James Cameron is mourning the demise of a detailed pal and collaborator.
Following the demise of Titanic and Avatar producer Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning director paid tribute to his late Lightstorm Leisure accomplice in a heartfelt assertion on Saturday.
“The Avatar household grieves the lack of our pal and chief, Jon Landau,” he started in an announcement shared with Deadline. “His zany humor, private magnetism, nice generosity of spirit and fierce could have held the middle of our Avatar universe for nearly twenty years.
“His legacy isn’t just the movies he produced, however the private instance he set — indomitable, caring, inclusive, tireless, insightful and totally distinctive. He produced nice movies, not by wielding energy however by spreading heat and the enjoyment of creating cinema. He impressed us all to be and to carry our greatest, day by day. I’ve misplaced a pricey pal, and my closest collaborator of 31 years. Part of myself has been torn away,” added Cameron.
Landau died on Friday after a 16-month battle with most cancers. He was 63.
Jon Landau and James Cameron show the cement on their arms at their hand and footprint ceremony on January 12, 2023 at TCL Chinese language Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP through Getty Photos)
After serving as EVP of Function Productions at twentieth Century Fox, Landau joined Cameron as COO of his newly fashioned Lightstorm Leisure, the place they went on to make field workplace historical past with Titanic (1997) and once more with Avatar (2009).
Final February, Landau recalled his first time working with Cameron when he was at Fox and assigned to the director’s 1994 motion comedy True Lies. “I feel Jim was a bit skeptical. He stated, ‘So I perceive we’re gonna get to be fairly good mates. Or possibly not,’” he advised Deadline’s Pete Hammond on Behind the Lens with fun.
Though Landau stated they labored “on reverse sides of the fence” throughout that film, Cameron later got here to him with the script for Titanic after he left Fox, and Landau “fell in love” with the film.
“We did that form of as a one-off,” Landau recalled of becoming a member of Lightstorm. “And that labored, the connection labored, and I feel we constructed it up.”
