James Cameron is planning for life after Avatar. The filmmaker has purchased the rights to the forthcoming book Ghosts Of Hiroshima, and intends to direct a feature adaptation of the atomic bomb story, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Author Charles Pellegrino’s Ghosts Of Hiroshima arrives from Blackstone Publishing in August 2025 and follows his 2015 book Last Train From Hiroshima, which will also serve as the basis of the film.
Cameron’s film would in part follow the true story of then-29 year old engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi, recognized as the only person who survived both atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. He was on business in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, when the American military bombed the city, and returned by train to Nagasaki the next day, only to survive its bombing on Aug. 9. It is estimated that between 110,000 and 210,000 people died as a result of the bombings.
Cameron is the biggest director in the world, known for the Terminator franchise and Aliens, and for directing three of the top four biggest movies of all time: Avatar, Avatar: the Way of Water and Titanic. The feature would mark his first non-Avatar film since 1997’s Titanic.
He is deep into Avatar: Fire & Ash, which arrives in December 2025, and has two more Avatar films on the docket, though he has stated he could step back from directing them (though that is not definitive).
The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno reps Pellegrino, and also has a close relationship with Cameron, as a co-writer on the Avatar sequels. Cameron is repped by CAA and Greenberg Glusker.
Deadline first reported the news of the deal.
—Etan Vlessing contributed to this story.
