Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (2003)
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UPDATE: I've cleaned up the page a bit and removed old news/rummors that are not true. If you want to see the old site, just to see the progression of the rummor mill go here: OLD T3 RUMMORS
RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2003
Crew
Jonathan Mostow (Director) - The director of U-571 will be helming this movie and is working on the script and may be credited as a writer as well.
Tedi Sarafian (Writer) - The writer of Tank Girl (1995) and The Road Killers (1994) wrote the first draft of the script.
John Brancato and Michael Ferris (The Net & The Game) have been signed to re-write Tedi Sarafian's script.
Mario Kassar & Andrew G. Vajna (Producers) - Back in the glory days of Carolco Pictures Kassar and Vajna used to make huge movies somewhat outside of the studio system. They would pre-sell the rights to foreign distributors based on pitches like "It's a sci-fi movie from the director of Robocop with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it" But like all good things Carolco's fortune came to and end in 1995 with Cutthroat Island and Showgirls. The rights to the studio's franchises were sold off in bankruptcy court and Kassar's former partner Vajna bought the right's to Terminator for $8,000,000. (which made this movie inevitable. One does not spend $8mil and than say "oh I changed my mind about making the movie".) Now the two have teamed up and formed C-2 pictures. They have partnered up with Japanese, German, and American distributors Toho Towa, VCL, and 20th Century Fox respectively in hope of returning to the glory days of Rambo, Basic Instinct, and T2.
Cast:
Arnold Schwarzenegger - He has confirmed that he has agreed to reprise his most famous role as the invincible cyborg. Is getting paid $30 million up front, a new record for a single movie.
Kristanna Loken - Sexy newcommer (several TV shows) has been cast as the "T-X" Terminator.
?Linda Hamilton? - Has said no she will not be in it; Schwarzenagger said she was going to have a cameo but it looks like that never came together.
Nick Stahl - He has been cast as the replacement John Connor.
Claire Danes - Has been cast as Kate, John's girlfriend.
Plot
According to the current rumors the story will be about the nuclear holocaust taking place. As August
29, 1997 (Judgement Day) has already happened perhaps the story will say that the distruction of Dyson's
Lab, and his death, caused it to take longer to develop the technology than it would have if he had been on
the project the whole time.
When they made T2:3D (1996) Cameron said that the story would not be just a knock off of the
Terminator series. He wanted to use it as the jumping off point to a third Terminator film. After some
consideration he opted out of this movie, and it is unknown if the people who are doing T3 will follow
T2:3D's continuity or just act as if it never happened.
Updates
Since producers Kassar and Vijna are hoping to use this as their Carolco comeback they are reportedly looking to make not one, but two Terminator sequels. Writer David Campbell Wilson (Supernova) has been hired to write an 80 page outline for a T4. It is not known if this movie will even be made, but several different things have been rumored. One is shooting the two at the same time, or back to back, to save on production costs (as was done with Back to the Future II & III and the Matrix sequels.) But shooting two films at the same time is dangerous because if the first one tanks you still have a second film, which represents a multi-million dollar investment that you would not have otherwise made.
11/05/00 - Linda Hamilton has turned down this movie. She said that she spent the last 9 years trying to be thought of as something other than bad ass Sarah Connor.
3/28/01 - Rumors of a new director. The producers are in talks with suspense master Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown, U-571).
4/16/01 - I recently bought the DVD of U-571 and I got a good laugh when at the end of the commentary Jonathan Mostow says that he doesn't expect his next film to be an action flick. Of course at that time he had no idea that the producers of T3 would be calling. Here's hoping that decides to change those plans and say yes to T3. Also Movieheadlines.net says that the producers are planning to start shooting in October 2001 in Montreal, Canada assuming that the Screen Actors Guild strike is over by than.
5/19/01 - Now that the writers guild strike has been settled the film-makers are going on with pre-production. Director Jonathan Mostow and writer Tedi Sarafian are working on script changes, wanting to make sure that they have a good script before they start on the technical stuff. Also they may make the evil cyborg male. Tough guy
Vin Diesel (Pitch Black, Broiler Room) is being talked about for that role. They are thinking of making the female cyborg a good character, who will be less bad and more babe, if she is even in the movie.
6/16/01 - It is reported that they will start shooting in late 2001 or early 2002, which could mean a release date of Summer 2003.
6/22/01 - John Brancato and Michael Ferris (The Net & The Game) have been signed to re-write Tedi Sarafian's script.
12/07/01 - Production has been pushed back to summer of 2002 for a summer of 2003 release. Looks like Vin Diesel is going to be too busy to appear in this movie. Arnold will be paid $30 million (a new record) to appear in it. The budget looks to be over $160 million another new record for the highest green lighted budget. (Waterworld and Titanic were more expensive but they were budgeted at about $100 million at the get go they both went over budget durring production and reached nearly $200 million; God help this one if it goes over budget) Infobeat reports that SANDRA BULLOCK, JODIE FOSTER and MEG RYAN are in talks with the producers to play the "female lead". [Thanks to Andrew Soncha] I don’t know if that means to play Sarah (re-casting worked with Hannibal), the female cyborg, or some new role. Also several American studios (Dreamworks, Disney, Paramount, Universal) are bidding to be the distributor.
