FATE TO BE DETERMINED
James Cameron returns to Terminator franchise hoping for a revival
James Cameron was deep into pre-production on his upcoming Avatar sequels. Still, when the phone call came in late 2016 from Skydance founder-CEO David Ellison, he was intrigued.
What did he think about returning to his beloved Terminator franchise to produce and consult on a proposed new trilogy of films?
“What drew me back to it was an opportunity to say something I think is significant about artificial intelligence,” Cameron says from New Zealand, where he is finishing work on Avatars 2, 3 and 4.
The Canadian director, 65, wrote and directed the first Terminator film in 1984 and its sequel, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, helping make its stars — Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton — household names. Cameron wasn’t involved with subsequent Terminator sequels — all critical and commercial disappointments.
So, along with Deadpool director Tim Miller, who he handpicked, Cameron conceived of a three-film arc that would directly follow Judgment Day, and ignore the intervening sequels. Whether there are Dark Fate sequels remains to be seen. The new movie debuted at the top of the box office last week, but fell well below expectations.
Q The Terminator franchise had been chugging along for years without you. Why did you come back?
A Firstly, I didn’t like some of the sequels that had been made. But I guess it was an opportunity to say something new about the never-ending conflict between humans and artificial intelligence — because it will take place. Whether that’s a smooth transition or whether that’s a rocky one or whether there’s an apocalypse remains to be seen, but I don’t think people are taking it as seriously as they should. If you talk to any AI researchers, they all say it’s pretty inevitable that they’ll be able to develop an artificial intelligence equal to ours or even greater. And I don’t think that there’s enough adult supervision for what they’re doing.
That’s speaking as a science-fiction writer, that’s speaking as a filmmaker and that’s speaking as a father of five. This is a potential existential threat.
Q Did you look at the three intervening movies as an example of what not to do?
A Salvation took place in the future. I had always been attracted to the idea of doing a Terminator film that dealt with the future war. I probably would have done it quite differently. And what you learn from that film is that it’s not as interesting as when those future elements come into our world. When I created the original Terminator, the idea was: How can I do a low-budget science-fiction film that deals with epic ideas and yet plays out using low-budget filmmaking techniques? ... I think there were major advantages of telling the first Terminator story that way. Our world, which we think we know so well, gets fractured and invaded by people from the future, but it’s a future we’re setting in motion right now. It’s our own technology and evils that come back to haunt us. So it made sense then and it makes sense now.
Q How involved were you on the production of Dark Fate?
A I was pretty hands-on during the writing and to a certain extent the editing. I believe that you cast a grown-up director and the day-to-day shooting of the film is the province of the director ... I believe that all the major decisions that need to be made on a movie happen in pre-production. They are mostly in the writing, casting and the design of the film. If you’ve got those three things right, then it’s pretty (certain). We all have ideas we want to see in a Terminator movie and they’re all different.
But we all agreed that we wanted to see cool action. I gave them 20 action sequences that I’ve always wanted to see. I just rattled them off ...
Q It’s been 10 years since the last Avatar film, but we’re going to have to wait two more to see the first of three sequels. What can fans expect from those movies when they start rolling out in 2021?
A I do believe in the sanctity of that moment when you’re sitting in the dark and then something comes up on the screen that takes you on a wild ride and an adventure. That’s what I hope to provide with Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. I deal with images in that world every single day and there are some days when I look those images and say, “This is really amazing.” I’m not patting myself on the back with that comment. It’s the distillation of some of the best designers in the world and a great cast. But again, if you’ve got the script right and the design right and you have a great cast, then it’s just an iterative process to get the whole thing shot and assembled. And that’s where we are right now. I’m in the last stages of the live-action shooting across 2, 3 and the first part of 4.
I’m working mostly with a young actor named Jack Champion, who’s a human character in with a bunch of Na’vi. He’s actually doing his part twice. He did it all for (motion) capture with Sigourney Weaver and
Sam Worthington and the other capture actors that we shot with in L.A. and now he has to do his live-action portions. It’s an interesting set of technical problems and the stuff looks great. But ... you’ve got to wait. mdaniell@postmedia.com
Twitter: @markhdaniell