Now that he’s not in office anymore, it seems like former California Governor can’t keep still. First he announces that he’s doing a comic book/cartoon franchise based on the fictional affairs during his term as the Governator, and now he’s ready to jump on the big screen as The Terminator.
The star’s agency, CAA, has put together a package that it’s currently shopping to the studios that includes rights to produce a new Terminator sequel, which would be directed by Justin Lin, hot off Fast Five, which opens domestically Friday, and produced by Robert Cort. No screenwriter has come on board yet.
When the movie’s rights holder the Halcyon Group went through bankruptcy in 2010, Lionsgate and Sony joined together in an unsuccessful bid to claim the franchise for themselves. More recently, Universal has been talking to CAA about tackling the project.
The idea of both Lin and Schwarzenegger is obviously still in the preliminary stages, but with Lin’s Fast Five opening big this weekend, you can imagine that Universal, Sony, and Lionsgate all jumping on the project like a Snickers at a fat camp.
No word just yet on how this effects McG’s “reboot” of the franchise with Salvation but even McG will have to step aside when the Governator wants back at playing the metal-head.
In a time when not even adaptations of board games are off the table for most of the bigger Hollywood studios, a story like this isn’t as far fetched as it should be. McG, director of the Charlie’s Angels films and Terminator Salvation, is taking the lead on directing Ouija for Universal. From THR.
The studio’s planned film adaptation of the classic Hasbro board game about conjuring up spirits of the dead has had a tough go at finding a director but before the town shut down for the holidays, Heat Vision reported that McG presented Universal execs his vision for the project, which has a script by Tron: Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and is being produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes.
He was vying for the gig against The Crazies director Breck Eisner, who pitched his take on the material the week before.
So not only is a multi-millionaire director taking on this project, but he was actually battling another one for this acclaimed position. Unfortunately, this one has been done. A few times, actually, since 1986′s Witchboard.
That hasn’t stopped McG from taking home the prize….of directing a film based on a supernatural board that allows people to speak with the dead. Well worth it.
Last year, Niell Blomkamp’s District 9 changed how major studios looked at small science fiction projects. Before, ideas like “aliens in a dystopian future” were mostly reserved for direct-to-video productions. But now more and more studios are investing in scripts like these, hoping to ride the Avatar or District 9 success. Enter Jim.
The story behind Jim can be considered a little complicated, to say the least, so try to stay with the official synopsis, because it takes an interesting turn in the middle.
Being steadily crushed under the weight of debt, unemployment, and increasing isolation, Jim reaches a breaking point. Over a game of solitary Russian roulette he contemplates an unspeakable act of violence as a way of leaving his mark. He is stopped short by a vision of his deceased wife who convinces him that he should instead focus his remaining resources into an act of creation. Armed with his wife’s frozen eggs and a new resolve, Jim secures the services of a large biotech firm to help him create an heir who will be engineered to overcome the obstacles of common men.
Meanwhile in the distant future Niskaa, the leader of a group of genetically modified beings, controls a race of worker clones in a super-industrialized, post-human Earth. As he tries to restore his decrepit empire he comes face to face with a young clone that shows an unprecedented capacity for reason and empathy. Somehow connected to Jim via dreams, the clone manifests secrets of Nature that Niskaa has not accounted for…
The film comes from first-time writer/director Jeremy Morris-Burke, and looks like it could just be a new era for independent science fiction films. Check out the first trailer after the jump. Catch Jim in NY and LA theaters on October 8th and 16th.
TNT, the network known for its legal/detective dramas (including endless reruns of Law & Order), is now venturing into Sci-Fi with Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks on a series that will star Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood. The series, despite not yet having a name, has a pilot directed by Carl Franklin (Devil in A Blue Dress, Out of Time) — who is also working with Spielberg on episodes of the forthcoming WWII television mini-series The Pacific — and a story written by Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat.
Noah Wyle, who has become quite familiar with TNT through his numerous The Librarian TV Movies, will star as a professor that winds up in the rebellion against the alien invaders. Bloodgood, who really seems to have a taste for the genre with her past roles Terminator: Salvation and the “canceled too-soon” series Journey Man, will play a therapist that works with surviving children of the invasion.
