more on the Cold War instead of what happened in Japan. I wouldn't mind seeing a movie about the subject, but I don't think a documentary could be made that said anything that hasn't been said about the subject already.
Don

I think I should add that AVATAR is currently the 2nd highest grossing film in "worldwide" box office. Movies like TITANIC, PHANTOM MENACE & DARK KNIGHT still earned more money than AVATAR in North American b.o. If you factor in inflation, AVATAR is way below in Domestic Gross. TITANIC, released in 1997, earned more than $900 million in today's dollar. PHANTOM MENACE $623 million, SPIDERMAN $510 million. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
Dr. Gonzo

Revolutionize? Cameron? Give me a break. Avatar contains everything that we've already seen before, including the CGI. The majority of thise designs you can find in videogames like Halo 3 and Bioshock. Avatar was already out-done visually, but unfortunately, low-foreheads in the worldwide audience beg to differ. Cameron has gone so far up his own ass that it's now impossible to find the man who brought us T1/T1 and Aliens.
Cam

Dr. Gonzo, You must be one of those prognasticators that thought Avatar was going to fail......maybe you're the one with his head up his ass? ha, love it!! way to go JC!!
Rodger

Let me see. This will be in 3D with huge CGI. And Sam Worthington as a Jap.
Dr. Doom

Go fuck your self Dr. Gonzo
Herezjonny

Well well mr gonzo getting jelous of mr James cameron are we? Havent got any descent films off your own to make? I wouldnt say my world has changed since the film came out, but it definately brought something new to cinema there is no denying it. Hmm and when you think about it didnt halo pretty much copy everthing from aliens and other sources. You just know that a critizize isnt valid when the word is "It's copying halo" WHY! because it has the same colour scheme! I think I did see a couple of grunts running in the background past sam worthington though...............DR gonzo, Your not really a doctor are you?