Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer of and , has died. , Landau died of cancer on Friday. He was 63.
“A great producer and a great human being has left us,” Landau’s longtime artistic collaborator . “Jon Landau believed in the dream of cinema. He believed that film is the ultimate human art form, and to make films, you have to first be human yourself.
He will be remembered as much for his vast generosity of spirit as for the movies himself.” “Jon was my right hand, and I was his. In recent years, we became a trapeze act.
.. total interdependence, total trust, total synchronization.
We became not only the closest working partners, but the closest of friends. My last message to him was not only that I loved him but that I missed our daily dialogue.” Landau’s work speaks for itself.
He began collaborating with Cameron on the set of , where, the director recalls, Landau was the “studio ‘suit’” assigned to the production. The pair would go on to produce three of the five highest-grossing films ever: , , and , each grossing more than a billion dollars, with the first still sitting atop the global box office charts. As successful as these films were, all three were intense, complicated productions for which Landau appeared more than game.
“When I read something like , honestly, I don’t even think about the water,” Landau told . “I am so wrapped up in the characters’ story. The water is secondary because I know that we’re going to figure out how .
