With filming of ‘Terminator: Genesis’ under way, it is no surprise that it would be brought up to the man who made the ‘Terminator’ franchise so popular. James Cameron (‘Avatar‘, ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’) was recently asked about the film when he was in attendance at the Los Angeles Times‘ 2014 Hero Complex Film Festival and actually gave out a few interesting tidbits about the film and potentially the future of the franchise as well.
So how much input did he have on ‘Terminator: Genesis’? Well not too much honestly. He did, though, want to make sure that they had Arnold included in the film in some way. While he hadn’t been expecting him to be a lead, he did want the face everyone associates with the Terminator to be in it.
“… My goal in that was not to insinuate myself artistically but to try to make sure they stayed true to the Terminator character and the idea of Arnold being in it. Because he’s a friend of mine and we’ve been through all the wars together and everything. And I wanted them to see the possibilities I saw for what they could do with this character.
And then David Ellison took the project over from Megan and he and I met a couple times. And so Arnold is very much front and center in the new Terminator films. So I might have had some tiny effect on it — but obviously they had to make the right financial and creative decisions themselves so I’m not trying to take credit for the film that they’re making but that was my goal in being loosely attached to the film but I won’t have any credit on it.”
Could that be why we’re seeing Schwarzenegger back in one of his stand out roles? Possibly. I’m sure it didn’t hurt to have Cameron saying he should be.
How about the future of the franchise? Well, we know a trilogy and a spin-off show are planned. However, with the current deal the rights of the film will return back to Cameron by 2019. So what does that mean in the long term?
“I pay attention to [the new Terminator films] but I’m not terribly concerned about it one way or the other. I’ve had to let it go. There was a point in time where I debated going after the rights. Carolco Pictures, the company that produced Terminator 2, was failing and in bankruptcy and the rights were in play. I talked briefly to 20th Century Fox about it. At a certain point, I think I was finishing Titanic at the time and I just felt as a filmmaker maybe I’ve gone beyond it. I really wasn’t that interested. I felt like I’d told the story I wanted to tell. I suppose I could have pursued it more aggressively and gone to the mat for it but I felt like I was laboring in someone else’s house in a sense because I had sold the rights very early on.”
Sounds like at that point we wouldn’t be seeing another installment of the franchise until the rights go away again. Of course, by that time Schwarzenegger should be fully out of the role and Cameron himself might no longer be helming movies. I suppose a lot of our want to see more down the line would really depend how this upcoming trilogy does.
Are you excited for ‘Terminator: Genesis’?
Source: Screen Rant