James Cameron Talks Terminator
Wired have posted an article in which James Cameron offers his thoughts on the Terminator franchise. Following are selected excerpts from the article:
On the origin of the Terminator idea:
I’ve been fascinated ever since by our human propensity for dancing on the edge of the apocalypse. So when I wrote the first Terminator outline around 1982, I was just working out my childhood stuff. It was also born out of the science fiction movies and literature I grew up with. For the most part, they were warnings-about technology, about science, about the military and the government. You couldn’t escape those themes or the fear of nuclear holocaust.
The idea of a hit man from the future trying to change past events was certainly not new. What I thought was cutting-edge was deciding to not have the Terminator be a guy in a robot suit. That’s how it was typically done. But a flesh-covered endoskeleton? That was new. So for me it was all about how we could develop stop-motion animation and puppetry to create a true robotic endoskeleton. The team at visual-effects house Stan Winston Studio jumped into it and made it work.
On casting Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as our Terminator, on the other hand, shouldn’t have worked. The guy is supposed to be an infiltration unit, and there’s no way you wouldn’t spot a Terminator in a crowd instantly if they all looked like Arnold. It made no sense whatsoever. But the beauty of movies is that they don’t have to be logical. They just have to have plausibility. If there’s a visceral, cinematic thing happening that the audience likes, they don’t care if it goes against what’s likely.
On Terminator Salvation:
I kind of turned my back on the Terminator world when there was early talk about a third film. I’d evolved beyond it. I don’t regret that, but I have to live with the consequence, which is that I keep seeing it resurrected. I’m not involved in Terminator Salvation. I’ve never read the script. I’m sure I’ll be paying 10 bucks to see it like everybody else.
Read the full article at Wired.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
We wonder if James “I made my fortune but still turn-out
techno-wampum shit for the circle-jerks” Cameron
EVER plans to come clean about his —and Hollywood’s
financial ‘understanding’ with history’s most awesomely
genocidal monsters—across the Pacific?
I mean 70 million ‘peacetime’ murders is nothing
you want to lay plush carpeting over!
No—sireee!
70,000,000—and STILL climbing!