Terminator Franchise (1984-∞)

[flyonthewall2983]

I had no idea Jonah Nolan was/is involved. So I guess there is some hope yet, but when a director can only reference films made this century, it doesn't particularly excite me.

More importantly, it looks like the project now has Cameron's blessing.

[Mr Sausage]

More importantly, it looks like the project now has Cameron's blessing.

Did Terminator 3 have Cameron's blessing?

[flyonthewall2983]

I read that he didn't, but he encouraged Arnold to do it once it became public that he had no interest in doing the 3rd film.

[otis]

Imagine what some whiz kid at MIT or in the black ops operation of Langley. Think about what they're up to. That's the stuff that just sort of says enough is enough and it's a question. Rutger Hauer posed it, I, Robot got into it. It's everything. Asimov, it's everything Philip K. Dick [wrote about in] Does The Android Dream of Electric Sheep

This is some of the finest gibberish I've read in quite a while. =D>

[Len]

I always talk about it if I type A and N in my BlackBerry, it types the D. That's artificial intelligence.

Great interview. Also, I can't wait for McG's 10 million dollar Merchant Ivory films.

[broadwayrock]

More importantly, it looks like the project now has Cameron's blessing.

From a recent James Cameron interview

Q. Are you involved at all in the Christian Bale production of Terminator 4?

It could be a big steaming pile or it could be brilliant. Sam Worthington is in the Avatar and the new Terminator and he likes the script, but I never saw it. There was no blessing involved.

[Antoine Doinel]

This film is so much more that just Los Angeles. It reflects the global crisis of man, all of man versus machine. -McG

Dumbest marketing tool ever.

[Cde.]

This film is so much more that just Los Angeles. It reflects the global crisis of man, all of man versus machine.
-McG

"It's like a battle between motors and horses, like technology vs. horse."

[Antoine Doinel]

New trailer narrated by Batman.

[exte]

This film is so fucking awful. And the idea that somehow the first terminators were the 8088s of their days is just so sad, stupid and wrong. What's the point of assuring the audience we haven't gotten there yet? Why can't we see Cyberdyne at the full height of their power? Not in a T3 way, but in keeping with the T1 and T2 images from the future? Is it so hard? And at least T2 had a theme. I can't conceive this one having one...

[King Prendergast]

"It's like a battle between motors and horses, like technology vs. horse."

Like the lance versus machine gun in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; technology always loses.
See Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden: http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Garden-Te ... 104&sr=1-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[solaris72]

And at least T2 had a theme. I can't conceive this one having one...

Ugh. T2 repeatedly chokes on its own self importance. Philosophical lectures written by Jimmy Cameron are very low on the list of things I want out of a movie.

[Antoine Doinel]

And at least T2 had a theme. I can't conceive this one having one...

Ugh. T2 repeatedly chokes on its own self importance. Philosophical lectures written by Jimmy Cameron are very low on the list of things I want out of a movie.

I don't think anyone likes T2 for whatever philosophical mumbo jumbo it has. It's revered for being a top tier blockbuster, with a great villain, great effects and some astounding set pieces.

[Mr Sausage]

I don't recall any lectures in the movie, nor any philosophy--and I guess by self-important he means it takes its emotional core seriously, because otherwise I'm stumped over what in it could be self-important. Sounds more like he just doesn't like James Cameron the man (enough to make a condescending dimunitive of his first name) than anything else.

[solaris72]

I don't recall any lectures in the movie, nor any philosophy--and I guess by self-important he means it takes its emotional core seriously, because otherwise I'm stumped over what in it could be self-important. Sounds more like he just doesn't like James Cameron the man (enough to make a condescending dimunitive of his first name) than anything else.

I like Cameron's scifi action movies well enough, except for the parts where characters open their mouths. T2 bothers me more than Aliens or Terminator because it seems a bigger offender in this category, with speeches like

Yeah. Right. How were you supposed to know? Fucking men... all you know how to do is thrust into the world with your... fucking ideas and your weapons. Did you know that every gun in the world is named after a man? Colt, Browning, Smith, Thompson, Kalashnikov... all men. Men built the hydrogen bomb, not women... men like you thought it up. You're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something... to create a life. To feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death... you fucking bastards.

