It's been confirmed today that Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning film producer best known for collaborating with James Cameron on Titanic and the Avatar franchise, has died following a battle with cancer. He was 63.
Landau was born in 1960 and was the son of film producers Ely and Edie Landau. After attending USC's School of Cinematic Arts, he became the Executive Vice President of Feature Film Production at 20th Century Fox in the 1990s. That brought him into Cameron's orbit and they subsequently became longtime collaborators.
The veteran producer made history with both Titanic (the first movie to gross $1 billion at the worldwide box office) and Avatar (the highest-grossing movie of all time).
Landau also oversaw movies like Die Hard 2, True Lies, and Power Rangers while at Fox.
More recently, he played a pivotal role in expanding the Avatar franchise with both multiple sequels and the opening of the ultra-immersive Pandora in Florida's Walt Disney World. He was also the COO of Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment and produced Alita: Battle Angel, a movie he frequently said he'd like to make a sequel to.
"For me personally, I enjoy going to the movies, so a film’s success depends on whether it provides for me that escape - I don’t want to think about ‘Avatar,’ I don’t want to think about bills that have to be paid, all of these things," Landau said in a 2022 interview. "Do I walk away from the theater having felt something emotionally? That’s how I view a movie that I go to as successful."
"It probably happens more often than you would think because I go not to be a critic. I go to be an audience member. And I think that's also what helps me as a producer of films, I don't view it any differently than what would I want as an audience member."
"Whether I go see, you know, a movie like Black Panther or Top Gun: Maverick, which work not only in a visceral sense, but in an emotional sense," he added. "That’s why I enjoy going to the movies."
This will come as a huge blow to Cameron as Landau was one of his closest allies and pivotal in making the Avatar sequels a reality. Avatar: The Way of Water was another hit and Avatar 3 is set to be released next December. Parts of a fourth movie have already been shot and a fifth is in the works.
Landau's family confirmed his passing and we're sure Cameron and others who worked with the filmmaker will share their tributes in due course.
Our thoughts go out to his friends and family at this time.