Three of the highest grossing films of all time – Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009) and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) – were produced by Jon Landau, who has died aged 63 of cancer. Asked to define his relationship with James Cameron, who wrote and directed all three, Landau said: “Jim dreams the dreams and it’s my job to make them a reality.”
Landau’s own dreams during the shooting of Titanic were more like nightmares. In one, he dreamed that the production’s colossal replica of the ill-fated ship was built entirely from toothpicks, and began to collapse under the weight of all the passengers.
