James Cameron calls Oppenheimer a "moral cop-out" for not showing the aftermath

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EXCLUSIVE: When you have directed three of the four all-time top global grossing films as has James Cameron, you take his vow to try and stay on budget with a wink and a nod, because his cutting edge films always push the envelope and never miss. But there is one promise Cameron made on a movie that you can take to heart.

That was the deathbed vow he made to one of the last survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts, to direct a film based on the upcoming Charles Pellegrino book Ghosts of Hiroshima. The book comes August 5 from Blackstone Publishing and The Story Factory, timed to the 80th anniversary of the moment the world entered the perilous nuclear age. Martin Sheen just signed up to narrate the audiobook.

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DEADLINE: You say this could be your lowest-grossing film because of the subject matter. How surprised were you that Christopher Nolan’s movie Oppenheimer grossed almost $1 billion and won seven Oscars? Clearly people are interested in that whole splitting of the atom.

CAMERON: Yeah…it’s interesting what he stayed away from. Look, I love the filmmaking, but I did feel that it was a bit of a moral cop out.

Because it’s not like Oppenheimer didn’t know the effects. He’s got one brief scene in the film where we see — and I don’t like to criticize another filmmaker’s film – but there’s only one brief moment where he sees some charred bodies in the audience and then the film goes on to show how it deeply moved him. But I felt that it dodged the subject. I don’t know whether the studio or Chris felt that that was a third rail that they didn’t want to touch, but I want to go straight at the third rail. I’m just stupid that way.

DEADLINE: Nolan answered that criticism by basically saying, “I hope somebody tells that story, but to me, this wasn’t that story.” It might take another heavyweight like James Cameron to do that…

CAMERON: Okay, I’ll put up my hand. I’ll do it, Chris. No problem. You come to my premiere and say nice things…I can’t tell you today what’s going to be in the movie. I’ve been making notes for 15 years and I haven’t written a word of the script yet because there’s a point where it’s all there and then you start to write. That’s how I always work. I explore around, I remember the things that impact me. I start to assemble ’em into a narrative. And then there’s a moment where you’re ready to write. And I’m not in that head space right now.

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