Maybe I was a little too dismissive of T2 in my earlier post, I was just taking exception to it being singled out for its thematic material. And perhaps I blew that remark out of proportion, in some circles Cameron is taken way too seriously, but I don't think that's the case here

[exte]

"I know now why you cry but it's something I can never do..." The movie isn't just a huge special effects vehicle. They took the time to interweave a little heart into it, in the most unexpected way. The hero sacrifice I think makes the movie and John will never be the same. It's a sequel that expands the universe of the story in many ways, but emotionally in a beautifully ironic way. Mr. Cameron may be a bastard in real life but he knows what he's doing. Perhaps his greatest success in this sense is what he did with Aliens, the creation of Ripley as mother and the ultimate female fighter in sci-fi. Still, T2 holds a great place in my heart. Most of its visual identity is timeless and the story still remains potent. It's not stale or stagnant or merely repetitive. I still don't think I got anything out of T3 other than a crane sequence, which imo was finally outdone in Dark Knight. Anyway, it's not Hamlet... Btw, did anyone else notice the lifts/homages to Road Warrior in the helicopter chase?

[Mr Sausage]

I like Cameron's scifi action movies well enough, except for the parts where characters open their mouths. T2 bothers me more than Aliens or Terminator because it seems a bigger offender in this category, with speeches like

Yeah. Right. How were you supposed to know? Fucking men... all you know how to do is thrust into the world with your... fucking ideas and your weapons. Did you know that every gun in the world is named after a man? Colt, Browning, Smith, Thompson, Kalashnikov... all men. Men built the hydrogen bomb, not women... men like you thought it up. You're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something... to create a life. To feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death... you fucking bastards.

But she's clearly going over-the-top and her son stops her mid-sentence with "Ok, we need to be a little bit more constructive here." Always struck me as a character moment rather than preaching. (And just so we're on the same level, the speech you quoted is a deliberate parody of the actual one, right?)

[TedW]

I actually wished Cameron had just let her make the point she was making (which, while clumsy, was reasonable in the context of the movie). When Furlong undercuts her, an overused device, it's disingenuous... either let the character have the damn speech or cut the damn speech out. But don't try to sneak the speech in and then say to the audience, "Well, I was only kidding about that."

[Antoine Doinel]

McG hints that the Governator has a cameo and gets into one of the dumbest director feuds ever.

Whatever you do, don't ruin Christian Bale's scene.

[TedW]

Oh, he's just mad his agent talked him into doing a fucking Terminator movie.

It is, however, a new classic clip, definitely on par with the David O. Russell stuff.

[Jeff]

Whatever you do, don't ruin Christian Bale's scene.

Here is a longer version of the same. He goes on and on humiliating the cinematographer, Shane Hurlbut, who isn't exactly a rookie. He refuses to calm down, refuses to let Hurlbut or anyone else speak, and then physically threatens him. And the funny thing is, it doesn't sound like anyone else on set sees what Bale is seeing. The unprofessionalism is overwhelming. I can't imagine a D.P. of any stature wanting to work with him now. What a prick. Hope he didn't try this shit with Dante Spinotti on the Public Enemies set. Michael Mann would cut Bale's balls off and hang them from his rearview mirror.

[TedW]

DP's don't get to choose. In Bale's defense, however, I am told nothing of the sort happened on Public Enemies. Depp was another story...

[Jeff]

DP's don't get to choose. In Bale's defense, however, I am told nothing of the sort happened on Public Enemies. Depp was another story...

Oh I know that DPs aren't involved in casting, but they often sign on to projects with stars already attached. If I was a guy like Spinotti, Deakins, Toll, Richardson, Savides, Lubiezki, et. al who have the luxury of saying "thanks, but no thanks" to everything they're offered, I would steer clear of Bale. I'm sure many other actors are equally unprofessional, and we just don't hear about it, but it's certainly disappointing to witness it from someone I liked as much as Bale.

[TedW]

I'm sure many other actors are equally unprofessional, and we just don't hear about it...

As you said. Show business is filled with people who act unprofessionally, flip out, scream, etc. That type of shit goes on every day. Bale just had the dumb luck to be taped. Which, of course, does not excuse his behavior... McG, who must've been right there, should've jumped in (at, uh, I don't know, maybe the five-minute mark?) and put a stop to it.