Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer of “ Titanic ” and the “Avatar” franchise, has written a behind-the-scenes memoir about his role making some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. The book, entitled “The Bigger Picture,” will be published posthumously on Nov. 4 — Landau died from cancer in 2024 at the age of 63. In the following excerpt, Landau looks back on the rollout of 1997’s “Titanic,” the $200 million epic that many in the entertainment industry thought would be a disaster big enough to sink James Cameron ‘s career.

For any movie, the first trailer is hugely important. It’s the best chance you will have to capture an audience. You have two and a half minutes to convey the movie’s story and feel. Those 150 seconds are everything, and like so many things on “Titanic,” they be

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