Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (2003)

Cast:

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger - He has confirmed that he has agreed to reprise his most famous role as the invincible cyborg. Instead of being paid a large sum of money up front he will be getting a percentage of the movie's gross.

  • Edward Furlong - has officially signed on as John Connor.

    Rumored Cast:

  • Vin Diesel - Rummors are that the tough guy may be up for a part in this movie.

  • Linda Hamilton - Has said no she will not be in it.

  • Robert Patrick - He will not be in this movie. The T-1000 is not in this screenplay.

  • Famke Janssen was offered the role of the evil cyborg but turned it down.

  • Carrie-Anne Moss, Peta Wilson Natasha Henstridge and Chyna - All have been rumored to be up for the part of the evil T-2000 cyborg.

    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) is working on a 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.

    Rumored Crew:

    Lots of directors rumored to be in talks for this one:

    Ridley Scott (Alien, Gi Jane, Gladiator) - In my opinion he is probably the best of the choices. He has a built in following among fans of sci-fi and epic movies in general. He can do action without loosing character development. He has wanted to work with Schwarzenegger for quite some time. But he is quite busy, and being talked about as the director of a new Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

    Christian Duguay (The Art of War) - He is the least experienced of the choices. He has mostly done TV movies before The Art of War and may not be up to the task of following in James Cameron's foot-steps. Working in his favor is the fact that he would be the cheapest of the choices. He could also be picked if producers Kassar & Vajna want someone that they can push around, and won't have to fight for control.

    Roland Emmerich (Independance Day, The Patriot) - In my opinion he is the worst of the choices for director of this film. I have liked some of his previous films but he does not seem to fit with what The Terminator is all about. Working against him is the fact that his movies always seem to have shallow characters, and ripped off plots. Working in his favor is that he has made some epic films and always completes his movies on time and on budget.

    David Fincher (Alien 3, Seven) - He is the most artistic of the choices. His work devides people into those who really love it and those who really hate it. Working against him is the fact that he has directed 4 movies and had only one big hit (Seven).

    John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, The Hunt For Red October) - Another good choice. He has had several hits, and knows how to handle action. He has also worked with Schwarzenegger two times before (Predator and the under-rated Last Action Hero)

    Jonathan Mostow(Breakdown, U-571) - He has only directed 2 big movies, but both of them were able to keep audances on the edge of their seats.

    I'm pulling for Ridley Scott myself, however Duguaay has the least commitments

    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.

  • The evil cyborg in this one is rumored to be female. Don't necessarily take this to be truth. This info has not come from an official source and in a facfic script (see below) their is a female terminator. I am not saying that it is false but it may be a case of the rumor mill confusing a fanfic script for the real thing

  • 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.

  • 12/25/00 - Marry Christmas everyone. I have heard that John McTiernan is too busy with post production on his new film Rollerball to start working on T3 in time to meet the summer 2002 release date, so he may be out of the running.
    NOTE: I heard this news right after I finished watching McTiernan's excellent Die Hard With a Vengeance on cable and I am extremely disappointed now.

  • 2/7/01 - Looks like Ridley Scott may be out of the running. He's working on an action thriller for Jerry Bruckheimer called Black Hawk Down. David Fincher may be out as well he's working on a movie called The Panic Room. The powers that be have said that T3 will not start before the possible Screen Actors Guild strike (this summer). Given that bit of news it means that John McTiernan could be back in the running. However he is also rumored to be doing Basic Instinct 2 if David Cronenberg drops out of that one. According to Sharon Stone Basic Instinct 2 will be shot before the possible strike meaning even if McTiernan does do that one he could finish before T3 starts. Strangely Basic Instinct 2 and T3 are both being produced by Mario Kassar & Andrew G. Vajna.

  • 3/28/01 - Rumors of a new director. The producers are in talks with suspense master Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown, U-571). Still no word on who will play the evil Terminator. Some talk is that it could be Chyna of the WWF. Also in an interview Ridley Scott said that he turned this film down, so he is officaly out.

  • 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.

  • 4/24/01 - Famke Janssen has officaly turned down the offer to play the evil terminator in this movie. A new name that I heard rumored for this role is sexy Natasha Henstridge of Species fame.

  • 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.

    Links:

    T3 page at upcommingmovies.com

    Movieheadlines.net

    The Internet Movie DataBase page for T3
    The IMDB is a great source for info on movies that have been released but it is not a good place for info on upcomming movies. The IMDB runs on user tips and is too big to fact check every rummor that someone sends them. So far they have listed 4 diferent directors as THE director of T3. It is a good place to find links to Terminator fan sites though.

    A Fanfic sequel to T2
    WARNING, WARNING DISCLAIMER UP AHEAD: This is a fanfic sequel. It was written by a guy who likes the terminator movies. This is not a link to the real T3 script. I am including this link only because it is a good script by a good amateur writer. Who hopes to someday become a professional writer.

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