When you talk about the ‘Terminator’ franchise, you can’t help but talk about James Cameron. With his first two ‘Terminator’ films, he revolutionized the action film genre. It goes without saying that all ‘Terminator’ projects are compared directly to those films, which is why many of the sequels and spinoffs just don’t cut it. They all pale in comparison. So, when you hear that Cameron is working on a new ‘Terminator’ project, you can’t help but get a little excited. He’s the best guy to do it, you know?
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Speaking to THR, while promoting his upcoming NatGeo documentary, “OceanXplorers,” James Cameron was asked about the ‘Terminator’ franchise. Specifically, he was asked about the forthcoming anime spinoff, “Terminator Zero,” which is arriving soon on Netflix. The filmmaker doesn’t offer too much about that, other than how it “looks interesting,” as he wasn’t involved in the making of it. But Cameron does drop a bit of a bombshell, teasing how he is working on something in the franchise now.
“It looks interesting,” said Cameron about “Terminator Zero.” “My relationship to that is very much like ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ — other people spinning stories in a world I set in motion is interesting to me. What’s their takeaway? What intrigued them about it? Where are they going with it? It looks like they’re going back to the root cause of Judgment Day — the nuclear war — and whether that’s an ultimate timeline.”
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He added, “I’d be curious to see what they’ve come up with. I’m working on my own ‘Terminator’ stuff right now. It’s got nothing to do with that. Like with ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles,’ they occasionally touched on things I had been playing with completely independently. So there’s some curiosity there. It’s not a burning curiosity, but, obviously, it’d be nice to see it succeed.”
Obviously, when Cameron just casually dropped news that he is working on his own “‘Terminator’ stuff” right now, you have to imagine a follow-up question is coming. Unfortunately, the filmmaker remains tight-lipped and isn’t spilling the beans now.
“It’s totally classified,” teased Cameron. “I don’t want to have to send out a potentially dangerous robotic agent if you were to talk about it, even retroactively.”
Obviously, whatever “Terminator” thing he’s working on, it’s not going to have Cameron directing. He has something like three more ‘Avatar’ films to direct before he can set aside time for another franchise film or TV project. It’ll also be interesting if he wants to reboot the property… again. He tried doing it fairly recently with “Terminator: Dark Fate,” which was directed by Tim Miller but with some serious input by Cameron.
Regardless, as a fan of the ‘Terminator’ franchise, it’s exciting whenever James Cameron teases a new project.