Twenty eight years and well over $2.8 billion dollars in global box office gross, James Cameron’s Avatar franchise has only grown toward bigger aspirations as fans of the inaugural 2009 film gear up for Avatar: The Way Of Water, opening in theaters from December 16.
The last three Terminator films might have been a chore for fans and the producers and filmmakers involved in the saga.
Next December will see the first of a quartet of sequels arising finally for James Cameron’s transformative action adventure sci-fi saga, Avatar 2. An official title may yet be pending unless that’s the title Walt Disney Pictures goes for after acquiring all of 20th Century Fox’s properties as of last month.
If you were to tell me last December that Robert Rodriguez’s latest gamble with live-action manga filmfare Alita: Battle Angel was going to eventually pull me in by it’s release, I’d stop short of telling you to have your head examined before long.
Deadpool helmer Tim Miller and Terminator franchise mainstay James Cameron are lining up a 2018 production schedule for the new Terminator movie opening next year. For this, Justin Kroll at Variety has it on good terms that The Martian and Blade Runner 2049 actress McKenzie Davis is in discussions to partake on the female incarnation of the time-traveling cybernetic killer from the future.Cameron’s involvement has imbued the film’s standing as a direct sequel from the 1992 blockbuster, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose original franchise stars, Linda Hamilton and title actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, are also returning to reprise their roles. Casting for human roles next to Hamilton’s iconic Sarah Connor currently remain pending as production dates are set for June through middle of October with a July 26, 2019 release in tow.Cameron is producing with David Ellison whose Skydance is also financing the film. Billy Ray is overseeing a script polish from an original story by Miller, Cameron and Ellison.
I’ll be the last person to invest in any upheaval between filmmakers as much as those keen on what sci-fi auteur James Cameron has to say this week pertaining to Wonder Woman – except that I absolutely had fun seeing it this summer and I’m looking forward to the sequel. For this, we turn to more pertinent news regarding the current progress he’s now making with director Tim Miller on the future of the forthcoming Terminator trilogy finale.
Cameron is currently at the helm for a slate of Avatar sequels through 2025 but is also assisting Miller for the ambitious new Terminator trilogy starring actor Arnold Schwarzenegger whose title portrayal of the time-traveling cyborg killing machine from the future made him a household name between 1984 and 1991 with The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. He’ll be joined once again by actress Linda Hamilton who will reprise her role as Sarah Connor as seen in battle ready succession in the 1991 sequel with a story that will pass the torch unto a new heroine, upon news reported last Wednesday.
Upon revealing a July 26, 2019 release date, Cameron and Miller took to The Hollywood Reporter to share their insight on the reboot, why they chose this project over others, a few of its developing properties, and much, much more:
CAMERON: “There’s a pride of authorship in anything that you do, and when David and I started talking about this, it made sense for me to see if there was a way to bring it into this century and to relevance. I look at what’s happening now with the emergence of artificial general intelligence equal to or greater than humans’, and you’ve got Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking and others saying that this could be really bad for the survival of the human race. What was science fiction in the ’80s is now imminent. It’s coming over the horizon at us. And there’s been a resurgence of fear and concern about nuclear weapons and so on. So all of these apocalyptic elements are out there. The first two Terminator films that I did dealt with the angst around that and how we reconcile it for ourselves in a fantasy context. So I got excited about the idea of finding a story that made sense for now.”
On the approach:
CAMERON: “This is a continuation of the story from Terminator 1 and Terminator 2. And we’re pretending the other films were a bad dream. Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse. This was really driven more by [Tim] than anybody, surprisingly, because I came in pretty agnostic about where we took it. The only thing I insisted on was that we somehow revamp it and reinvent it for the 21st century.”
MILLER: “The [first] films are more relevant today than they were when he made them. A lot of it seems like prognostication because it’s coming to be — the world we live in right now.”
On casting Hamilton:
CAMERON “…Linda and I have a great relationship. We’ve stayed friends through the thick and thin of it all. And she is the mother of my eldest daughter. [They were married from 1997 to 1999.] So I called her up, and I said: “Look, we could rest on our laurels. It’s ours to lose, in a sense. We created this thing several decades ago. But, here’s what can be really cool. You can come back and show everybody how it’s done.” Because in my mind, it hasn’t been done a whole lot since the way she did it back in ’91.”
