That James Cameron Hiroshima movie? Probably not gonna happen

Back in January, we reported that James Cameron had not only optioned the rights to Charles Pellegrino’s book, The Last Train from Hiroshima, but also flown over to Japan to meet with now deceased Tsutomi Yamaguchi, the once lone survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Many believed this would in fact be Cameron’s next film… but probably not anymore.

The AP is reporting that publisher Henry Holt and Company is halting publication of the novel because author Pelligrino was not able to answer certain questions regarding information contained within book itself, such as whether or not two men mentioned in the text even existed. So weird.

Apparently, doubts about the book’s authenticity first arose a week ago after Pellegrino admitted that one of his interview subjects had in fact falsely claimed to be on one of the aircrafts accompanying the Enola Gay, the plane from which the atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima. To make matters even weirder, Pellegrino and his own background are now being questioned. The author claims to have earned a Ph.D. in 1982 from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, but the institution says it has no proof that he even earned a degree.

The director’s association with the author goes back a ways. Cameron wrote the introductions to two Pellegrino books: 2000’s Ghosts of the Titanic and 2007’s The Jesus Family Tomb. Cameron also brought Pellegrino on board as an advisor on AVATAR.

Cameron’s people have made no comment on the matter, but for the time being, you can probably go ahead and consider this project dead.