Last Train from Hiroshima, a new movie based on American author Charles Pellegrino’s 2015 book of the same name and his forthcoming book, Ghosts of Hiroshima (August 2025), will mark James Cameron’s first non-Avatar film since 1997’s Titanic—the romantic disaster epic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet that earned the director multiple Oscars during the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Film Editing—according to an exclusive report that Deadline shared today. The new project, which Cameron has described as an “uncompromising theatrical film” that will begin shooting as soon as Avatar production permits, will tell the story of a Japanese man who survives not only the atomic blast at Hiroshima, but also the one at Nagasaki during World War II.
Cameron told Deadline:
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “[Pellegrino and I pledged to] pass on his unique and harrowing experience to future generations.”
A look at the cover for the audiobook version:
Deadline noted in its report:
The film focuses in part on the true story of a Japanese man during World War II who survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, got on a train to Nagasaki, and then survived the nuclear explosion in that city.
What is interesting here is that when director Christopher Nolan was promoting Oppenheimer — which won seven Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture — he answered questions about not showing the bombs’ effects on Japan in his film by hoping that someone else will tell that part of the story in a film.