Jon Landau, an Oscar-winning producer who labored carefully with director James Cameron on three of the largest blockbusters of all time, “Titanic” and two “Avatar” movies, has died. He was 63.
Alan Bergman, Disney Leisure co-chairman, introduced Landau’s loss of life in a press release Saturday. No explanation for loss of life was given.
“Jon was a visionary whose extraordinary expertise and fervour introduced a number of the most unforgettable tales to life on the massive display screen. His exceptional contributions to the movie trade have left an indelible mark, and he might be profoundly missed. He was an iconic and profitable producer but an excellent higher individual and a real drive of nature who impressed throughout him,” Bergman mentioned.
Landau’s partnership with Cameron led to a few Oscar nominations and a finest image win for 1997’s “Titanic.” Collectively the pair account for a number of the largest blockbusters in film historical past, together with “Avatar” and its sequel, “Avatar: The Approach of Water.”
Landau’s profession started within the Eighties as a manufacturing supervisor, and he progressively rose via the ranks, serving as a co-producer on “Honey I Shrunk the Youngsters” and “Dick Tracy.”
He took on the producer function on “Titanic,” Cameron’s costly epic in regards to the notorious 1912 maritime catastrophe. The wager paid off: “Titanic” turned the primary film to cross $1 billion in world box-office earnings and went on to win 11 Oscars, together with finest image.
“I can not act and I can not compose and I can not do visible results, so I suppose that is why I am producing.” Landau mentioned whereas accepting the award with Cameron.
Their partnership continued, with Landau turning into a high govt at Cameron’s Lightstorm Leisure. In 2009 the pair watched as “Avatar,” a sci-fi epic filmed and proven in theaters with groundbreaking 3D know-how, surpassed the box-office success of “Titanic.” It stays the top-grossing movie of all time.
Its sequel, “Avatar: The Approach of Water,” is third on the record.
Landau has been a key participant within the “Avatar” franchise, which noticed frequent delays of the discharge of “The Approach of Water.” Landau defended the sequel’s progress and Cameron’s formidable plans to movie a number of sequels directly to maintain the franchise going.
“Quite a bit has modified however quite a bit hasn’t,” Landau instructed The Related Press in 2022, a number of months forward of the sequel’s launch. “One of many issues that has not modified is: Why do individuals flip to leisure at the moment? Identical to they did when the primary ‘Avatar’ was launched, they do it to flee, to flee the world by which we dwell.”
Landau was named an govt vp of function films at twentieth Century Fox when he was 29, which led him to supervise main hits together with “Residence Alone” and its sequel, in addition to “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “True Lies,” the place he first began working carefully with Cameron.
Landau was additionally influential in bringing the manga adaptation “Alita: Battle Angel” to the massive display screen in 2019. Cameron supported the venture, however his “Avatar” commitments stored him from directing it. As a substitute, Landau labored with director Robert Rodriguez to get the movie accomplished.
Born in New York on July 23, 1960, Landau was the son of movie producers Ely and Edie Landau. The household moved to Los Angeles within the Seventies, and Landau went on to graduate from the College of Southern California’s movie faculty.
Ely Landau died in 1993. Edie Landau, the Oscar-nominated producer of movies like “Lengthy Day’s Journey Into Night time,” “Hopscotch” and “The Lethal Recreation,” died in 2022.
Jon Landau is survived by his spouse of practically 40 years, Julie; their sons, Jamie and Jodie; and two sisters and a brother.
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