Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers?)

[Frontier]

With another "Terminator" film coming (Paramount is distributing and released an official press release today confirming what Arnold has been saying since the rights where bought in 2011) I thought it time to start an official thread for such discussion.

Especially since I'm totally confused as to what's going on with things...

Skydance Productions, Annapurna Pictures and Paramount Pictures have jointly announced they will partner on a rebooted “TERMINATOR” movie, to be released by Paramount Pictures on June 26, 2015.


The first in a stand-alone trilogy, “TERMINATOR” will be produced by Megan Ellison of Annapurna and David Ellison of Skydance. Dana Goldberg and Paul Schwake of Skydance will serve as executive producers. Laeta Kalorgridis (“Avatar,” “Shutter Island”) and Patrick Lussier (“Drive Angry”) are attached to write the screenplay.


Launched in 1984 with star Arnold Schwarzenegger as the title character, “TERMINATOR” spanned 3 subsequent films, which have earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.


David Ellison most recently executive produced, along with his partners at Paramount, “World War Z,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”. A 5th installment of in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise is in active development, along with a 3rd film in the “G.I. Joe” franchise, among other films.


Megan Ellison most recently produced the Academy Award®-nominated “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Master” and executive produced “Spring Breakers” via her Annapurna Pictures banner and has David O. Russell’s “American Hustle,” Spike Jonze’s “Her,” and Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher” set for release later this year.
​

What we have known for a while: rights where bought in 2011. Arnold promptly said he had signed on to return. For a while, the director of one of the recent "Fast and the Furious" movies was attached, but he's since dropped out.

Then last week, we heard two rumors: first was that Dwayne Johnson ("The Rock") was being considered for a role, the other was of a story-line of Arnold playing the guy the T-800 is based off who, in the 1940s or 50s, successfully defends Sarah Connor's parents against a Terminator.

Now we've got the word "reboot" and "stand-alone trilogy" and no mention of Arnold as starring, only as to his historical context as the franchise lead. It also seems they've titled it simply "Terminator" - whether that's a true title or a working on, no idea. The original film was called "The Terminator" so they could use just "Terminator" technically...

Needless to say... no clue what's going on.

Is it a reboot? Is it a sequel? Is it a prequel? Is Arnold back? In what role? So many questions...

 

[Pingfah]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Arnie and this franchise need each other, neither is going to do well without the other, although he probably needs them more than vice versa.

Shame really, I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Stand.

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

No Arnold, no interest.

 

[Pingfah]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

My level of interest will be predicated upon whether the film looks like it might be entertaining or not. Terminator is an interesting concept with or without him, it doesn't need one particular actor to ensure a decent movie.

But hey, i'm just crazy like that.

 

[Frontier]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

I couldn't imagine a film w/out Arnold, but honestly T3 was so bad and T4 while not much better, wasn't so god awful IMHO, you know?

I can't watch T3 without spotting every single time they could have made a better choice with dialogue or story.

I've been wondering if/when they would just up and reboot things, but rebooting while keeping Arnold around confuses me.

Unless they do something I doubt they're going to do, and use CGI to de-age him. Such would be expensive though.

In an ideal world, the CGI to de-age would be accessible and let Arnold play the Terminator. I'd also, ideally, like to see Christian Bale back as John Connor, but I doubt that'll happen. The big chunk of change for talent is going in Arnold's pocket, and anyone else on the cast is going to be getting maybe 10% of what he makes. Likewise, Bale is an A-lister himself in his prime now, and wouldn't want to take a back seat to Arnold.

I dunno. I just want it to be good.

Oh, casting idea: Katee Sackhoff. As anything. Cause she rocks and could play it. LOL. A Terminator, a new Sarah Connor, Sarah Connor's mom, whatever.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Is it a reboot? Is it a sequel? Is it a prequel? Is Arnold back? In what role?

Is this the real life? Is it just faaaaan-tasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reeeee-ality...


No offense, but we've had generic "future of the Terminator franchise" for years now, with only the barest outlines of hard news to go on. Wake me when a full cast is signed and a production date set, if y'all will.

MAMA.... ooh-ooh-we-ooh....

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

The ONLY way a Terminator 5 with Arnold will work is if Arnold plays a human resistance fighter in the future who once got captured in his prime, managed to escape, and now fights together with John Connor against the machines.

 

[Pilot Ace]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

My interest in this is super low unless they bring Josh Friedman, creator of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, to write it. He gets Terminator, IMO.

Also, please no Arnold. Anything but a cameo places way too many limits on this thing. If Bale gets near this I'm also out. I hated him as John.

Really, all I want is a continuation of the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

 

[Pingfah]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

The ONLY way a Terminator 5 with Arnold will work is if Arnold plays a human resistance fighter in the future who once got captured in his prime, managed to escape, and now fights together with John Connor against the machines.

Unmitigated nonsense.

 

[bigdaddy]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

I like the fact they want to make a trilogy, yet only have until 2019 to do so.