Other names of cast members include Seychelle Gabriel (The Spirit, and M. Night Syamalan’s The Last Airbender), Jessy Schram (Life, Crash: The Series) and Drew Roy (Greek, Lincoln Heights). According to reports, the series opens shortly after aliens have wiped out most of humanity. The aliens are now rounding up the few people left, but they are met with strong resistance from a group of soldiers and civilians who fight for their survival – all while struggling to maintain their humanity.
With Black Friday sales behind us but with Christmas right around the corner, there’s still time to get some great movies on DVD and Blu-ray this holiday season. To help, here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time.
Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as The Wizard of Oz, Gremlins, Snatch, Ben 10: Alien Swarm and the Blu-ray debut of McG’s Terminator: Salvation (shown above with Christian Bale and Sam Worthington).
Check them out:
A Christmas Tale (The Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)
Ben 10 Alien Swarm ~ Ryan Kelley, Nathan Keyes, Alyssa Diaz, and Galadriel Stineman (DVD and Blu-ray)
Better Off Ted: Season One ~ Jay Harrington, Portia de Rossi (DVD and Blu-ray)
That Joss Whedon is a funny guy and one heck of a writer. His shows, including Firefly, Buffy, Angel and Dollhouse, are among the most favored by fans and, of course, we love his work here at The Flickcast. Now, with the Terminator franchise apparently up for sale (again) Whedon has made a modest proposal of his own to buy the entire thing in an open letter to those selling the franchise.
Among the items covered in this open letter are how much he offers for the franchise and what he would do with it if he got it. Its a funny and, in some cases, inspirational attempt at humor from a man who knows how to bring the funny.
Although, maybe he’s serious and thinks he would do a good job with the franchise? And, thinking about it a bit more myself, I think he would do a great job with Terminator also. Interesting thoughts indeed.
Take a look at the full text of the letter after the jump, courtesy of the fine folks at Whedonesque. Once you read it, give us your thoughts on the idea.
It looks as if another franchise could end up being a victim to the economic recession. The rights to the lucrative Terminator movie series are up for sale yet again. The LA Times reports Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek, who acquired the science-fiction franchise in 2007 for $25 million and produced Terminator: Salvation, are looking to sell the rights as they work through a Chapter 11 reorganization.
But fans shouldn’t get too worried about never seeing their favorite Terminator model on the silver screen again. There’s a long history of franchise rights changing hands over the years.
At the time of release in 1984, production company Hemdale Films owned a 50% interest and director James Cameron sold the other half to producer Gale Anne Hurd for $1. Carolco Pictures, owned by producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, bought Hemdale’s stake in 1990 for $10 million, but filed for bankruptcy in 1997.
Kassar and Vajna then created C2 Pictures, which bought their old company’s stake for $8 million and the remaining 50% from Hurd for $7 million. In 2007, Kassar and Vajna sold the rights to current owners, Anderson and Kubicek.
No word yet on how the potential sale will effect Terminator 5 and 6, which Terminator: Salvation director McG is working on, but if box office receipts and ownership history are any indication of what the future might hold, the potential owner is sure to find some way to keep the story going.
Not to beat a dead horse, but Terminator: Salvation kind of sucked. We reviewed the film last week, and it wasn’t much to rave about. The one part in particular that seemed to stick out the most in the haystack of crap was how similar the film looked to Michael Bay’s Transformers.
The trailer mash-up masters over at Black20 felt the same way, and now you can see the havoc that is brought on by The Transforminators.
Memorial weekend is a time primarily held for big budget films that will pave the way for the summer blockbuster season usually lasting until late August. This weekend has been held by such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, X-Men: Last Stand, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, each grossing over $100 million for the weekend. The last time the box office did less than $100 million that weekend was 2005 with the animated Madagascar.
This past weekend, two relatively large films opened up: the follow up to 2006′s Night at the Museum, and the fourth film in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Salvation. ‘Night’ ended up taking the weekend with an estimated $70 million over ‘Salvation’s $53 million. Though Terminator opened on Thursday and technically took in $67 million for the four days, the weekend itself was won by the Ben Stiller vehicle. Though, Terminator losing wasn’t much of a surprise if you read our review here on the site.
