Prolific producer Jon Landau, who passed away last Friday, was known for his longtime partnership with filmmaker James Cameron—and with his loss, Hollywood is now without one of the best minds in cinema. Landau was at work on the upcoming Avatar sequels with Cameron, having teamed with the director on a huge legacy of films including the first two installments of Pandora’s sci-fi universe, as well as True Lies and Titanic. Some of his other credits include Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Solaris, and Alita: Battle Angel.
Cameron released a statement in remembrance to his friend through the Hollywood Reporter, which read in part: “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.”
Cameron went on to describe how vital Landau was to their work, as well as the entire entertainment industry. “I worked with Jon Landau for 31 years and I never saw him downcast once,” he continued. “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.”
“The Avatar family grieves the loss of our friend and leader, Jon Landau. His zany humor, personal magnetism, great generosity of spirit and fierce will have held the center of our Avatar universe for almost two decades. His legacy is not just the films he produced, but the… pic.twitter.com/fsR77qHoO2
— Avatar (@officialavatar) July 7, 2024
Cameron closed out his statement with a farewell dedication: “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 20 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.”
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