MILLER: “As strong a character as she was, as meaningful as she was to gender and to action stars everywhere, I think it’s going to make a huge fucking statement to have her be the really seasoned warrior that she’s become.”
The new reboot hails from Skydance and Paramount, the latter who will distribute with Fox representing the film internationally. Cameron, who is producing, has a writers’ room with Miller in which also included are David Goyer (Blade trilogy, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy), Charles Eglee (TV series Dark Angel) and Josh Friedman (TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).
Read more at The Hollywood Reporter
Coming off of a ceremonial run at the box office with a 3D limited re-release of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, James Cameron’s continuing efforts toward resusitating the franchise have advanced through its latest milestone in being actress Linda Hamilton back to the screen. Deadpool helmer Tim Miller is directing the new movie aiming as a direct follow-up from Cameron’s 1991 action blockbuster headlined by Hamilton along with lead actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong, essesntially skipping the films between 2003 and 2015.
Hamilton’s return will mark her first foray back into the franchise since starring in Cameron’s 1984 hit sci-fi thriller with Schwarzenegger and actor Michael Biehn and its sequel in which Robert Patrick also stars. Cameron had a hand in writing both movies in which the actress stars as Sarah Connor, a waitress whose chance meeting with a soldier from the future and their first confrontation with a killer cybernetic assassin from the future assigned to killer, transforms her into a stoic, physically fit, battle ready heroine by the second film with her long lost son – the would-be leader of the human resistance against Skynet’s mechanized uprising – now in danger from an advanced model killing machine.
Schwarzenegger, also set to return, has appeared in all of the films in some capacity, including a motion-captured action finale with the actor’s face and physique opposite Christian Bale in McG’s Terminator Salvation (2009).
THR‘s exclusive report covered the event in which Cameron himself delves into the actress’s forthcoming reprisal:
Cameron made the announcement at a private event celebrating the storied franchise, saying, “As meaningful as she was to gender and action stars everywhere back then, it’s going to make a huge statement to have that seasoned warrior that she’s become return.”
With Hamilton’s return, Cameron hopes to once again make a statement on gender roles in action movies.
“There are 50-year-old, 60-year-old guys out there killing bad guys,” he said, referring to aging male actors still anchoring movies, “but there isn’t an example of that for women.”
Similarly, Cameron also cites a “passing of the baton” to a generation of new characters in the reboot with the goal of a trilogy in mind, each starring in three standalone films that will connect:
“We’re starting a search for an 18-something woman to be the new centerpiece of the new story,” Cameron said. “We still fold time. We will have characters from the future and the present. There will be mostly new characters but we’ll have Arnold and Linda’s characters to anchor it.”
The new reboot hails from Skydance and Paramount, the latter who will distribute with Fox representing the film internationally. Cameron, who is producing, has a writers’ room with Miller in which also included are David Goyer (Blade trilogy, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy), Charles Eglee (TV series Dark Angel) and Josh Friedman (TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).
James Cameron’s blockbuster smash hit, Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D, is heading back to theaters in North America in ceremonial fashion on August 25. However, on the chance that this won’t be enough for superfans reading this, it just so happens that Lionsgate has something exquisite in its 4K Ultra HD home release packaging, in both special features, as well as life-sized model EndoArm with its own stand autographed by the director himself.
• *NEW* “T2: Reprogramming the Terminator” 55 Minute Documentary Including Exclusive Interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron, Edward Furlong and More
• 2 Feature Commentaries including 23 members of the cast and crew, including director James Cameron and co-author William Wisher
• “The Making of T2” 30 Minute Featurette
• Seamless Branching to View 3 Different Versions of the Movie
• 2 Deleted Scenes with Audio Commentary
• Trailers
Time will tell what else, if anything, Cameron has in store for the future of Terminator on the big screen, but folks at home can assure themselves an October 3, 2017 street date for this fine parcel. Peep the artwork below and then some! (Dread Central)
I was but a toddler when director James Cameron’s Terminator was released, and it would be years before I could ever see it on VHS. That said, I saw a televised edit which familiarized me enough to garner excitement for its explosive sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I guess you could say it’s the film that drew me as a moviegoer for years to come having fallen in love with the action genre and the output of titles at the time and before, inherently earning me as an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan among millions.
