James Cameron slams Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer as 'moral cop out'

James Cameron has taken aim at Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

The Titanic director is about to direct a film about the atomic bomb, based on the book Ghosts of Hiroshima.

Oppenheimer was about J. Robert Oppenheimer who put together a team of scientists and physicists to develop an atomic bomb during World War II and conduct the Trinity test, the world's first nuclear explosion.

Cameron has now admitted he was surprised at some of the decisions Nolan made around the themes explored in the Oscar-winning movie.

"It's interesting what he stayed away from," Cameron said in an interview with Deadline, after being asked if he was surprised that the movie didn't touch on the stories of people who were affected by atomic bombs.

"Look, I love the filmmaking, but I did feel that it was a bit of a moral cop-out."

He continued, "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 criticise 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."

Nolan has previously defended his decision to focus on the life of Oppenheimer instead of the lives of those his nuclear weapons impacted.

"The film presents Oppenheimer's experience subjectively," he said in 2023. "I wanted to show somebody who is starting to gain a clearer picture of the unintended consequences of his actions. It was as much about what I don't show as what I show."