Veteran actor Martin Sheen will narrate the audio version of Charles Pellegrino’s upcoming book Ghosts of Hiroshima, which is slated for publication through Blackstone on August 05, as per a Deadline report. This development coincides with James Cameron’s plan to adapt the book into a feature film of the same title. As reported earlier, Cameron has secured the rights to Pellegrino’s upcoming work and intends to commence filming as soon as his Avatar production schedules allow. If the plan goes through, it would mark Cameron’s first directorial venture outside the Avatar franchise after 1997’s Titanic.

Cameron has reportedly nurtured this project for 15 years, envisioning Sheen’s involvement. “Martin Sheen is my dream come true to read this book for audio,” said Cameron to Deadline recently. The filmmaker added, “His voice-over narration for Apocalypse Now still haunts me, and for a subject this dark, he will give it the gravitas and humanity that it needs.”

The filmmaker envisions an “uncompromising theatrical film” with the Ghosts of Hiroshima film adaptation. The book’s release strategically aligns with the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film will partly recount the real tale of a man from Japan who endured the Hiroshima atomic blast and travelled to Nagasaki, only to survive the nuclear explosion there as well. Pellegrino’s narrative incorporates the testimonies of bomb survivors, as well as insights from forensic archaeology.

“It’s a subject that I’ve wanted to do a film about, that I’ve been wrestling with how to do it, over the years,” stated Cameron. “I met Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just days before he died. He was in the hospital. He was handing the baton of his personal story to us, so I have to do it. I can’t turn away from it.” During their meeting, Pellegrino and Cameron pledged to preserve and share Yamaguchi’s “unique and harrowing experience” with future generations.