James Cameron reportedly planning to direct a Hiroshima movie

James Cameron might finally lead his long-standing plan to fruition. The ace director and current box office favorite recently told Los Angeles Times that he still intends to make a film on The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, a 2010 book by Charles R. Pellegrino.

To note, Cameron had expressed his wish to turn the controversial piece into a feature when it was first published. He and Pellegrino had also met the book’s focal character, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a month before his death in 2010.

Yamaguchi, a marine engineer, miraculously survived both the Nagasaki and Hiroshima atomic bombings during World War II. However, the film, over time, got stalled but The Terminator helmer hasn’t given up on it yet.

While talking to the Los Angeles Times recently, James Cameron, sitting atop a net worth of $720 million, shared that his intention to make a Hiroshima and Nagasaki movie still stands.

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“Would be as timely as ever”: James Cameron on his Hiroshima film

In a conversation with Jordan Riefe of the LA Times, Cameron revealed that a Hiroshima film based on The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back remains his pet project even more than a decade of the book’s release.

Referring to the Ukraine-Russia war and resurgent nationalism, he reasoned why the movie will be relevant in today’s times. Cameron said:

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

A Hiroshima film, admittedly, is in sync with the film techniques and styles James Cameron is noted for. Almost all of Cameron's movies highlight the constant tiff between nature, humanity and intelligent machines, the greed of corporate and the rich, with strong female characters and romantic subplots carrying forward the plot.

This might be the theme of the director’s big undertaking as well once it starts rolling.

However, the Canadian filmmaker won’t be able to chronicle the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings anytime soon, as he is currently busy with Avatar 3, the next part in the critically and commercially acclaimed franchise.

Currently, the second part, Avatar: The Way of Water, has emerged as a smasher at the box office. The James Cameron-directorial has earned $2.245 billion (and counting) against a budget of $350–460 million. His Titanic also earned well upon its re-release on February 10, 2023.

For now, if you are interested in brushing up on your Hiroshima-Nagasaki knowledge, head to Netflix and other platforms to stream some of the best movies/documentaries made on the disaster, such as White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007), Greatest Events of WWII in Colour (2019), and Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), among others.