‘Titanic’ And ‘Avatar’ Producer Jon Landau Dies at 63

The Oscar-winning producer of the Titanic and Avatar films, Jon Landau, is no longer with us. He was sixty-three. Jamie Landau, Landau’s son, verified the news of his death. The Hollywood Reporter claims that he passed away in Los Angeles on Friday; the cause of death was not disclosed. James Cameron has a long-standing producing partnership with Landau. Together, they produced the critically acclaimed films ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar.’
Last February, Landau recalled his first time working with Cameron when he was at Fox and assigned to the director’s 1994 action comedy True Lies. “I think Jim was a little sceptical. He said, ‘So I understand we’re gonna get to be pretty good friends. Or maybe not,’” Landau told Deadline’s Pete Hammond on ‘Behind the Lens with a laugh’.
Landau was born in New York on July 23, 1960. His parents, Ely A. Landau and Edie Landau, owned Manhattan movie houses, founded the American Film Theater and produced more than a dozen films, including Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962), The Pawnbroker (1965), The Iceman Cometh (1973) and The Chosen (1981). Landau received his first producer credit on Paramount’s Campus Man (1987), then co-produced two Disney films, Joe Johnston’s ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ and Warren Beatty’s ‘Dick Tracy’. Before his death, Landau was deeply involved in the making of the ‘Avatar’ sequels.
Kathy Landau, the executive director of Symphony Space, Les Landau of Star Trek, and Broadway director Tina Landau are all related to Landau. Along with his nearly forty-year wife Julie, he is survived by his sons Jamie and Jodie.
(With ANI inputs)