Now this is interesting news. Gale Anne Hurd has ultimate respect on this website and SDCC 2014 revealed a nice interview with the original producer and writer Gale Anne Hurd. Gale Anne Hurd was ultimately responsible for making sure ‘The Terminator’ got made and made negotiations to make sure Jim Cameron got to direct it. Even sacrificing a larger budget to ensure no other ‘hot shot’ director could replace Jim and his vision.
Now for a while we’ve talked about a Terminator 3 which would have been made in 1996 and this was recently touched upon by Jim Cameron confirming it as a fact, it seems Gale Anne Hurd (according to this) was also involved in these plans and we are just gutted that once again legal wranglings prevented this from ever happening.
IGN interview with Hurd at SDCC 2014 (video interview):
Talk a little about your process as a producer and a writer on Terminator:
Sure, when Jim and I talked about making this film we realized that it would be taken away from us if the budget was too high, so we engineered it so that even though it was a futuristic idea, even though it was science fiction, the technology came from the future. So the rest of the settings and locations and the costumes were all contemporary Los Angeles; we made the film for 5.6 million dollars.
Did you have any idea at the time that it was going to launch this franchise and these iconic characters?
No, no. We just hoped that it would do well enough that we would be able to make another movie; that was our ambition and when it exceeded that- no-one was more surprised than we were.
Have you paid attention to the continuing iterations of these characters- do you feel a sense of ownership at all?
No, because the rights ended up being sold out from under us and since Jim and I don’t have a connection to something that we essentially created; it’s a little hard to be invested in the direction other people are taking the characters and the world.
Would you ever want to take ownership again- if that were possible?
Um, it kinda depends on how the current iterations proceed, we would, I would love to do a reboot- Jim and I had talked about it but once again the rights were sold and you know, we weren’t invited to the party.
Do you have any hopes for Genesis?
I know nothing about it.
Do you have one iconic moment or memory from that experience- first of all Sarah Connor, talk a little about that character, I mean I know what she meant to me…
Well the interesting thing is that because the movie was called Terminator; a lot of people assumed the main character was the Terminator, and the truth is- the main character in the film was Sarah Connor, it’s her story and we’ve always been interested in the world of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances who don’t believe that they can cope or handle the challenges. She not only succeeds but without her, the world- the world of humanity, would have been lost to the machines.
(question from the community)
Terminator is basically my childhood. How does it feel to look back at it 30 years later?
It is the most wonderful thing to know that it continues to be relevant 30 years later and that people look to it as inspiring future generations of filmmakers and films.
*Transcribed by TheTerminatorFans.com
I have to be honest when as a hardcore fan of this franchise that I get more excited about Gale talking about doing a reboot than the actual reboot already in motion.
My belief is that if Gale Anne Hurd ever got to do a reboot it would be one similar to the new Mad Max in the sense it would be a continuation of the world that was originally created. Terminator Salvation was a reboot but it didn’t really clarify any of the original plot points; instead it created new plot-holes and failed to embody the true sense of Terminator.
If Gale Anne Hurd is still interested in doing a reboot she will only have to wait until 2018 to do so. In 2018 the rights revert back to Jim Cameron, now even if Jim Cameron isn’t interested (never say never) he may allow Gale to reboot it anyway as they seem to have always stayed on good terms with each other professionally.
I have no reason to believe that Jim Cameron would disallow Gale from being involved with Terminator and with her success with ‘The Walking Dead’ she knows how to produce a hit TV show too.
‘Terminator’ (2015) gives me nothing to go on, so right now my excitement level is frozen in liquid nitrogen. I have no reason to believe the new Terminator movie won’t be PG-13 and I don’t like reboots so it puts the new movie in a strange back yard with a very angry mistreated pack of dogs (Terminator Fans).
Gale does seem to have emotional attachment to the Terminator Franchise too…
Forbes.com also attended SDCC 2014 and asked Gale the following questions in regard to Terminator:
Are you involved in the new Terminator franchise?
It’s weird because bankruptcy court doesn’t understand intellectual property law. They insisted that the rights couldn’t be owned by two different parties. The rights to Terminator have been in bankruptcy three different times. At this point, we have nothing to do with the franchise.
You haven’t talked to Megan Ellison [who is producing the new series] about it?
I haven’t talked to her. I don’t know what they’re going to do. Without The Terminator you wouldn’t be talking to me right now. Of course it hurts.
I like the fact that Gale is open to saying that it “hurts” and I would be in full support as a fan to have Gale Anne Hurd helming future Terminator movies. Not only does it show more future life in this franchise but it gives hope to the original fan base.
So the big question is… would she do a Reboot, Prequel, Sequel (to the original movies) or a total Reboot like Skydance and Paramount?