The Angels.- Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer who worked closely with director James Cameron on three of the biggest blockbusters of all time, Titanic and the two Avatar films, has died. He was 63.
Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman announced Landau’s death in a statement Saturday. The cause of death was not disclosed.
“Jon was a visionary whose extraordinary talent and passion brought some of the most unforgettable stories to life on the big screen. His remarkable contributions to the film industry have left an indelible mark and he will be deeply missed. He was an iconic and successful producer, but also a good person and a true force of nature who inspired all those around him,” Bergman said.
Landau’s partnership with Cameron led to three Academy Award nominations and a Best Picture win for Titanic in 1997. Together, the pair are responsible for some of the biggest box office hits in cinema history, including Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.
Landau’s career began in the 1980s as a production manager and he gradually rose through the ranks, working as co-producer on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Dick Tracy.
He took on the role of producer on Titanic, Cameron’s expensive epic about the infamous 1912 maritime disaster. The gamble paid off: Titanic became the first film to surpass $1 billion in worldwide box office receipts and won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.
“I can’t act, I can’t compose or do visual effects, so I guess that’s why I’m producing,” Landau said while accepting the award with Cameron.
Their partnership continued, with Landau becoming a top executive at Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment. In 2009, the pair saw Avatar, a sci-fi epic filmed and released in theaters using revolutionary 3D technology, surpass Titanic in box office success. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time.
Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, takes third place on the list.
Landau has been a key player in the Avatar franchise, which frequently saw the release of The Way of Water delayed. Landau defended the sequel’s progress and Cameron’s ambitious plans to film multiple sequels at once to keep the franchise alive.
“A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things haven’t,” Landau told The Associated Press in 2022, a few months before the sequel’s release. “One of the things that hasn’t changed is: Why do people turn to entertainment today? Just like when the first Avatar came out, they do it to escape, to escape the world that we live in.”
Landau was named executive vice president of feature films at 20th Century Fox when he was 29, which led him to oversee such major hits as Home Alone and its sequel, as well as Mrs. Doubtfire and True Lies, where he began working closely with Cameron.
Landau also had a hand in the 2019 adaptation of the manga Alita: Battle Angel. Cameron supported the project, but his commitments to Avatar prevented him from directing. Instead, Landau worked with director Robert Rodriguez to complete the film.
Born in New York on July 23, 1960, Landau was the son of film producers Ely and Edie Landau. The family moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s and Landau graduated from the University of Southern California’s film school.
Ely Landau died in 1993. Edie Landau, the Oscar-nominated producer of such films as Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Hopscotch and The Deadly Game, died in 2022.
Jon Landau is survived by his wife of nearly 40 years, Julie; his children, Jamie and Jodie; and two sisters and a brother.
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