James Cameron Reflects On 31-Year Collaboration With Jon Landau Following Producer’s Death

Avatar filmmaker James Cameron reflects on his longtime collaboration with his producing partner, Jon Landau, in the wake of his passing. The two have worked together since 1994’s True Lies and have become close collaborators with 1997’s Titanic, which became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time and won Landau and Cameron the Academy Award for Best Picture the following year. Landau tragically passed away at the age of 64 from cancer, and tributes have been pouring in from some of his closest friends and colleagues since the announcement of his death.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron has released a statement following Landau’s death. Reflecting on his partnership of over 31 years, the filmmaker discussed how they became inseparable and worked in total synchronization with each project they would make. Check out his full statement below:

A great producer and a great human being has left us. Jon Landau believed in the dream of cinema. He believed that film is the ultimate human art form, and to make films you have to first be human yourself. He will be remembered as much for his vast generosity of spirit as for the movies themselves. I worked with Jon Landau for 31 years and I never saw him downcast once.

He led with a balance of humor and fierce will, and true joy in the work. When I met him, he was the studio ‘suit’ assigned to oversee
True Lies
in ’93. In the midst of the logistical nightmare of that production we came to respect and enjoy each other. A bond forged in fire. I lured him away from Fox to join my production company, Lightstorm and together we then tackled
Titanic
, a production as ambitious and seemingly ill-fated as the ship itself. Jon bore the brunt of the studio pressure and gave his all to provide the time and resources for me to make the film I saw in my head. From that we became brothers in arms. We believed we could solve any production problem.

The next mountain we climbed was
Avatar
, a production that more resembled the Manhattan Project… making up new physics as we went along. Mastering a brand new methodology to tell stories. Again Jon gave his all, and never lost faith that we were doing something extraordinary and that we would somehow prevail. In the process we not only made a film, we forged a family. Jon was the heart of the
Avatar
family, with his humor, generosity and enormous capacity to make people feel valued and ‘seen.’ He gave everyone a sense of purpose and belonging. And this continued through the making of the sequels. It is impossible to convey how much our tight knit group will miss this man, this force of nature… the center of gravity of our little bubble universe. Jon created a community, a family, on
Avatar
and at Lightstorm, but not at the expense of his own family, who were always his highest priority.

Jon was my right hand and I was his. In recent years we became a trapeze act… total interdependence, total trust, total synchronization. We became not only the closest of working partners, but the closest of friends. My last message to him was not only that I loved him but that I missed our daily dialogue. We would talk twenty times a day, usually in his office which he placed strategically between mine and the set. Solving every problem that came along. Jon had the strength to tell me when I was wrong, and I learned over the years to trust that he was right. Jon loved his work, and loved the people around him, the amazing team he had built. Every day was joyful battle, against entropy — the chaos that threatens to unravel every human endeavor.

The center always held, under Jon’s watchful eye. We fought through the pandemic together to deliver
Avatar: The Way of Water
. Together, we thought we could solve anything. But you can’t solve the fragility of life itself. I am grateful for every year, every day, every minute we had together. I am grateful for the belief he had in me and what his partnership allowed us to accomplish together. A part of myself has been torn away. But the amazing team he assembled and led still remains, and we will dedicate ourselves to fulfilling Jon’s legacy. Not just the films yet to come, but the love and connection that binds the
Avatar
and Lightstorm family together.

Jon Landau & James Cameron’s Partnership Was Integral To The Avatar Franchise’s Success

Both Films Made A Combined $5.2 Billion At The Worldwide Box Office

After the juggernaut that was Titanic,Landau and Cameron continued their partnership with Avatar, which the filmmaker had been developing since 1994. However, the technology to capture the movie the way he wanted to was not readily available at the time, and production on the movie only began in 2007. Avatar was a massive gamble for Fox, with the director offering to cut his fee if the movie would end up a box office bomb and even an executive told the producing duo how bold the project was.

The stakes to deliver were immensely high, but Landau had always believed the movie would go big, which it did. Breaking several records at the time of its release, Avatar became the highest-grossing movie of all time until it was dethroned by Avengers: Endgame in 2019, only for it to return to the top spot in 2021 after a re-release in China. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards the following year, including Best Picture, which ultimately lost to Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.

However, Avatar‘s cultural impact exceeded the movie’s critical and commercial success. The film’s revolutionary use of 3D reignited a new craze for the format, with many studios post-converting their movies in 3D to gain more profitability in cinemas and television makers even releasing 3D models. The craze has since diminished, and 3D TVs are no longer sold, but it has lasted much longer than initially thought. This incredible, lasting accomplishment wouldn’t have been possible without Landau’s contributions to the Avatar franchise and his lasting belief that cinema is the most transcendent art form that exists today.

Source: THR