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And I don’t mean A Terminator, either.  I mean the whole shooting match. Lock, stock, boxtop and rights.  You too can own the rights to a pretty successful franchise that usually costs plenty to exploit, though it usually makes its money back.

Interestingly, though, Joss Whedon actually made an offer for the Terminator rights, but it was significantly less than the current owners wanted:  a whopping ten grand.

He even had some pretty sweet ideas, including branching out into porn (cue that wa-wa pedal guitar!) and even doing a musical.  He thought twice about the musical, but I say it could work.  I’ve actually got part of the opening song already written and would be happy to contribute for the low, low cost of ten percent of the grosses.  You’re welcome, in advance.

But seriously, this is a move that might actually end well, assuming the right people get a hold of the rights.  I doubt they’ll get the twenty five million they want for them, though.

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Dana Goodyear wrote an astounding 12-page article for the October 26, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, in which she goes on the set of James Cameron’s Avatar for an early look at the 3-D world that Cameron has created for the upcoming movie.

Goodyear’s article is more than about Avatar. It’s about Cameron and his moviemaking boldness and assertiveness that brings light to an artist’s desire to be the best he can be in film. 

The director of Aliens, Terminator and Terminator 2 and Titanic, he’s also a writer and producer.  “Maverick” best describes the filmmaker — place him next to Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick or Charlie Chaplin — all visionaries of the future.

Click on Cameron and you’ll be at the article. Enjoy — it’s quite a read!

(Source)

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Easily one of the biggest movies of the 1990s, indeed, of my childhood, had to have been Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  I personally saw this one several times, and to find it included as part of the four-DVD Schwartzenegger collection was a great and joyous surprise.

Part of the grand, grandiose and steadily growing Terminator saga, Terminator 2: Judgment Day brought us squarely to a sticking point.  With Sarah Connor locked up in Pescadero Mental Hospital, Kyle Reese very dead and John Connor, future leader of the Resistance, currently living with foster parents in Reseda, things don’t exactly look good.  And things only get worse when Skynet decides to pull a little more time travel chicanery and drop a fresh terminator, the T-1000, into the fray to try and take out John Connor.

But all is hardly lost, as a new ally is sent back in time to help out–a T-101 terminator, the classic Schwartzenegger terminator, is sent back to be placed under young John Connor’s command.  And so, John and the terminator must go forth and spring Sarah from Pescadero, but at the same time also repel the T-1000 and survive. Further, they have the highly difficult task of removing every trace of terminator technology from the present day, and that’s going to involve busting into the developers’ headquarters, Cyberdyne Systems, and blasting it to kingdom come.

Sure, it’s not exactly much of a plot, but where Terminator 2: Judgment Day really shines is in its explosion count.  Things are going to blow up so big and so often in this movie that you’ll scarcely notice they don’t actually, you know, DO a whole lot.  There’s not a whole lot of time to bemoan the fact that they didn’t put much into advancing a plot or developing any characters or anything like that because you’re entirely too busy watching Robert Patrick and Arnold Schwartzenegger pound each other.  You’re too busy watching Arnold take on a whole slew of cops with a GE Minigun.  Oh, sure, there’s some plot here, but it’s not like that’s what anyone came here for, a lesson that would serve filmmakers well into the FOURTH installment, and probably in the fifth and sixth installments, too.

This being a special edition of sorts, even going so far as to bear the name “extreme DVD”,  it will not surprisingly come jam-packed with all sorts of nifty extras, including things like a “Skynet Combat Chassis Designer” in which you get to build your own war machine and send it forth in battle,  some photo morphing software and much more normal featurettes and deleted scenes and such.

There’s not a whole lot in this movie that might make anyone regard it as a BAD movie, but then, there’s not a whole lot in here that’d make anyone regard it as a particularly deep and rich movie either.  In fact, this is essentially the beginning of the end for the Terminator franchise, and it’s all downhill from here.  So yes, if you’re into action movies, into science fiction, and just can’t get enough of stuff go boom, then you’re definitely going to love this one, with all it entails.

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No one really sees a movie like Terminator: Salvation coming.

I know, that’s a baffler—who didn’t see this one coming? Hollywood’s frantic and desperate for cash in the worst economy since the seventies, quite possibly since the Great Depression itself. Of COURSE they’re going to exploit every single property they have in their arsenal in the insane search for More Money.

