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After 20+ years of CGI blue giants in Avatar, James Cameron is going hyper-realistic to adapt the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
The Avatar and Terminator filmmaker is abandoning sci-fi for his next project, which he describes as "the most challenging film I [will] ever make"
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Most people think of James Cameron as the fantasy filmmaker behind the awesome vistas of the Avatar movies, the Terminator franchise, or even late 20th century action features like Alien or True Lies. Many are aware of his work on the groundbreaking (and wildly successful) Titanic, but despite that movie’s roots in reality, Cameron’s fascination with science and history — he’s directed and produced a number of documentaries for movies and television — is often overlooked… something that might change with his next project, which takes him from the alien frontiers of the Avatar franchise to the true life horrors of Hiroshima.
Cameron is on board to direct an adaptation of Charles Pellegrino’s non-fiction title Ghosts of Hiroshima, which combines years of research and interviews with survivors of the 1945 bombing of the Japanese city during World War II to transform what happened from cold fact into a story that puts the reader at ground zero — literally.
“This might be the most challenging film I ever make,” Cameron told DiscussingFilm. “I don’t 100% have my strategy fully in place [right now] for how I want to see it, for how I want to shield people from the horror, but still be honest. Also, for how I can find some kind of poetry, beauty, or spiritual epiphany in it somehow, which I know must be there. It’s there in every human story. So, it’s going to be very challenging. I might not even be up to the task, but that never stopped me before.”
The director said that he was “actually afraid of this movie in a way,” adding, “I want to show you what it was like. You’re just there. You’re a witness to history, you’re a witness to what really happened, and we can do that. I’m going to shoot it in 3D, if need be. I’m going to make it as real for you as I can.”
Acknowledging the sensitivity of the material, the director said, “No Japanese filmmaker has stood up to make this film. No American filmmaker has stood up to make this film. There have been movies that kind of skirt around it, but nobody has gone straight at it head-on. You know, maybe I’m just dumb enough to be the guy to do it?”
Ghosts of Hiroshima is available in bookstores now. Cameron’s next movie, Avatar: Fire & Ash, will be in theaters December 19.
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