Duh!
What else would the creator of the Terminator franchise think should be the focus of a fifth film be, other than the character he created it around?
Speaking with MTV, James Cameron responded to questions about conversations with the rather busy Arnold Schwarzenneger by describing a conversation regarding his involvement with the Terminator franchise. Suggesting that the project is only worth doing if his Terminator character is pretty much the center of it, he makes it clear he merely advising a friend.
“I was talking to him back in fall about a new ‘Terminator’ film and quietly advising on that, I suppose you could say… I was trying to be as encouraging as possible. Frankly, at that time, I thought it needed to be more about him. I told him he should not do it until it’s focused on his character or he shouldn’t do it. I think there are some great stories that can be told about that character that haven’t even been thought of yet.”
It’s a rather casual comment, but if you care to extrapolate some value out of it, perhaps it’s a indicator 
that when and if we do see a Terminator 5 emerge with Arnold involved it will put him front and center. The rights, now owned by Angelic super-producer Megan Ellison after a Cannes-timed buyout, haven’t been exploited as quickly as seemed likely at the time of their purchase. Originally Justin Lin was going to direct some kind of sidequel, but he departed for faster pastures. Perhaps Arnold deciding it’s time to go for another round of a more traditional, center-stage action role for himself will get the project re-written and off the ground- assuming he ever becomes convinced that’s the case. Perhaps sating his Gatling tooth among an ensemble in The Expendables 2 will suffice though. That’s all reading a little far into a throwaway comment from someone only tangentially involved, but didn’t want to totally waste your time! And besides, surely Ellison won’t sit on such a pricey purchase for too much longer. Some real news on this franchise must be imminent…
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Personally, I think they should ignore SALVATION altogether (it’s terrible enough to justify being ignored) and just call the next movie TERMINATOR 4. Hell, the RESIDENT EVIL video game series followed the same kind of pattern; RE4 didn’t come out for years, while fans had to live with a number of “spin-offs”. That’s how I see SALVATION: A depressing, limp, nonexistent spin-off.
On a side note, this is rather amusing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Z-CLd3Y3c&list=UUEtdTEXkNcmDy3Bsrn5c83g&index=1&feature=plcp
If they don’t do Terminator 5 soon, the rights revert back to Cameron. He can then reboot the franchise and have a nice extra cash cow to fund a fleet of submarines. That’s the end game for Cameron. He probably doesn’t give a shit about Ahnuld, he just doesn’t want him to do it until he gets the rights back.
Arnold should be done with this. Will he play a geriatric terminator? The dude can barely act as it is. A T5 with him as the focus would be awful.
Ha, hilarious. Has James Cameron actually seen Ahnold in the last year or so? Ahnold looks like he’s had one too many botox injections to hide his age. I agree with Cameron that this franchise is about Ahnuld, so let it die with Ahnuld’s flagging acting career as goes the natural order of the universe and move on. Cameron should be making Battle Angel Alita anyway, instead of talking about it for 20 more years.
There was a perfect CGI version of him in T/S, why do they need the decrepit Austrian at all?
Cameron has no ownership of Terminator and hasn’t since the 80s.
Basic history up to 2010:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/09/terminator-rights-may-change-hands-again.html
There may be some wriggle-room around the character of Sarah Connor though – I remember that was how the TV series happened. It had to be a “Sarah Connor” TV show, not a “Terminator” show or something like that.
Cameron regains some sort of control of the franchise rights in 2017. He didn’t permanently sign them away.
This has to be a joke. Will Arnold play an older Terminator whose bio properties are failing? By the earliest time that this film could get made Arnold will be 30 years older then he was in the first one. He was stretching it playing the character ten years ago, when this film comes out that will be twelve to thirteen years in the past, making Arnold way to old to play the same role. Maybe, skin deaging would have advanced by then. Maybe, makeup effects will help. But, Cameron is surely just spitballing-he is also not terribly creative( except for Aliens, the sequel to someone elses better film)- so maybe this is a legitimate idea…
I don’t get it. What “character” is there to even focus on here? In the first three movies, Arnold plays three different units off the same assembly line. It’s not like he’s playing an individual.
@garageman
The cgi Version of Arnold was the only good thing of Salvation to me.
I have to be honest, as a huge fan of the “classic” Arnie-movies I would love to see him back in some good parts, but *only* if Arnie manages to keep some kind of dignity in them.
I actually thought the few glimpses we caught of his character in The Expendables were quite promising: Arnie not as the frontline soldier, but as the old veteran who is pulling strings in the back, but who can come down there and kick ass if he wants to.
For the record, I do not want to see him as the T-800 anymore. The story was perfectly concluded in T2 anyways, T3 and Salvation already were more than unnecessary.
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