James Cameron on TERMINATOR: DARK FATE - "It Was Your Granddad's Terminator Movie"
Director James Cameron recently talked a little bit about Terminator: Dark Fate and why it might not have been as much of a success as it should have been. I actually enjoyed the film! It wasn’t the best in the franchise, but it definitely was the best Terminator movie since Terminator 2. Unfortunately, it didn’t do enough to resurrect the franchise, which is what everyone was hoping for.
While talking with Deadline, Cameron reflected on why the movie didn’t work, and one of the things is how he found himself at odds with director Tim Miller. Their visions didn’t align with each other and the final product suffered because of it. He said:
“I think, I’m actually reasonably happy with the film. Tim and I had our battles and we’ve both spoken about that, but the crazy thing is we’re still pals. Which is weird. I liked him before the movie, didn’t like him very much during the movie, and I like him now, and I think he feels the same way. We’re both these crazy sci-fi geeks and we like a lot of the same things, and I love his show, Love, Death & Robots. But yeah, we butted heads.”
One of the things the disagreed on was the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Miller didn’t want to make the movie with him, and Cameron pretty much forced him into the film. He said:
“I think the problem, and I’m going to wear this one, is that I refused to do it without Arnold. Tim didn’t want Arnold but I said, look, I don’t want that. Arnold and I have been friends for 40 years and I could hear it, and it would go like this: ‘Jim, I can’t believe you’re making a Terminator movie without me.’ It just didn’t mean that much to me to do it, but I said, if you guys could see your way clear to bringing Arnold back and then, you know, I’d be happy to be involved.”
So, Schwarzenegger was cast! As for bringing Linda Hamilton in as Sarah Connor, that was Miller’s idea. This is where Cameron makes the funny observation that Terminator: Dark Fate is your granddad’s movie. He said:
“And then Tim wanted Linda. I think what happened is I think the movie could have survived having Linda in it, I think it could have survived having Arnold in it, but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then, you know, she’s 60 something, he’s 70 something, all of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie. And we didn’t see that. We loved it, we thought it was cool, you know, that we were making this sort of direct sequel to a movie that came out in 1991. And young movie-going audiences weren’t born. They wouldn’t even have been born for another 10 years.”
Miller previously said that he wouldn’t work with Cameron again due to the lack of control he had. He said: "I'm sure we could write a book on why it didn't work. I'm still not sure and I'm processing, but I'm very proud of the movie." He added: "The things they seemed to hate the most about the movie, were things I can't control. I can't control you didn't like Genysis or you felt betrayed by Terminator 4. I can't help that." He went on to explain: It's more that I just don't want to be in a situation again where I don't have the control to do what I think is right."
What do you think about what Cameron had to say about Terminator: Dark Fate? Do you agree with his assessment?