James Cameron is mourning the dying of a detailed buddy and collaborator.
Following the dying of Titanic and Avatar producer Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning director paid tribute to his late Lightstorm Leisure companion in a heartfelt assertion on Saturday.
“The Avatar household grieves the lack of our buddy 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 20 years.
“His legacy isn’t just the movies he produced, however the private instance he set — indomitable, caring, inclusive, tireless, insightful and completely 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, every single day. I’ve misplaced an expensive buddy, 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 palms at their hand and footprint ceremony on January 12, 2023 at TCL Chinese language Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
After serving as EVP of Characteristic 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 believe Jim was just a little skeptical. He mentioned, ‘So I perceive we’re gonna get to be fairly good mates. Or perhaps not,’” he instructed Deadline’s Pete Hammond on Behind the Lens with fun.
Though Landau mentioned 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 type of as a one-off,” Landau recalled of becoming a member of Lightstorm. “And that labored, the connection labored, and I believe we constructed it up.”