But where the unexpected part is when one of these insane cash grabs actually turns out to be good. That’s just unaccountable. Downright unfathomable, even.

In this installment, we’ve gone ahead to the not-too-distant future (nine years away, folks!) of 2018. A military installation called Skynet, an artificial intelligence designed to run the military has become self-aware and decided that humanity may be the greatest threat to its existence. So, with its control of the vast American nuclear arsenal, Skynet took care of the problem the only way it knew how—it enacted the Bush Doctrine and freed the hell out of us.

Now, a ragtag human resistance wages a continuous war against the machines, Skynet’s android soldiers, each a part of Skynet’s vast network. A series of time travel efforts and such have put us to the ultimate position where Skynet’s out to kill a thirteen year old boy before he can be sent back in time to have sex with a waitress in the 1980s so that she can give birth to the greatest military figure the world has ever known. Yeah, I know—it’s a bit confusing, but factor out the time travel and things work out a LOT better, trust me. To that end, Skynet’s out to kill both John Connor, the greatest military figure guy, and Kyle Reese, the thirteen year old time traveler and Connor’s daddy by using an android so sophisticated that it seems to leapfrog all of Skynet’s current advances (the prototype is the superior model? Huh?) that it manages to even keep its android nature a secret from itself.

I’m personally glad to see a Terminator that’s actually set in the future. Usually all we get to see of the future war is brief, and dark (like at night dark) before they jump back to present-day Los Angeles. Though looking at the movie leaves me with a whole lot of questions—why the massive technological disparity between Skynet’s forces and human forces, for one? Humans are basically using twentieth century tech whilst Skynet’s running around with superhuman vertol aircraft with hover capabilities, giant robotic soldiers easily four times the height of a Seven-Eleven, and plasma cannons. Meanwhile, humans have…um…machine guns? Unusually small grenade launchers? Nothing that wouldn’t have already been found in the Gulf War?

Wow…we SUCK. Seriously, didn’t anyone even think to grab one of those Terminators they shut down and try and at least figure out how they’re so clearly bulletproof?

And don’t even get me started on how Marcus Wright is the first significant Terminator infiltrator, but he’s clearly superior to even Skynet’s latest version despite the fact he was made BEFORE SKYNET ITSELF.

But when I ignore the massive array of downright impossibilities that this movie represents, and all the weird plot holes, what I get is a fun little action movie / popcorn romp that’s fairly watchable when taken by itself. This is downright tailor-made for summer movie season, and even though it represents a canon-wrecker on par with anything we’ve ever seen, it does at least prove entertaining.

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I want to thank Latino Review for bringing the latest advertisement for Terminator Salvation to my attention.  The excitement for the fourth installment is snowballing fast with the latest Standees, this one of Christian Bale. Doesn’t he look a little like Arnold?  Interesting way of promoting, don’t you think?

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I don’t know if this is the final poster for Terminator Salvation, but the film’s story is appearing more with images on the Internet.  Click here to see a bunch, which gives you an idea of the overall story.  It looks like this film will be one of the top money making films of the year.

Here is the International trailer and website, you’ll be glad you went and took a look — it’s awesome!

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

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Now, this trailer tells a story — check it out.  If you want a super clean, crisp look go to Yahoo.

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Wired.com put together a wonderful piece on Terminator 4 with plenty of images. McG is interviewed throughout the article and, there’s no doubt, the man has mastered Terminator. 

I agree with McG point of view on using real robots instead of CGI: 

“A lot of people make CG movies where actors are emoting to poles with tennis balls on top of them,” said McG. “That’s the last thing I wanted to do. I don’t like dealing with cartoons, so to speak. I wanted real robots for the actors to interface with so you could get that grittiness and realism. There’s an archetype shape to the T-800. We needed body types to suggest the robot that would combat John Connor, and Roland Kickinger is a good body type. His shoulders are huge, his waist is narrow. The [Industrial Light & Magic] guys used their calipers to measure shoulder spatial differences and said he’d make a good body double. Roland as an individual is not in the movie.”

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I found an interview with Terminator 4 director McG at the Star online. It’s an insightful interview where the director talks about the much anticipated film and his work on Charlie Angels.  You also find out why he’s called McG, which I find very interesting.

All in all, my guess is that Terminator Salvation is going to rock the Terminator fans and curve the franchise in a whole new direction.  Click on the poster to read the interview.

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