Long-time film producer Jon Landau died at the age of 63. The EnvelopeSources said he was battling cancer. Landau is best known for being the producer of a number of 20th Century Fox films such as Avatar movies and Titanic.
Born on July 30, 1960, he was the son of Ely and Edie Landau, themselves film producers. His first producing role was in the 1987 film The campus man Paramount. In 1997, he became executive director of feature film production for Fox, which made him a collaborator of James Cameron. The two formed a successful duo thanks to the aforementioned films, which became box office hits and awards darlings. (Titanic (the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide) and some of the biggest films of all time. He also produced Solaris (directed by Steven Soderbergh), co-produced Honey, I’ve shrunk the kids And Dick Tracy, and supervised Fox Power Rangers movie, True lies, And The Last of the Mohicans.
Landau became intendant of the Avatar franchise in recent years, and helped Cameron and Disney deliver the sequel movies and the Avatar theme park attractions. As COO of Lightstorm Entertainment, Landau led The avatars transmedia expansion in comic books from Dark Horse and video games, including the 2023 one Avatar: Pandora’s Borders from Ubisoft.
Germain Lussier, io9’s senior reporter, remembers being on the set Alita’s Battle Angel (which Landau also produced) and I was impressed with him. “He sat us down in a room and went through the whole movie with us,” Lussier recalls. “Even though it was already shooting, it almost felt like he was pitching it to us. He was explaining the story and why it meant so much to him. He was so confident and intelligent and eloquent that I left the room thinking two things. One, if the movie is half as good, it’s going to be fantastic. And two, it’s no wonder he’s one of the best producers in the world.”
At the time of writing this article, Titanic star Frances Fisher Cameron was one of the first to pay tribute to Landau on social media. Cameron has yet to make a statement about his passing, but we will update you as soon as he does. In the meantime, we extend our condolences to Landau’s family and other loved ones.
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