James Cameron’s Terminator and Terminator 2 are considered to be among science fiction masterpieces. Moving forward with the franchise, however, did not seem to have the same spark as these two movies. Fans of the franchise will agree that the last four sequels haven’t been anything but underwhelming.
Now, director James Cameron has revealed that there are discussions going on about another addition to the Terminator franchise, although there are things he would do differently this time around. What is it that he would change about the franchise going forward? Well for starters, he wants to focus more on Artificial Intelligence and maybe change up the cast a little bit.
How James Cameron Would Revive Terminator
Appearing on the SmartLess podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, director James Cameron opened up about the chances of reviving the Terminator franchise stating that the possibilities of that happening are currently in discussion. He also added that this time around, he would focus more on AI rather than crazy robots.
“If I were to do another Terminator film and maybe try to launch that franchise again, which is in discussion, but nothing has been decided, I would make it much more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy.”
Given the fact that the last and final installment of the franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate, turned out to be a complete flop, if Cameron really wants to revive the franchise, he might have to look at it with a new lens. Apparently, the producer understands where he went wrong with Dark Fate – his friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger – and takes it as a lesson.
Cameron refused to be involved in the film if his friend of forty years wouldn’t get to be in it. While director Tim Miller didn’t want Schwarzenegger to be a part of his movie, Cameron wouldn’t have it any other way. He then added that Miller wanted Linda Hamilton in the film as well and that while the sequel could’ve handled either Schwarzenegger or Hamilton, having both actors in the movie just didn’t work out. Why? According to the Avatar director, the actors’ ages were at fault.
“I think the problem, and I’m going to wear this one, is that I refused to do it without Arnold. 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.’ It just didn’t mean that much to me to do it, but I said, ‘If you guys could see your way clear to bringing Arnold back and then, you know, I’d be happy to be involved. And then Tim wanted Linda. I think what happened is I think the movie could have survived having Linda in it, I think it could have survived having Arnold in it, but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then, you know, she’s 60-something, he’s 70-something, all of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie. It was just our own myopia. We kind of got a little high on our own supply, and I think that’s the lesson there.”
Looks like despite being a big reason why the Terminator franchise made its mark in the industry and being in all six films of the franchise (as CGI in Terminator Salvation), Schwarzenegger will no longer be a part of the future revival, should there be one.
Terminator: Dark Fate’s Failed Reception
Terminator: Dark Fate was received poorly by critics and audiences alike, with the main focus of criticism being the glaring plot holes and the death of John Connor early on in the movie. As a result, the movie not only did horribly at the box office but also became the second biggest box office bomb of 2019, grossing just $261.1 million while it needed a whopping $450 million just to break even.
It lost $122.6 million dollars for Paramount and other studios involved in it. Subsequently, all the future planned sequels were canceled. The movie was supposed to clean the slate of the previous three failed Terminator sequels by deciding that it will ignore the events from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines to Terminator: Genisys and start right where Terminator 2: Judgement Day left off.
Unfortunately, even after that, the movie could not live up to the sky-high success of the first two Terminator movies in which Cameron helmed the director’s seat. He directed the 1st Terminator on a budget of just around $6 million and it grossed a whopping $78.3 million while the sequel was an even bigger blockbuster grossing $520 million dollars against a budget of around $100 million dollars.
This just goes on to prove that they should either let the franchise rest undisturbed or, bring in much-needed fresh faces and a completely new storyline other than “bad-robots-gone-crazy“.
Source: SmartLess podcast