And so with the years that have passed as production label Carolco dissolved, it’s rather unfortunate that the Terminator franchise floundered all the same and I contribute this to the lack of consistency as seen with the rotating door of actors playing the key role of human resistance leader John Connor. Discounting actor Michael Edwards who cameos as an older version of the role in the second film, we’ve seen three principle theatrical performances of the character with the most memorable being that of actor Edward Furlong, thus adding to the frustration and stagnation that this franchise has seen even through its spectacle and overall entertainment value.
Given this along with the criticisms this franchise has seen from the big screen, it’s easy to understand why the prospects of a new film after the fumbled Terminator: Genysis have waned more and more with headlines ever increasing the narrative going into news this Spring of Paramount’s removal of the project from its schedule. Is it indefinite? It feels like so, although Cameron himself is poised to attain rights to the franchise back in a few years after once selling them to producer Gale Anne Hurd for a dollar upon being allowed to direct the 1984 film.
I welcome Cameron, in partnership with ambitious Deadpool helmer Tim Miller to keep this going as they announced they would earlier this year, and if they can, although frankly I’m not about to rack my brains on it unless some more solid news comes after this. If Genysis IS the last of the lot, I won’t be sad or feel let down at all, especially given some of the great things this sci-fi property has accomplished in the history of cinema in all its celebrity, cult fandom and merchandising, including lending some of the most iconic characters their screentime who are now immortalized for the years to come. And for this, what better way to celebrate the franchise than to re-release its best installment, directed by none other than Cameron, coming more and more into his prime?
The release of his billion dollar hit film, Titanic, and his subsequent success with Avatar in 2009 have all but made the continued case for Cameron as the kind of director to invest in with time, manpower and creative freedom. Thus, recirculating a classic like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and for a re-graded for a 3D presentation by way of James Cameron’s own Lightstorm, DMG Entertainment and Studiocanal, would not only be valuable to achieve in today’s age of moviegoing, but a long-awaited milestone for the film in its lifespan given the hopes for 3D filmmaking once upon a time. That milestone, which also lists the equally prudential casting of actress Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Joe Morton and The Terminator co-star Earl Boen, arrives this August, with a U.S. and U.K. release slated for August 25.
It has been 10 years since the events of Terminator. Sarah Connor’s ordeal is only just beginning as she struggles to protect her son John, the future leader of the human resistance against the machines, from a new Terminator, sent back in time to eliminate John Connor while he’s still a child. Sarah and John don’t have to face this terrifying threat alone however. The human resistance have managed to send them an ally, a warrior from the future ordered to protect John Connor at any cost. The battle for tomorrow has begun….
James Cameron’s masterpiece starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his most iconic role, has been converted in immersive 3D by Cameron himself. First hitting our screens in 1991 with groundbreaking special effects, the 3D version will take the seminal blockbuster to the next level of effects and into the 21st century for the next generation of fans.
The halcyon days of summer blockbuster action are coming back, if but only for a few hours. Bask in it. Breathe it in. Own it. Watch the new trailer below.
Imagine a sequel so epic that it took more than a decade to make happen…
And to think it was just last year that X-Men fans learned of then-newcomer, actress Lana Condor for the role of Jubilee in this year’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Well, it’s nice to know she’s piling on with her latest expected appearance in the film Patriot’s Day which opens this December, and now she’s ready to tackle the live-action manga scene in Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel.
Deadline reports that Condor will join the cast that so far includes Jackie Earle Haley, Ed Skrein, Eiza Gonzalez and Christoph Waltz, with actress Rosa Salazar in tje title role. Inspired by Kishiro Yukito’s 1990-1995 Shueisha manga, Salazar will play Alita, an amnesiac cyborg whose head is found by a scientist in a scrapyard in a dystopian future America, and refurbished as a battle-capable cyborg huntress named after the scientist’s cat. Skrein will star opposite Salazar in the role of Zapan, a villanous cyborg who wields a weapon called the Damascus Blade while Waltz stars as the doctor who salvages Alita and transforms her into the battle-ready heroine.
James Cameron and Jon Landau are producing the film at 20th Century Fox with release details pending.
