James Cameron has been immersed in the Avatar universe for the last two decades, but he still plans on making Ghosts of Hiroshima as his next non-Avatar project. The project has been in the works for quite some time, but it’s taken a small leap forward as Deadline reports that Martin Sheen has been tapped to narrate the audiobook of Ghosts of Hiroshima.
“Martin Sheen is my dream come true to read this book for audio,” Cameron said. “His voice-over narration for Apocalypse Now still haunts me, and for a subject this dark, he will give it the gravitas and humanity that it needs.” The director has purchased the rights to the novel by Charles Pellegrino and plans on shooting an “uncompromising theatrical film” as soon as production on the Avatar sequels permits.
The book details the true story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese man who survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, returned home to Nagasaki, and survived the nuclear blast in that city as well. “It’s a subject that I’ve wanted to do a film about, that I’ve been wrestling with how to do it, over the years,” Cameron said. “I met Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just days before he died. He was in the hospital. He was handing the baton of his personal story to us, so I have to do it. I can’t turn away from it.” Both Cameron and Pellegrino pledged to “pass on [Yamaguchi’s] unique and harrowing experience to future generations.“
As great as the Avatar movies have been, it will be great to see Cameron tackle something else. After all, his last non-Avatar movie was Titanic, which is quickly approaching its 30th anniversary.
The next Avatar movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is currently set for a December 19, 2025 release. It will be followed by Avatar 4 on December 21, 2029, and Avatar 5 on December 18, 2031. Cameron even has ideas for a potential Avatar 6 and 7, but that all depends on whether the demand for the franchise is still there. “There’ll be just far enough apart that they remain events, hopefully, in the lives of fans, of people who want to follow us, but not so far apart that it’s like there’s a generational difference between one movie,” Cameron said. “We’re fortunate we survived that, right? We got over that hurdle. So now we believe it’s going to come at the right pacing.“
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