First Trailer Drops for Charles Pellegrino’s Book Narrated by Martin Sheen, James Cameron to Adapt
The official trailer for Charles Pellegrino’s book Ghosts of Hiroshima is out now. This non-fiction book is set to be released on August 5th by Blackstone Publishing and The Story Factory. The release date is special because it marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan.
James Cameron, a three-time Oscar-winning director, bought the rights to turn the book into a movie in September 2024. Pellegrino, who wrote the bestselling Her Name, Titanic, also worked as a science consultant for Cameron on both Avatar and Titanic. For Cameron, Ghosts of Hiroshima is a deeply personal project and will be his first feature film outside of the Avatar series since his Oscar-winning Titanic. He plans to start filming when he has breaks from working on Avatar.
The trailer has narration by Martin Sheen, a three-time Emmy winner, who also voices the audiobook. Sheen has only narrated one other trailer before, for Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning film JFK. Cameron specifically chose Sheen because he believed the actor’s voice would bring the right seriousness and power to the story. Cameron pointed out Sheen’s strong narration in Apocalypse Now as a key reason for his choice.
EXCLUSIVE: The official trailer for Charles Pellegrino’s book “Ghosts of Hiroshima” is here. The book will be made into a film directed by three-time Oscar winner James Cameron.
— Variety (@Variety) July 16, 2025
The non-fiction title is due out on Aug. 5, a date which coincides with the 80th anniversary of… pic.twitter.com/GoePszom1R
The video features music by famous composer Hans Zimmer and shows a plane flying above the clouds. It opens with a recording of President Harry Truman announcing the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The trailer ends with a quote from J. Robert Oppenheimer, who said, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” a line from Hindu scripture.
Ghosts of Hiroshima tells, in part, the incredible true story of a Japanese man who survived both atomic bombings during World War II. After surviving the blast in Hiroshima, he traveled by train to Nagasaki, where he survived a second bombing.
The book is based on years of careful forensic archaeology and interviews with more than two hundred survivors and their families. Shane Salerno’s The Story Factory represents Pellegrino.
This information was shared through the trailer release and official statements from Blackstone Publishing and The Story Factory.
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