James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is making waves at the box office. However, the Academy Award-winning director has his share of failures as well. Cameron joined the 2019 Terminator: Dark Fate as executive producer, but the film did not live up to its expectations and ended up becoming one of the biggest disasters. Since its release, multiple factors have been attributed to its failures.
In one of his recent interviews, the producer of the film acknowledged that some of his decisions may have also caused it to fail at the box office. Terminator: Dark Fate is set 25 years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where a Terminator and a female warrior try to save a young woman.
Why James Cameron Wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator: Dark Fate?
James Cameron directed the first two films in the Terminator franchise and returned as executive producer of the fifth and final film (to date) with 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate. However, he still wanted control over the film’s production and demanded to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead in the film.
The True Lies director shared during his interview with Deadline that he was not willing to continue with Dark Fate if the makers did not cast the Predator star in the film. He shared, “Tim didn’t want Arnold, but I said, ‘Look, I don’t want that. Arnold and I have been friends for 40 years, and I could hear it, and it would go like this: ‘Jim, I can’t believe you’re making a ‘Terminator’ movie without me.”
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Cameron claimed that the Commando star would not have liked the fact that a Terminator film was being made without him. The director also admitted that this might also have been one of the reasons the film failed to achieve its targets. “I think the problem, and I’m going to wear this one, is that I refused to do it without Arnold,” Cameron shared.
It caused sort of tension between James Cameron and the director of the film, Tim Miller. The Titanic director shared that he liked Miller before and after working on the film. However, while they worked on Terminator: Dark Fate, their battles over casting made it hard for them to get along.
While Cameron was persistent on having Schwarzenegger in the film, the Deadpool director wanted to bring Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Conor. The Alien director claimed that casting these actors cause the young audience to lose interest in the film, leading it to fail at the box office.
Tim Miller Vows Never to Work With James Cameron Again
Tim Miller worked with the Oscar-winning director during the 2019 Terminator: Dark Fate. After the release of the film, the director opened up about why the film did not work and ended up being one of the biggest disasters in Hollywood.
He said, “I’m sure we could write a book on why it didn’t work.” He also shared that he and Cameron disagreed over multiple things. As James Cameron and David Ellison were the producers, they had the final say in what should be done and how it should happen.
Miller shared that he had no control over the situation. He also claimed that although the film did not turn out to be as expected, he is still proud of what he had made.
The creator of Love Death + Robots said that he still did not hesitate to share his point of view. Tim Miller earlier left the sequel for the 2016 film Deadpool after the lead star, Ryan Reynolds, wanted to be in control of the production.
He claimed, “You can work that way as a director, quite successfully, but I can’t. I don’t mind having a debate, but if I can’t win, I don’t want to play.” The American filmmaker has shared that he has no hard feelings for James Cameron, but he doesn’t want to be in a situation again, where he has no control over things.
The Terminator franchise is available to stream on Paramount+.
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is playing in theatres.
Source: Deadline
