Universal Possibly Interested In Justin Lin Directing New 'Terminator' Film
After last year's intense bidding war over the rights, plus the recent announcement that Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting back into acting, Deadline is now reporting that Hollywood is once again seriously interested in the Terminator franchise. Leading the charge, apparently, is Universal who would reportedly like to pair Fast Five director Justin Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan with the world first created by James Cameron. Lin and Morgan raked in the dough for the studio with Fast and Furious and Morgan additionally wrote both Wanted and the upcoming 47 Ronin for them. It seems like Universal is very happy with Fast Five and would like to keep the pair around. Going cyborg might do the trick. Read more after the break.
Deadline's story really doesn't have much else in the form of hard information. There's no guarantee that Schwarzenegger would return, Lin has a commitment to Summit to direct the new Highlander and the franchise doesn't even have a deal in place with a distributor. So all of this, if it even happens, is pretty far out. But for Terminator fans, it's encouraging just to know that the franchise is still being discussed around Hollywood board rooms. Also, don't forget that producer Gale Anne Hurd has said on the record that she'd like to come back to the franchise.
The story also reminds us that uncredited co-founder of Terminator, William Wisher, has treatments already in place for films that continue the story McG's Terminator Salvation already began. So there's a chance that, if Universal or another studio locks down some kind of deal, they might just use one of those as the basis of the film. Here's how Deadline describes those treatments:
His version continued the post-apocalyptic battleground scenario from Terminator Salvation, but added in the element of time travel. There was a reunion for Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese beyond their brief encounter in the original, and a role for Schwarzenegger in the finale. There were also plenty of hi-tech killers, including a swarm of "Night Crawlers," 4 1/2-foot tall border sentries that are set like mines to spring up out of the ground and ambush rebel fighters with 10 MM pistols built into their wrists, and fingers and feet that are razor sharp. Also fresh off the Skynet assembly line in Wisher's version are new shape-shifting cyborgs that can morph together in Transformers-like mode, and are more lethal than anything seen in previous Terminator installments. The blueprint also set out a resolution in mankind's struggle with Skynet.
That sounds like it works. Do you want to see that version of Terminator, a Justin Lin directed Terminator or no new Terminators at all?