Terminator Future According To James Cameron: Throw It All Out
· BCPosted in: Movies, News | Tagged: james cameron, terminator, terminator zero
Terminator Future According To James Cameron: Throw It All Out
James Cameron is talking about a bold plan he has to take the Terminator franchise in new directions and to new heights.
Published Thu, 19 Sep 2024 17:32:08 -0500
by Jeremy Konrad
|
Comments
Article Summary
- James Cameron plans to reboot the Terminator franchise, disregarding past 40 years of films.
- New Terminator stories will focus on core principles without relying on old iconography.
- Upcoming films will feature powerless main characters fighting AI, maintaining a moral compass.
- Cameron believes new films will attract and captivate fresh audiences while retaining the franchise's essence.
Terminator is 40 years old, and as far as an action franchise, it is hard to develop a more iconic one over those 40 years. Even if everything that has come after Judgement Day has been, let's say just okay to be nice, that doesn't mean that there is still not an appetite for stories set in that universe. That is proven by Terminator Zero, now streaming on Netflix, and what many consider one of the best entries in the franchise, period. That means nothing to creator James Cameron, though. In a new chat with Empire celebrating the franchise's anniversary, he has "more than a plan" in the future.
Terminator: The Great Reset
"This is the moment when you jettison everything that is specific to the last 40 years of Terminator, but you live by those principles," the director says. "You get too inside it, and then you lose a new audience because the new audience cares much less about that stuff than you think they do; that's the danger, obviously, with Avatar as well, but I think we've proven that we have something for new audiences. "You've got powerless main characters, essentially, fighting for their lives, who get no support from existing power structures and have to circumvent them but somehow maintain a moral compass. And then you throw AI into the mix. Those principles are sound principles for storytelling today, right? So I have no doubt that subsequent Terminator films will not only be possible, but they'll kick ass. But this is the moment where you jettison all the specific iconography."
So Terminator, but wipe the slate clean? Sure, let's do that. More franchises, especially all of these legacy ones, should try this more often. And I do not mean just remake the original, either. Just set new stories in that universe and trust the storytelling. That is usually what packed people into the theater in the first place, anyway. And when it comes to making money in the movies, who else would you want to entrust than the most successful person to ever do it?
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!