James Cameron Reveals He Clashed With Terminator: Dark Fate Director

Terminator: Dark Fate is basically here, just a few short hours sit between fans and the latest entry in the franchise. The film presents a refining of the sometimes convoluted timeline that has been a major focus in previous installments. To get things back on track, the decision-makers at the head of this project looked to the past and brought James Cameron in a consulting role for Dark Fate. A recent interview with Collider sees the filmmaker talking about the film and the larger machinations of the franchise. One thing was made clear during the conversation though. Anyone who is going into Dark Fate expecting Terminator 2 again might be in for a bit of a surprise. Tim Miller might have had the seasoned creator around for this film, but he was focused on delivering his vision.

“I would say many. And the blood is still being scrubbed off the walls from those creative battles,” Cameron told Collider. “This is a film that was forged in fire. So yeah, but that’s the creative process, right? I mean, my work with Robert on Alita was very different. Robert loved the script, loved everything, said, ‘I just want to make this movie. I want to make the movie the way you see it.’ I was like, ‘No, you got to make it your movie.’ I had the reverse experience with Tim [Miller], which is Tim wanted to make it his movie. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I kind of know a little about this world.’ So I had the matter and the anti-matter version of that producorial experience.”

Having a legend in the midst of the production sounds easy on the surface. But, having the conviction to believe in your vision is commendable in a way. Cameron previously told Deadline about his involvement with Dark Fate. He even pointed out where he felt like his focus was primarily deployed in the creative process. Honoring those early films was a primary concern as they are points in the franchise that are more or less looked at as beloved entries. (Read Comicbook.com’s review of Dark Fate right here)

“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 explained to Deadline.

The filmmaker 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.”