We’re seeing a lot of the same elements in Hollywood memoirs recently, particularly ones where proximity to something popular is enough to justify publication, even from someone not very well known.

There’s usually an upbringing story nobody apart from friends and family will really care about, reflected acclaim by way of a successful property or franchise, Hollywood trivia that ultimately makes it worth reading and quite unpolished prose. Not every actor or producer is a writer, and publishers know the quality of the writing doesn’t matter because the insider access or promise of dirt is the selling point.

You might have no idea who Jon Landau is, but after a career as 20th Century Fox’s head of production he became an independent producer, falling in with James Cameron and producing Titanic and the first two ‘Avatar’ films, assuring his place in history.

There’s a more heartfelt point of difference here because Landau spent his last few years battling the cancer that took his life in 2024, and even though I’m sure not all the fear and regret we’d all feel makes it way onto the pages, he talks about making peace with his life and was surrounded by people he loved, which is all any of us can hope for.

As for tidbits and dirt? The Bigger Picture certainly has a couple. He and Cameron regret their role producing 2002’s remake of Solaris – which failed commercially – because the director (Steven Soderbergh) stopped listening to them and went off in his own direction. And after working on Alien 3 (1992) he found acclaimed director David Fincher to have a bit too much of an ego.

Book review by Drew Turney

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Landau was an American film producer from New York City who produced most of James Cameron’s films since 1997’s Titanic. He produced the 2009 hit film Avatar, Solaris, Alita: Battle Angel directed by Robert Rodriguez and co-produced Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Dick Tracy. Titanic and Avatar are two of the highest-grossing films of all time. He won several awards for producing Titanic.

Read more about Jon Landau