No word on what this could mean for the box office and the rest of the summer, seeing as how there are plenty of big budget films on the way, and the highest grossing weekend this year goes to Wolverine at $85 million. Does this mean we could see a weak financial year for studios? Have people run out of money after seeing Dark Knight 36 times in the theater? Only time will tell.
Due to the long holiday weekend we, like other sites out there, won’t be posting quite as much stuff. Hey, ever our writers need time off sometimes (but not too much). Still, that doesn’t mean we won’t be putting up anything.
Case in point, this new Terminator-inspired music video made by Matthew Belinkie, the guy responsible for other fan films like The Dark Bailout andIndy Shot First.
Even thought the production quality isn’t the greatest (it is a fan film, remember), the video is still fun and the song is pretty decent as well. Enjoy.
Even with our own Matt Raub’s less-than-stellar review, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Termnator: Salvation hit the ground running and so far has done well at the domestic box office. With a first-day total of $13.3 million, including some Wednesday midnight performances, the film is expected to gross close to $70 million through the Monday holiday.
The first-day tally for the film fell short of any significant record, but that could be the good news for Warners if it’s to outpace Fox’s big opener, Night at the Museum 2, for weekend bragging rights. Weekend rankings will be based on Friday through Monday grosses and, according to the reporter, some had suggested a huge Thursday gross might sap the Terminator of sufficient boxoffice strength to take the top spot for the weekend.
Paramount’s Star Trek continued to perform well and was second among Thursday’s top grossers earning $3 million to make its total $161.6 million so far. Sony’s Angels & Demons was third with $2.6 million, pushing the Tom Hanks starrer beyond $160 million.
I guess you should never underestimate the power of Christian Bale, explosions and robots that kill.
Before you sit down in that dark theater this weekend to see Terminator: Salvation, if you are a fan of the Terminator franchise, this movie is not for you. The very first words out of my mouth after walking out of the theater were “This was a terrible Terminator movie, but a pretty good Transformers movie.” Truer words haven’t been said abut this film. We at The Flickcast had our doubts about this film, between Bale’s outburst on set and McG slowly stepping out of the limelight, but none of us expected the film to be this bad.
Even going into this without expectations, it’s pretty hard to salvage a good movie from the two hours or so you’re in the theater. With bad accents and love story subplots, this movie forces fans of the franchise into a blinding rage by the time the credits role. I had the luck of being in a packed house with fans who were hooting and screaming when the first titles came on the screen. Their demeanor changed pretty quickly as the movie went on.
What makes this film a better Transformers film than a Terminator film? How about the complete lack of anything “time travel”. It’s understood in Terminator canon that they don’t find a time travel device until the fall of SkyNet, but how can you continue a franchise and not even address one of it’s biggest plot points? That would be like making a sequel to Back to the Future all about how peaceful and trouble free the McFly’s are in 1996. The closest they came to this plot point was the voice of Sarah Connor on a tape recorder giving John instructions from the past (not Linda Hamilton, by the way).
Now that he’s not in office anymore, it seems like former California Governor can’t keep still. First he announces that he’s doing a comic book/cartoon franchise based on the fictional affairs during his term as the Governator, and now he’s ready to jump on the big screen as The Terminator.
That Joss Whedon is a funny guy and one heck of a writer. His shows, including Firefly, Buffy, Angel and Dollhouse, are among the most favored by fans and, of course, we love his work here at The Flickcast. Now, with the Terminator franchise 
It looks as if another franchise could end up being a victim to the economic recession. The rights to the lucrative Terminator movie series are up for sale yet again. The 
Memorial weekend is a time primarily held for big budget films that will pave the way for the summer blockbuster season usually lasting until late August. This weekend has been held by such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, X-Men: Last Stand, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, each grossing over $100 million for the weekend. The last time the box office did less than $100 million that weekend was 2005 with the animated Madagascar.
Even with our own Matt Raub’s 
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