James Cameron optioned a soon to be published nonfiction book called The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles Pellegrino. This might be a potential directing gig for the top box office director of all time.  Cameron even purchased the option with his own funds.

According to the trades, when Cameron was in Japan in late December promoting Avatar, he visited Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the last survivors of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. Yamaguchi died Monday at the age of 93.

Pellegrino’s book arrives in the bookstores this month. Advance reviews are very positive, which takes place over two days and weaves together eyewitness accounts of the Japanese civilians and American pilots who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand. According to the book, 30 people are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki — where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. Yamaguchi was the sole survivor who experienced the full effects of the detonations at ground zero both times.

At this point, project is not set up at Fox or Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, but the crystal ball says a potential movie. The special effects would be awesome. I interviewed Diane Lake (Frida) who wrote a script called Hiroshima for one of Cameron’s cohorts at Digital Domain. There might be a connection here folks.