James Cameron to direct a Hiroshima atomic bomb movie before ‘Avatar 4’

‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ (James Cameron, 2022) breaks box office records and ‘Avatar 3’ (James Cameron, 2024) is in the process of post-production, but the filmmaker does not rest and it has been announced that James Cameron will direct a film about the atomic bomb of Hiroshima before ‘Avatar 4’, will it be a response to Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’?

As confirmed LA Times, James Cameron will adapt ‘The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back’, a book by Charles R. Pellegrino which tells in detail, from the perspective of the survivors, the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II.

In 2010, the director visited and interviewed Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only known survivor who was present during both bombings and began preparing the film, production halted after Yamaguchi’s death that same year.

Focused on carrying out the 4 sequels to ‘Avatar’ (James Cameron, 2009), the project was parked along with other promised titlessuch as the canceled adaptation of Spider-Man and the live action version of ‘Alita: Battle Angel’, which he finally produced as an effects testing ground for ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ and which premiered in 2019 with Robert Rodriguez as director.

“We live in a more precarious world than we thought“, Cameron notes. “I think the Hiroshima film would be as timely as ever, if not more. It reminds people what these weapons really do when used against human targets.”

With the war in Ukraine and the rise of nationalism as an excuse, the truth is that Cameron’s project almost coincides in time with ‘Oppenheimer’, the Christopher Nolan film in which Cillian Murphy will play the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, developer of the atomic bomb.

If we review all of James Cameron’s films from worst to best, we remember that we are talking about the master who filmed ‘Terminator’ (1984), gave us the best possible sequel with xenomorphs in ‘Aliens: The Return’ (1986), led science friendly fiction to the seabed with ‘Abyss’ (1989), he was responsible for the absolutely unbeatable ‘Terminator 2: The Last Judgment’ (1991), he directed the last great action movie of the 80s and 90s with ‘Risky Lies’ (1994 ) and swept the box office with the unforgettable ‘Titanic’ (1997). He is capable of everything.

But before this story about the massacre of Japanese peoples we will see ‘Avatar 3’ (2024) and eventually ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘Avatar 5’ will hit theaters.. Although its release dates planned by Disney pointed to 2026 and 2028, this announced “break” to shoot a new project could make Pandora fans have to wait a little longer.