When it was announced that Charlie's Angels and We Are Marshall
Director McG
was going to be helming the new TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS
fanboys and naysayers were in a state of uproar. Though when it was then announced
that cast as hero John Connor was none other then acting virtuoso Christian Bale, the tide
started to turn. (For the record, I think that cool McG style is just what that franchise needs
to help the audience forget that the film is Schwarzenegger-less!) Anyway, at a recent
Warner Bros. bash (watch for that party coverage coming soon!), the obviously excited McG
talked exclusively to The213.net about his desire to respect the previous installments
while still creating his own vision, where Salvation fits into the whole Terminator timeline
and his thoughts on who would be his “dream Terminator”. (It's pretty damn cool, so read
on!)
(213): So what is the status of the film?
McG: We're prepping the picture right now. The script is largely
done, whether
or not we're able to prep off of it, obviously we want to continue to work on it, punch it up
and we're hoping for an expedient finish to the writer's strike. But I've got my fingers
crossed that in a week or two it will be over.
(213): How will the TV show play into the film in terms of timelines?
McG: It's a little tricky, but I mean obviously there's some liberties taken. What
Cameron did with the second picture and what Mostow did with the third and certainly the
TV show in the spirit of week in, week out episodic television has to take some license as
well. We're going to do what we can to respect them all, but there are indeed some
timeline issues. We speak to the idea of one version of a future, which is clearly
articulated by Michael Biehn in the first picture.
(213): So is this taking off after number three or number two?
McG: This is the space between; this is post Judgment day. So there really is no
continuation, you know what I mean? Its sort of a different animal, whereas the first two
pictures on this thing are Terminators from the future, this picture takes place in 2019.
(213): Is John Connor a major player in it?
McG: John Connor's a major player in it - Christian Bale's playing that part.
(213): That was kind of inspired casting - what are your thoughts behind that
one?
McG: Well, I think he's the most talented actor of his generation, so you know
again the spirit of the film is that of an incredible take on a serious piece of science fiction.
It's at its core a cautionary tale about humanity sort of thumping its chest and believing
'look what we can do, we can build skyscrapers and control the tides and aren't we
fantastic' and all the while we're destroying the planet and we immediate ensure
destruction if our nukes ever got out of hand, so it's a bit of a cautionary tale.
(213): I was curious, you have your own signature style, which is obviously
something that's different from Terminator films we've seen before - how do you feel it
will mesh with the new film?
McG: It was important to me to honor James Cameron's pictures and I spoke to
him for a long time, he's down in New Zealand doing Avatar, and he was very encouraging
saying “Look, I was in the same spot following Ridley Scott on the second Aliens picture -
it's like, what are you doing, it's Ridley!” And he said, “I wanted to be respectful of the
film by Ridley, but I wanna go in a direction where hopefully I can satisfy the hard core
fans, but also build upon what's put before us.” And I would never be so bold as to say
that we're going to be successful, but we're certainly going to do our best and I think
we're greatly protected by Christian Bale.
(213): With such an terrific casting choice in Christian, any other inspired casting
choices that you might be thinking about?
McG: Well, I mean we're in the process of casting right now...
(213): Who would be your “dream Terminator”?
McG: That's very difficult to say!
(213): Come on, who would be McG's “dream Terminator”?!
McG: You know, those are big shoes to fill. If you go back and look at the first
picture it's so funny because there's such a decided difference between what Arnold was
doing in the first picture and in the second and third picture. I mean there's this decided
physicality - look what Robert Patrick did to get ready for the role. He's a guy who I
adore, I put him in every movie I've ever done. And it's very difficult to say because it's a
decidedly masculine role and I think we're living in a time where a lot of actors are very
effeminate and they're sort of skinny, heroine chic and there's really a masculine
component to the role. And there's guys out there like Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, bring
a good physicality, they do what they do, but I don't know if they're exactly right at the
end of the day. (Smiles) Josh Brolin is a very exciting actor - we'll see.
