There’s been a lot of talk about Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, but the sequel’s much-maligned director, McG, has stayed above the fray. Until now, that is.
In an exclusive interview with The 213, McG opened up for the first time about his vision for the Terminator saga, how the fourth installment relates to the franchise’s overall timeline, and just how Christian Bale fits into all this.
Oh, and then there’s the matter of who he might want for the role of Salvation‘s Terminator. But more on that in a minute. First, let’s allow McG to tell us where the new movie falls in terms of continuity. Asked if his movie takes place after Terminator 2 or Terminator 3, he says:
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.
Having established that, The 213 wastes no time getting down to business, asking McG about rumors that John Connor isn’t much of a factor in Terminator Salvation, and that Christian Bale’s appearance will be essentially a cameo. Referring to this film’s Connor as “a major player,” the director goes on to lavish praise on Bale (“I think he’s the most talented actor of his generation”) before giving a very rough outline of the story:
“At its core, it’s 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 immediately ensure destruction if our nukes ever got out of hand, so it’s a bit of a cautionary tale.”
McG then talks about the difficulty of following James Cameron in the series and…well, you probably just want to know who he describes as his “dream Terminator,” don’t you?
“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, heroin chic and there’s really a masculine component to the role. And there’s guys out there like Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, who 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.
Bale and Brolin? If that happens, the naysayers might finally have to concede this round to McG.
Source: The 213
