“Titanic” and “Avatar” producer James Cameron turned 63

Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer who brought James Cameron’s dreams to life by overcoming extreme logistical challenges to bring the Titanic And User image blockbusters to the screen has died. He was 63 years old.

Landau’s son Jamie Landau confirmed his death to The Hollywood ReporterHe died on Friday in Los Angeles after a 16-month battle with cancer, a Disney spokesman said.

As the son of producers – his father was nominated for an Oscar – the passionate Landau produced films such as Honey, I shrunk the kids (1989) and Dick Tracy (1990) before working for about five years as an executive at Fox, where he oversaw the production of Die Hard 2 (1990), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and Cameron’s True Lies (1994).

If Cameron has a problem with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True LiesPeter Chernin, then head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, told him: “Don’t call me, take care of Jon,” Landau recalled in an interview in 2011. He spent four months on location with the director in the Florida Keys.

When Landau decided to leave Fox to return to producing, he said he received offers from three directors to work on their next projects. He chose Cameron, who wanted to make a film codenamed Planet Ice. This would, of course, prove to be Titanic (1997).

Landau oversaw the 100-day construction of Fox Baja Studios, the 40-acre oceanfront facility in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, that featured massive film sets, the world’s largest recording tank, and five sound stages, one of which was about the size of a football field.

He had to rewrite the film’s entire production schedule when it was discovered that construction of the RMS Titanic’s exterior would take two months longer than planned. By now, the film’s original budget had grown from $120 million to over $200 million.

“There was a lot of pressure during filming, post-production and pre-release,” Landau told Los Angeles Times In 1998.

Fox, which co-financed the film with Paramount, “was very tough, but rightly so. And I was the one who, in my opinion, took the brunt of it. It was very difficult because I wanted to please all three masters: the studio, the director and the film. And it was my job to balance that… not to lose sight of that.”

Everything worked out when TitanicReleased on December 19, 1997, it remained at the top of the box office for 15 consecutive weeks and grossed $1.84 billion worldwide in its debut run, easily beating the previous record holder. Jurassic Park (1993). Subsequent releases over the years increased the box office to $2.3 billion. (Read THR(You can find the original review here.)

The love story/disaster epic also won a record-breaking 11 Oscars—Landau and Cameron shared the Best Picture award—and received a record-breaking 14 nominations. At the podium in the Shrine Auditorium on Oscar night, Landau might have set another record for the number of acknowledgements.

User image (2009) brought with it a number of its own impressive obstacles.

Cameron had written a roughly 100-page treatment in 1994, but the visual effects technology to adequately bring the Na’vi inhabitants of Pandora to the screen (at least in Cameron’s mind) didn’t exist. It took the filmmaker, New Zealand’s Weta Digital and others years to accomplish this, and principal photography didn’t begin until 2007.

With an official budget of $237 million – some estimates put it at over $300 million – User imageshot in 3D, premiered in London on December 10, 2009. With an initial box office of 2.7 billion dollars, it surpassed Titanic and became the highest-grossing film of all time (with re-releases, its gross now stands at $2.92 billion). (Here is THR‘s original review.)

Thirteen years later, Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), with its extensive effects, underwater shots, pandemic challenges and $2.3 billion gross. The two User image In total, the two films won four Oscars, while Landau and Cameron were nominated for two more films.

“If one of Cameron’s superpowers is the depth of his concentration, then that concentration is made possible in part by Landau being somewhere nearby, with an AirPod in his ear, while simultaneously having a phone conversation with Burbank about one deadline and a face-to-face conversation with a crew member in Wellington (Weta’s New Zealand home) about another,” Rebecca Keegan wrote for a THR Cover story in 2022.

“I’ve seen his development,” Landau told her of Cameron. “Jim learns from every experience he has. He looks back and says, ‘This worked, this didn’t work, how can I do it better?'”

As Landau was in the middle of that sentence, Keegan wrote, “There was a loud knock on his office door and Cameron came in, Kramer-style. ‘Did he tell you we’re like an old married couple?’ I don’t want to say nice things around him – it goes to his head – but I feel like there’s no problem we can’t solve.”