Sydney – This year, the Chinese box office is predicted to surpass the US box office, officially becoming the largest film market in the world. China’s market grew an astonishing 48.7% last year, reaching a record AUD$9.5 billion. This phenomenon has grabbed the attention of filmmakers and entertainers worldwide. Australian actress Jenny Wu, fluent in both English and Mandarin, is catching that wave.
It’s been roughly 17 years since blockbuster filmmmaker James Cameron broke the bank with his stellar sunken ship love story, Titanic, and about 12 years since topping it with Avatar. The latter will evidently have him quite the busy man through 2019 with at least four movies to date, but that doesn’t mean he’s dropped the ball on previously-pondered works.
I’m talking Battle Angel Alita, a 1990 Shueisha publication by author Kishiro Yukito which focused on an amnesiac cyborg whose head is found by a scientist in a scrapyard in a futuristic dystopian America and reenvisioned as a battle-capable cyborg huntress named after the scientist’s cat. The manga eventually saw its way through as an animated property, which, as time proved, had already caught Cameron’s eye by the time all the Titanic hype was well and done.
Alas, after fiften years of underwater documentaries and an epic Avatar movie amid all the stops and starts, it looks like Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau is about to go full-speed ahead with Robert Rodriguez also on board to direct for 20th Century Fox, according to THR:
“Robert and I have been looking for a film to do together for years, so I was pumped when he said he wanted to do Battle Angel,” stated Cameron. “He’s very collaborative and we’re already like two kids building a go-kart, just having fun riffing creatively and technically. This project is near and dear to me, and there’s nobody I trust more than Robert, with his technical virtuosity and rebel style, to take over the directing reins. We’re looking forward to learning a lot from each other while we make a kick-ass epic.”
Added Rodriguez: “Battle Angel is an incredibly rich and vibrant epic in the tradition of Jim Cameron’s spectacular, character-driven films. Getting to work from Jim’s terrific and visionary script while learning the cutting edge techniques he’s pioneered is a master class in filmmaking. It’s an honor to explore the world of Alita along with Jim and Jon, whose films have impacted me for decades.”
Rodriguez‘s current prospects also include what remains of the popular El Rey TV adaptation of From Dusk Til Dawn, as well as a hopeful third installation of the Machete trilogy and an adaptation of the Hanna/Barbera-produced classic cartoon, Jonny Quest.
Cast and crew info are pending, among other specifics. Eyes peeled, folks!
It’s been ten years since award-winning director James Cameron began his journey into the world of Pandora for the production of his 2009 milestone success story, Avatar. With time on his side and the technological advancements in film pending, it was only a matter of time the filmmaker would soon reap the benefits of such filmmaking and entertainment innovations, from motion capture and 3D technology, to the implementation of 4D entertainment in select theaters worldwide.
Evidently, the film was a record-breaking box-office victory for Cameron and the distributors at 20th Century Fox, earning well-over $2.7 billion dollars between 2009, and its re-release in 2010, and ultimately becoming the highest grossing film to date. Moreover, on top of its Academy Award, Golden Globe, Saturn Awards and BAFTA accolades, the film drew mostly positive reviews for its environmentally-centric and anti-war message on top of its emotionally-charged delivery, packed with explosive visual spectacle and epic storytelling.
Well, beginning next year, Cameron will commense maintaining that upward trend with the production of Avatar 2 in Manhattan Beach in California, and in New Zealand. As such, he and his Los Angeles-based production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, are issuing a heads-up this week for actors and extras ahead of the film’s principal shoot next year for Native American supporting roles and extras. The official website, Acting Auditions has all the details on the requirements listed, so if you’re an actor, feel free to CLICK HERE and get all the information while you can.
Avatar 2 will follow the immediate events of the first film with actor Sam Worthington reprising his role as paraplegic soldier and former-human-turned Na’vi, Jake Sully, whose conscience was transferred to his new body to begins his new life on the mystical and rich alien planet, Pandora, among the Na’vi with warrioress and love interest, Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana. Also slated to return are actress Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine and actor Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, both who are said to have more integral roles following the events of the first film. Cameron is also producing the film with Jon Landau & Ray Santini with a scripts for all three upcoming sequels by the director, along with Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Shane Salerno.
The remaining three films of the Avatar saga are slated for releases on each December between 2016 and 2018. Stay tuned for more info!
H/T: Examiner
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