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Hollywood Reporter cover story: Cameron and Miller on 'Terminator'(set for July 2019)

L

LordOfLore

Banned
Link.

thr_james_cameron_timcesbt.jpg
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By all objective measures, The Terminator represents the most feared cautionary tale of modern Hollywood: a broken franchise. Thirty-three years after Arnold Schwarzenegger became an international star playing a killer robot sent from the future to kill the mother of the leader of a postapocalyptic rebellion, there have been four sequels (and one TV series), and the three films without the involvement of creator James Cameron have turned off fans and led the property to bounce from studio to studio and reboot to reboot. Terminator: Genisys, a 2015 installment made by financier David Ellison's Skydance Media (Ellison bought rights from his sister, Megan Ellison, who acquired them in a 2011 auction for $20 million), seemingly, uh, terminated the prospect of future films.
But this is Hollywood 2017, and no major franchise is truly dead. Ellison, along with distributor Paramount (Fox has international rights), has persuaded Cameron, who on Sept. 25 began filming four Avatar sequels, to shepherd a new Terminator for the era of Amazon drones, Facebook news bots and artificial intelligence-fueled anxiety. Calling it "a return to form that I believe fans of the franchise have been wanting since Terminator 2: Judgment Day," Ellison, 34, has for the past year worked secretly with Cameron and Deadpool's Tim Miller, who will direct the untitled sequel for a July 26, 2019, release. They assembled a writers room with scribes David Goyer, Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman and Justin Rhodes as well as Ellison, a lifelong Terminator fan (Cameron himself shows up once a week), and have crafted what they want to be a trilogy with Schwarzenegger, 70, and original star Linda Hamilton, 62, passing the torch to a young female lead.

The team hopes it's launching the equivalent of the new Star Wars trilogy — but with the most successful filmmaker of all time pulling the strings. To unveil their plans and explain why the Terminator franchise is still relevant amid 21st century fears, Cameron, 63, and Miller, 47, joined The Hollywood Reporter's editorial director Matthew Belloni for a discussion Sept. 19 on the Paramount lot in Hollywood.
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Lock if old.
 
B

Boem

Member
You know, I like the first two movies as much as the next guy, but let's not start acting like it's the most compelling premise in the world. They already milked it dry with all the mindless repetition sequels.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
Schwarzenegger is gonna be in this? No thanks. Complete reboot or bust.
Trying to fix this clusterfuck of a timeline is a waste of time. Just keep it simple. Mid budget action horror thriller. There you go.
 
J

jett

D-Member
If James Cameron actually manages to resurrect this franchise it will be the most impressive accomplishment of his career. But I don't think anybody can revive this shit. The Prometheus/Covenant double whammy has probably made me doubly cynical about this sort of thing. What surprises me is that there are still people out there willing to invest into this ip, for some reason. Cameron or no Cameron. There have been two box office disappointments in a row. You'd think they'd get the message.

Regarding Arnold being in the movie, I've never really understood how the cyborgs in this universe even work. What's inside them exactly? How the hell can skin just age perfectly human-like by just sitting on top of metal.
 
B

Bobby Roberts

Banned
So this really is the third attempt at a new trilogy then?

A trilogy of trilogy starters.

Also, they're planning on centering this trilogy on Rey a young woman, and that writers room list is:

David Ellison, David Goyer, Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, Justin Rhodes

With Tim Miller directing and James Cameron talking shit during breaks on Avatar.

Okay.
 
G

gamz

Member
So Cameron has Battle Angel in 2018, Terminator in 2019, and Avatar 2 in 2020.

Not bad, not bad at all.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
gamz said:
So Cameron has Battle Angel in 2018, Terminator in 2019, and Avatar 2 in 2020.

Not bad, not bad at all.
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I'm still super interested to see that first trailer for Battle Angel.

At the end of the day, Rodriguez is still working from a script by Cameron and a year's worth of preproduction and concept art already done by Cameron.

It won't be nearly the same without Cameron behind the camera, but I'm certainly more hopeful for that than this Terminator reboot.
 
G

gamz

Member
SCULLIBUNDO said:
I'm still super interested to see that first trailer for Battle Angel.

At the end of the day, Rodriguez is still working from a script by Cameron and a year's worth of preproduction and concept art already done by Cameron.

It won't be nearly the same without Cameron behind the camera, but I'm certainly more hopeful for that than this Terminator reboot.
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Same. Really curious to see what RR does with Cameron box of tools and a huge budget. When the hell are we gonna get at least a teaser?
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
I'm basically apathetic about this new film but I really wish this franchise would feel comfortable enough in itself to finally step away from constantly bringing out an increasingly elderly Arnold Schwarzenegger. The whole point of his casting in the original was that he was this utterly terrifying, Adonis type physical specimen, a hulking predator. No disrespect to Schwarzenegger, but he's just nowhere near as imposing as he once was, having most of that sense of physical charisma.

This franchise really needs to move on from Schwarzenegger. If at the end of the day, he's literally the only appeal of the series, then they should probably just let it die.
 
G

gamz

Member
SpaceWolf said:
I'm basically apathetic about this new film but I really wish this franchise would feel comfortable enough in itself to finally step away from constantly bringing out an increasingly elderly Arnold Schwarzenegger. The whole point of his casting in the original was that he was this utterly terrifying, Adonis type physical specimen, a hulking predator. No disrespect to Schwarzenegger, but he's just nowhere near as imposing as he once was, having most of that sense of physical charisma.

