BY LUKE CHEESEMAN
On the heels of Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carter re-teeming to bring life into the dead carcass of the Halloween franchise, we got word today that the Terminator tri-fecta is back: James Cameron now has both Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Linda Hamilton on board for a new Terminator movie… what’s old is new again!
From The Hollywood Reporter: “Cameron is producing along with Skydance. And the new film, which will be distributed by Paramount with Fox handling it internationally, is based on a story crafted by Cameron. Cameron and Miller created a writers room to hammer out what is planned to be a trilogy that can stand as single movies or form an overarching story. David Goyer, whose credits include the Blade and Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies; Charles Eglee, who created Dark Angel with Cameron; Josh Friedman, who created the Terminator TV spinoff, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Justin Rhodes, a frequent Goyer collaborator, were part of that room.” Read the full Hollywood Reporter article here>>>
This is Cameron’s opportunity to stir the pot of controversy again… remember last month when he criticized Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman movie in an interview with The Guardian? Here’s a sample from that interview: “All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided. She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards. Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!”
Okay, now, settle down James. We know, we know…. you want everyone to know that you’re king of the world still. Jenkins, for her part, didn’t take Camerons’ barbs lying down, responding: “James Cameron’s inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising as, though he is a great filmmaker, he is not a woman,” she wrote in part. “Strong women are great. His praise of my film Monster, and our portrayal of a strong yet damaged woman was so appreciated. But if women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we aren’t free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven’t come very far have we.”
In announcing the new Terminator film, Cameron made a point of addressing the woman issue again (since he is the expert, you know)…. this is what saint Cameron said: “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.” You ladies should be thanking your lucky stars that you’ve got someone like Cameron around to defend your good name. Because–you know–he knows best.
Regardless, it’s kinda odd to hear that Cameron is returning to Terminator, actually, especially considering he has the all-consuming 4-picture Avatar epic on his plate. If he can balance Terminator with Avatar, he’s better at spinning plates that most people. His long-gestating sequel to 2009’s Avatar has kept a lot of folks anxious. For example, Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Florida built an entirely new land called Pandora — The World of Avatar, and had hoped to time its opening to the premier of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel. But the director took so long (doesn’t he always?), that Disney went ahead and opened their new Avatar-inspired land.
Fox is anxiously awaiting those Avatar sequels as well…. with $2.7 billion, the first Avatar was the biggest movie of all time. It’s doubtful the sequels will reach those heights, especially since interest seems to have waned….
WHO’S THE MOTHER WE’D RATHER SEE?
Which brings us to the whole “mother” issue — this past weekend, audiences HATED all over Jennifer Lawrence’s latest disaster, mother! As a matter of fact, audiences gave the film an F CinemaScore… (I’m trying my best to figure out a way to use “mother F-d” in a sentence, but I’m drawing a blank). Regardless, Darren Aronofsky’s new thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem may be ok with critics, but it’s a major bomb because it can’t connect with audiences.
Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Conner, on the other hand, has never had trouble connecting with audiences — we love her! And the fact that she’s back should bring the audience to its feet. Regardless what we think about Cameron’s egotistical ravings about featuring real women in real roles, we’re just stoked he’s back onboard a new Terminator, and he brought along all his Terminator friends for the ride.
