During an upcoming interview with William Wisher (co-writer of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day); TheTerminatorFans.com got to ask about the treatments and scripts he had worked on for 5th and 6th movies which annoyingly never came to be… finally we have information straight from the horses mouth…
TheTerminatorFans.com: If you worked on another Terminator movie, what direction would you take on the T-800 character or would your interest lie elsewhere in a new Terminator?
William Wisher:
Well, that’s kind of a moot point, because I highly doubt that is ever going to happen. When I was thinking about T5 and T6 my instinct was to bring Arnold and Linda back and close out the story by taking it full circle. But that was five years and another sequel ago and it didn’t happen. So I’m going to let someone else figure out which direction to go from here.
In 2010 William Wisher was working on script/plot outlines for 2 movies, we can trace this back to the Universal pitch; part of a deal enticement package offered in sale of rights by hedge fund Pacificor LLC. This would mean anyone could buy the rights and produce a Terminator movie and Universal would be the default studio to make the movie, obviously if you own your own movie production studio ie. Annapurna Pictures and Skydance Media (formerly known as Skydance Productions) then obviously you didn’t have to work with Universal or use Wisher who wrote on the first two Terminator movies (face plam)…
Update: We can confirm that Pacificor LLC. was the company that hired William to write treatments for the proposed 5th and 6th installments.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger can keep coming back regardless of age then why is ‘THE’ veteran Actor of the Terminator series- LINDA HAMILTON not being offered a return… look at the Oscars situation, look at whitewashing, look at Terminator Genisys casting and studios toying with the idea of swapping out Carrie Henn with Jennifer Lawrence for an Aliens sequel and understand that this is just pure bullshit, ageism, sexism all rolled into one.
We did have hope for a return from William Wisher and he definitely understands what fans want. Our hope is that James, Gale and William can return to this series in the next few years and revive the property! The original creative team together again would be amazing. If Skydance would just invite them to the party and start from the ground up and share the profit with them we would totally respect it and excitement for the property would fully return. They could close a deal to share distribution (between studios) and be part of cinematic history. The act would also be seen as honorable to reconnect Jim to the property earlier than dictated by a legality, but a mutually beneficial agreement could be reached over TV rights/licensing etc. but it may also suit Jim to just wait for complete control of the property.
“If I had a little time machine and I could only send back something the length of a tweet, it’d be — ‘Don’t sell.’ - Jim Cameron Toronto Sun interview in 2009”
Linda Hamilton was offered a return for T3: Rise of the Machines- she rejected the role due to the script not offering anything new for her character other than being a sidekick to John (a role which would see Sarah Connor become almost redundant had it come to fruition) and killing off the mother of the future in a cliffhanger scene of “is she dead or isn’t she… The response was for writers to kill the character of Sarah Connor off-screen as if to snub Linda Hamilton. No. If Linda Hamilton rejects your script it is because it was shit, the movie was shit and you should have walked away with your head pointed at the floor in embarrassment and gone and re-worked the script until it was up to the standard Linda Hamilton expects from the Terminator series and she should have had a 30 million dollar pay check too!
What is even sadder to learn is that Linda Hamilton has not been offered roles in conjunction with the Terminator franchise, for example did you know that she would have been open to a role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles but was never even asked? If they had asked her to reprise her role as Sarah Connor- TSCC would have been the much wanted canon continuation of T2 Judgment day.
Do not underestimate this woman and her appeal to fans; Linda Hamilton is the person who made us believe in the Terminator Legend, she evolved the role and took us on that raw Jim Cameron fueled thrill-ride. It is our total belief that Linda Hamilton is the most bankable star of the Terminator franchise today! We want to see her take on Arnold again… Terminator 2 gave her balls and took them away in the same movie with need to be protected by the now what we consider tedious politically correct protector role Schwarzenegger.
We thank Terminator Salvation for resurrecting Linda via a small, smart and respectful cameo but this isn’t enough… we want to see her in a full role again- something gritty, real, dark and difficult! We want to ignore what isn’t true. We want to be given a reason to be proud to be Terminator fans again. We want a whole story not another greedy trilogy which ignores canon and decimates the fanbase.
The fractures in the fanbase are painful- the franchise shouldn’t divide Terminator Fans; it should bring us together. As the chasm deepens with each new installment, it calls into question the very history- the foundation, of the franchise, as studios cause more inconsistencies in a rush to change a world which preexists their involvement.
All the fans want is a return. A return to darkness, violence, blood, carnage, heart and realism.
We want what we paid for. What we were promised.
Stay tuned for the awesome interview with Mr. Wisher as we chat about the past and future of the series…