This franchise really needs to move on from Schwarzenegger. If at the end of the day, he's literally the only appeal of the series, then they should probably just let it die.
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Worked fine in T2. Patrick was equally as terrifying.
 
B

Busty

Banned
No one cares about a Terminator film directed by the Deadpool helmer.

No one cares about Arnie coming back, yet again.

No one cares about Linda Hamilton coming back.

No one cares about James Cameron being associated with the Terminator franchise.

No one cares about the Terminator franchise full stop.
 
F

Fancyarcher

Member
It's nice that Cameron is involved, but seriously just lie it die right now.

Boem said:
You know, I like the first two movies as much as the next guy, but let's not start acting like it's the most compelling premise in the world. They already milked it dry with all the mindless repetition sequels.
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It's got some good lore though. A lot of the non film spinoffs have been solid, it's just that the sequels try to hard to copy T2, and it doesn't work. That being said, enough is enough.
 
J

Joeytj

Banned
Bobby Roberts said:
So this really is the third attempt at a new trilogy then?

A trilogy of trilogy starters.

Also, they're planning on centering this trilogy on Rey a young woman, and that writers room list is:

David Ellison, David Goyer, Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, Justin Rhodes

With Tim Miller directing and James Cameron talking shit during breaks on Avatar.

Okay.
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Men know best when it comes to women leads, according to Cameron.

They think a women can either be sexual or badass, but not both. God forbid her sexuality is ever an issue.
 
1

120v

Member
jett said:
If James Cameron actually manages to resurrect this franchise it will be the most impressive accomplishment of his career. But I don't think anybody can revive this shit. The Prometheus/Covenant double whammy has probably made me doubly cynical about this sort of thing. What surprises me is that there are still people out there willing to invest into this ip, for some reason. Cameron or no Cameron. There have been two box office disappointments in a row. You'd think they'd get the message.

Regarding Arnold being in the movie, I've never really understood how the cyborgs in this universe even work. What's inside them exactly? How the hell can skin just age perfectly human-like by just sitting on top of metal.
Click to expand...

i don't think reviving the franchise is a particularly herculean task, there just was no proper "handing off" on the creative vision side of things. the last three movies were essentially just thrown at whoever. not particularly untalented writers and directors (in some cases) but there never was any inspired point A to B going from T2

not to handwave the last few decades of mediocrity but i don't think cameron ever had an uphill climb continuing the story; it's just that he was never involved
 
C

Chained Prometheus

Member
I actually encourage folks to take the time and read the main interview that's included in the article linked in the OP. It adds a bit more context in what Cameron and Miller want to do with this new Terminator film and sounds like it might have legit potential.

As for this new "young female lead" character that they're creating for Sarah Connor to pass the baton onto, this makes me wonder what the heck Cameron and Miller have in mind for John... and if it's the idea that I think it might be, then maybe this new film has a chance after all.

Note, of course, that the following is just pure speculation on my part (though I am going to put them in spoiler brackets just in case I'm somehow right)...

My guess is that John Connor died sometime after T2 and before this new film, whether it was before Judgement Day or after it, leaving Sarah with no clue what to do in order to ensure humanity's survival against Skynet and grieving the loss of her only son.

This new young woman character they're talking about would then potentially end up being Sarah's protege in the new film and ultimately become the new face of the Resistance or whatever the hell you want to call it.

It's a new twist on the whole notion of "the future is not set" and would offer both a new angle to look at for Sarah as a character, as well as open up room for this new female protagonist they're talking about.

I dunno. I think this could maybe work, though admittedly I'd be way more excited and happy about the news if Cameron and Miller were working with a female screenwriter and not a bunch of guys like David Goyer.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
"passing the torch to a young female lead" in a story penned by six dudes

at least Skynet is self-aware
 
T

torre_avenue

Banned
Honestly, just have T5 be the time stream broken from so much time travel, events start overlapping, recast characters come back in their multiple forms, and then just a huge reset & ending with the first scene from T1.
 
B

BumRush

Member
T2 and Terminator are two of my favorite movies of all time. With that being said, I'm DEFINITELY in camp "mid-budget action horror" camp, because my heart can't take another Genisys.
 
C

CosmicGroinPull

Member
The way Cameron's going back to his hit franchises and trying to milk them for all they're worth makes me think he desperately needs the money for something crazy. Like an underwater lair or his own submarine.
 
R

Ross61

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
So this really is the third attempt at a new trilogy then?

A trilogy of trilogy starters.

Also, they're planning on centering this trilogy on Rey a young woman, and that writers room list is:

David Ellison, David Goyer, Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, Justin Rhodes

With Tim Miller directing and James Cameron talking shit during breaks on Avatar.

Okay.
Click to expand...
I find it interesting that David Goyer and Justin Rhodes come as a package deal nowadays.
 
S

SuperRaddy

Member
Busty said:
No one cares about a Terminator film directed by the Deadpool helmer.

No one cares about Arnie coming back, yet again.

No one cares about Linda Hamilton coming back.

No one cares about James Cameron being associated with the Terminator franchise.

No one cares about the Terminator franchise full stop.
Click to expand...

I care ☹️
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
strafer said:
Also this is super weird, not sure what they are going for.

8wJeIjr.png
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All I can think of is this:
wEnqIUH.png


In all honesty the only thing I would be interested in is a continuation of Terminator Salvation. It had some decent actors/actresses, solid effects and action, and didn't waste the entire movie on pure nostalgia (instead using it more sparingly like with the short CG Arnold cameo).
 
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