So unless they make the first one to see if it makes money, then make the next two movies at the same time for a 2017 and 2018 release we will probably never get a full story they want to tell.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Then last week, we heard two rumors: first was that Dwayne Johnson ("The Rock") was being considered for a role, the other was of a story-line of Arnold playing the guy the T-800 is based off who, in the 1940s or 50s, successfully defends Sarah Connor's parents against a Terminator.

Interesting. If they moved the setting up a bit to include where Sarah is born and Ahnuld is instead a human time traveler and future Terminator template who keeps protecting her and her parents over decades, I wouldn't mind seeing sort of a Dean Koontz' Lightning situation in the story, minus all the Nazis (which would be replaced by Terminators) and with backwards time travel instead of forwards. There's no reason why the story has to be limited to one Terminator.

 

[ITL]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Lightning had paradox free time travel, didn't it? Always a plus.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Is it a reboot? Is it a sequel? Is it a prequel? Is Arnold back? In what role?

This franchise is getting almost as muddy and confused as Highlander got, with movies that took different paths and seem to contradict each other, along with a series that seems to occasionally contradict what happened in some of the movies. I dunno...maybe a full reboot to erase the past entirely...I just don't know.

But it must definitely have Ah-nuld.

 

[Captain Craig]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

No Arnold, no interest.

No Future War, no interest.

This series, as it was with Salvation, has moved beyond needing Arnold, imo. The concept, the story was my attachment. If a T5 doesn't continue into the Future War, get us to a point to complete the loop by sending Kyle back then my give a care is registering zero.

Kyle not trusting 'smart phones', yeah now there is some drama I can't wait to see!!

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Lightning had paradox free time travel, didn't it? Always a plus.

Yeah, though obviously the suggestion I made above about incorporating the general idea into the Terminator universe would have to feature paradoxes, since the whole universe is built on them.

The novel describes the time machine used by the Nazis as resembling a tunnel; when the correct mathematical calculations are made the machine is set and the traveler steps inside and vanishes, reappearing with some degree of precision at the physical and temporal location chosen. There are a number of unique details and mechanics to make time travelling work.

The fictional universe supports the theory that nature will not allow a paradox to exist, including meeting oneself. Furthermore, in order to prevent the "Back to the Future" syndrome of preventing one's own existence by past actions, time can only be traversed into the future. The energy used to move through time disrupts the natural environment during the arrival at the target time and place, which causes massive unexplained lightning storms (and the book's title). The departure from the future back to the present does not cause a lightning storm.

Regardless of how long the traveler spends in his destination, for unexplained reasons once he returns to his own time stream (by use of a push button device commonly concealed in a belt buckle) exactly 11 minutes will have passed. Changes made at one point in time will affect all future events stemming from that timeline; however only the traveler himself will be aware that anything has changed, since his own past was not altered. The Nazis pursuing Stefan and Laura lose them at several points while they are on the run. Rather than continue their physical pursuit, they return to the past, then go farther ahead in the future to seek credit card receipts and motel information to determine where the pair will flee to, and go to that time to set an ambush. They could not do this if they had remained after pursuit due to the next aspect.

As stated above, a time traveler cannot return to a temporal location he has previously visited (even if it were to a different physical location), since technically he will still be there and thus create a paradox. This plays a role in the endgame when Stefan witnesses Laura's death at the hands of SS Lt. Erich Kleitmann's men. Since he is already there when she dies, he cannot return there to save her, so instead he returns to 1944 and sends a message in a bottle forward to just before the event, warning of the outcome. Stefan has to be careful to use items from the past to compose the message, otherwise they would not appear when needed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(novel)

 

[davejames]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Better to have Arnold that not have him, I guess. But the whole Terminator concept is so played out by now, that I don't know what they could do to make it seem fresh and interesting again.

We know every part of the story inside and out by now.

 

[Pingfah]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Well a reboot often involves abandoning all established canon and starting again with the basic concept, which is fine by me.

 

[tighr]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

We know every part of the story inside and out by now.

Except we don't. The movies (continuity errors and all) still left a lot of plot threads hanging.

Not that we need them to be explained, either, though. A fresh reboot would bring a new perspective.

A new Terminator released in 2014 would be the 30th anniversary of the franchise, though.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Hollywood still out of ideas? Why not endlessly reboot, remake, and redo the same old ideas instead of thinking of new ones? Terrible. Does anyone remember when you could go to the theatre and most movies there would be original?

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Future of the "Terminator" Franchise (Discussion, Rumors, Spoilers

Is it a reboot? Is it a sequel? Is it a prequel? Is Arnold back? In what role?

This franchise is getting almost as muddy and confused as Highlander got, with movies that took different paths and seem to contradict each other, along with a series that seems to occasionally contradict what happened in some of the movies. I dunno...maybe a full reboot to erase the past entirely...I just don't know.

But it must definitely have Ah-nuld.

You know, I wouldn't mind a nuTrek-style reboot. Find a way to set it up in an alternate reality, which should be easy with this franchise, without ignoring what came before.