12/17/01 - Several reports are saying that 24 year old Edward Furlong has been fired from the film because his well publicized problems with the law over drugs and alcohol are a liability to the production. (i.e. if he gets busted during the shoot it could screw up production) Of course last week several of these same sources were saying that Britney Spears was going to pose nude for a PETA ad and about 2 days later Britney's people said that was completely not true. We'll have to stay tuned to see if this turns out to be true or not.
01/30/02 - It looks like this thing is finally going to happen. Warner Brothers has signed a deal with C2 productions to be the American distributor for the film. They have a budget of $160 million. They plan to start shooting April 15, 2002 for a summer of 2003 release, which I’d wager will put it around July 2003 so as not to come out too soon after Warner’s Matrix 2 (early summer). They have also confirmed the title to be Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Most interesting Arnold told the boys at Cinescape that Sarah may be in the film. He said that her character will have already died before the film’s timeframe and only be seen in flash backs. I don‘t know if Linda Hamilton, who turned down the chance to reprise the character as one of the leads, will be willing to return for this cameo or if they will recast. Here‘s an idea why not get Linda‘s identical twin sister Leslie who played Sarah‘s double when the T-100 took on her form in T2. Here’s what Arnold said:
"She is [in the movie], but she is coming back as past experiences...not driving the current story forward. She is in the movie as flashbacks and stuff like that. But I think [the filmmakers] felt like they did not want to have the exact same cast and have them be limited by the story. But instead, they've taken certain people out and are [of the mindset that], 'Let's assume that [Sarah] has died already and [John Connor] is on his own rather than having still the mother there whining away saying, 'Get it straight. Remember you have to be the savior. And you can't do this and you can't take that drug. What if she is the Terminator?' [Director] Jonathan Mostow was very adamant he wanted the kid now to be 22 or 23, the mother's died and let's move on. Let's have him be on his own. Let's let him have a girlfriend. And let's go to the next level, so that was the idea."
Dark Horizons got a hold of some character descriptions from casting sheets. These sheets can give us some clues about the movie.
John Connor - "...now in his early 20's, a haunted and reluctant hero not trusting that everything has been set right."
The fact that he’s on the casting sheet makes it look like Edward Furlong is out, presumably because of his substance abuse problems. They list him as being in his early 20s, which means that the film takes place in the not too distant future, because John was born in 1985.
Kate - Same age as John, a medical professional of some kind that's warm, physical and smart – one who can hold her own with the guys."
This sounds like a very Cameron-like character, indicating that hopefully they will stay close to his style. In fact I keep seeing Jessica Alba from Cameon’s Dark Angel in the role. NOTE: That was just my idea, this is not a real casting rumor that I’ve heard. Don‘t go tell people "Jessica Alba‘s going to be in T3".
"T-X - Female in her 20's, the new Terminator whose sexy, composed and deadly. Actress requires demonstratable athletic skill."
This looks to rule out most of the rumored cast members for this role, as most of them are in their 30s. This also looks like they are not going to have Vin Diesel as an evil cyborg, unless he is already signed for the role (no need to put a character who‘s already been cast on a casting sheet) and we're going to have 2 evil cyborgs.
Brewster - "a scientific-background military man in his 40's/50's – a thoughtful, strong leader who has earned the respect of those around him,"
Scott - a "mid-20s/early-30s young man with good looks, charm and attempting to make a stable future for him and his fiancée."
Arnold also dismissed the rumor that Shaquille O’Neal would be cast in the film "He is the only one that’s saying [he’ll be in the movie], right? Shaq. Sheesh."
Here are some articals about the movie:
IGN Filmforce 1
IGN Filmforce 2
IGN Filmforce 3
Cinescape
2/22/02 - Sexy newcommer Kristanna Loken - has been cast as the evil "T-X" Terminator. Schwarzenegger described the character to the Associated
Press as:
"She will have additional powers that Robert Patrick in `Terminator 2' did not have. She will have control over machines and over anything mechanical, therefore including myself. So you will sometimes see me as the villain and sometimes as a terminator that tried to save the world."
Every report that I'm seeing says that Edward Furlong is out, and they are looking to cast John Connor.
[thanks to Tony McFadden & MexicanRed187 for the info]
A CNN.com report about the film
Some pics of Kristanna
5/8/02 - The IMDB is reporting that Nick Stahl has been cast as John Connor. Stahl was most recently seen in the film In the Bedroom & also gave a memorable performance in 1998's underrated Disturbing Behavior. They also report that Sophia Bush has been replaced as John's girlfriend by Claire Danes; they said that Bush looked too young for the part.
The movie is being shot in LA right now. I got some photos e-mailed to me by a guy out in LA, he said:
They have been filming for the last couple of weeks in my neighborhood. These were taken during the building of the animal hospital.
