Terminator: Dark Fate is on the horizon and fans were treated to some early looks at the latest installment in the franchise this week. James Cameron is back on board, and he’s looking forward to righting the ship with this sequel. Cameron told Deadline about his involvement with the movie, and where he feels like he contributed most to the project.
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Dark Fate is trying to forge new ground with this entry in the series while still honoring the early films. Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day both loom large over this new movie. Cameron of course was heavily involved with both of those early efforts, Terminator helped launch him into a different stratosphere of projects. Negative reception to the last two outings probably has a lot to do with the decision to bring the filmmaker back into the fold.
“I focused on getting the script punched up. I didn’t feel like we went into the shoot with the script exactly where it should have been. There was a lot of momentum on the project, there was a start date, there was a lot of energy and a lot of “go fever” but the script wasn’t where it needed to be so I quietly worked on it in the background and shipping out pages,” Cameron told Deadline.
He continued, “Sometimes I was shipping out pages the day before they shot a scene. I’m not sure that was 100% always helpful, but overall, I kept the characters on track and sounding right and being where they needed to be.”
Getting things on the right track might as well be a mission statement for the entire project as Dark Fate serves as a massive reshuffling for the series. This newest movie serves to retcon Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation, and Terminator Genisys out of the main cannon. Dark Fate now follows T2 and fans can look forward to the streamlined continuity.
Dark Fate director Tim Miller has been working closely with Cameron to craft an interesting jumping-off point for future installments. It seems as though the creative team is focused on returning the series back to its heyday. Longtime fans might be a hard sell after the last two movies in the franchise left a bad taste in the fandom’s mouths.
Starring Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator: Dark Fate opens November 1.