Landau was born in New York on July 23, 1960. His parents, Ely A. Landau and Edie Landau, owned cinemas in Manhattan, founded the American Film Theater and produced more than a dozen films, including A long day’s journey into the night (1962), The Pawnbroker (1965), The Iceman comes (1973) and The chosen ones (1981).

(In 1971, Ely received an Oscar nomination for the documentary King: A filmed record…from Montgomery to Memphis. After his death in 1993, Edie had a long relationship with actor Martin E. Brooks.)

Landau played football at his high school in the Bronx before moving with his family to the Brentwood neighborhood in LA his junior year. He helped with The chosen ones while attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and after graduating in 1983, returned to New York to work as a production assistant on the set of a television movie of the week, primarily directing traffic.

Once that was done, he was offered the opportunity to do filing work in the accounting department. “I had no interest in accounting and I certainly had no interest in filing, but I said yes,” he noted. “I read everything I submitted. I don’t know if I should have, but I did. I learned (a lot) in those two weeks.”

He then worked as production manager at Beat Street (1984), a breakdance film, and Key exchange (1985), a romantic comedy, and as production manager on F/X (1986), Manhunter (1986) and Looking for the right one (1987).

Landau received his first producer credit on Paramount’s Campus Man (1987), then co-producer of two Disney films, Joe Johnston’s Honey, I shrunk the kids and Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.

In 1989, at just 28 years old, he was hired to oversee physical production at Fox. “I really saw this as a great opportunity to get to know the industry from the inside,” he said.

Landau rose to become Executive Vice President of the studio and also oversaw Home alone (1990), Alien 3 (1992), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) and the Cameron-produced Strange days (1995).

When Cameron saw an early draft of Titanic Landau said he “fell in love with it. It was not just the script, but the idea that this might be the last time an epic, old-fashioned movie is made with hundreds and hundreds of extras – who are not digital.”

Titanic was intended as a one-time job, but Landau soon moved to Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment.

“It was that experience with Jim where we developed a greater mutual respect and bond with each other (when he said), ‘Wait, instead of going off and doing your own thing, why don’t you come to Lightstorm?’ Be a part of it and we’ll do things together. … What better filmmaker could I have who not only makes great films but challenges you every day?”

The gregarious Landau was a great salesman and traveled around the world to promote the potential of User image in 3D to cinema operators. “When we started, we would have been happy if there had been 1,000 cinemas worldwide that could show films in 3D,” he said. “I think in the end there were almost 5,000 screens.”

Later, The path of water would bring moviegoers back to the cinemas after the pandemic. In THRIn his review of The 40 Fingers, David Rooney wrote: “The sprawling, biodiverse world-building draws you in, the visual spectacle is captivating, the passion for environmental awareness is stirring, and the warfare is as emotive and thrilling as any multiplex audience could wish for.”

“What I am most proud of as a film lover and moviegoer is that our film has shown that in this post-pandemic or pandemic era – whatever you want to call it – there is still the potential to lure people out of their homes to enjoy this incredible experience called cinema,” he said. THR‘s Mia Galuppo.

“And I don’t think there is anything comparable in the world. As producers, directors, studios and exhibitors, we have a responsibility to preserve this experience for future generations.”

At Lightstorm, he and Cameron also produced Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris (2002), the war documentary Beyond Fame (2015) and Robert Rodriguez’ Alita: Battle Angel (2019). They also constantly pushed for the User image Franchise, the next sequels are planned for 2025, 2029 and 2031.

Besides Jamie, he is survived by his wife of nearly 40 years, Julie, who once worked as a film accountant; another son, Jodie, a singer, composer and percussionist; his sisters Tina Landau, a theater director, and Kathy Landau, executive director of the Manhattan arts organization Symphony Space; and his half-brother Les Landau, a director at Star Trek Series.

One has to wonder how Cameron will continue without his right-hand man. After all, “James has big dreams,” said Landau The Jewish Journal in 2010, “and it is my job to make those dreams come true.”

Here is Cameron’s response: “The fragility of life itself cannot be resolved. I am grateful for every year, every day, every minute we had together. I am grateful for the belief he had in me and for what we were able to accomplish together because of his partnership. A part of me was ripped away. But the amazing team he assembled and led remains, and we will be dedicated to fulfilling Jon’s legacy. Not just for the films to come, but for the love and bond that binds the Avatar and Lightstorm families together.”