It isn’t known if James Cameron has actually sat through and watched the entire 2 seasons of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles but Jim seems impressed enough by Josh Friedman to hire him to write for the Avatar Sequels and write on Terminator 6 with seven other writers.
David S. Goyer talked to Rotten Tomatoes about the start up of his new TV Show Krypton…
Goyer also joined the party when filmmaker James Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise to produce a new movie, which is currently untitled and expected in 2019. Cameron assembled a writers’ room that included Goyer, who told Rotten Tomatoes that he wrote a draft. He also revealed which non-Cameron Terminator property the producer-director held in high regard.
David S. Goyer on James Cameron/Josh Friedman:
“It was interesting to hear his take on what he felt we could change and what we couldn’t change. Sometimes it was surprising,” Goyer said. “Josh Friedman was also in the room — who did Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is why Josh was in the room. So I think [Cameron] was most impressed with what Josh did there.”
David S. Goyer on The Terminator character and canon:
“I approach them as being well-known cultural icons that have well-known canon that have made a cultural imprint,” he said. “My approach to adapting them is similar, in terms of assessing what’s canon and what isn’t, what one needs to hew to and what one can reinvent.”
Getting us a little worried there David… “change” and “reinvent”; then go on to talk about canon- isn’t the point of canon to stick to rules and to not change/reinvent the mythos? Amidst unveiling a really average looking Superman spin-off TV show… saying stuff like this doesn’t really get us excited,- you can of course argue that Terminator needs reinventing to be fresh and new or you could argue that reinventing it from what it used to be is the problem with the franchise and that taking it back to what it used to be would be more fresh and exciting than any form of reinvention.
When it comes to T: TSCC TheTerminatorFans.com staff have mixed feelings… some of us like it, some of us don’t and that’s just the way it is but regardless; it had/has a loyal following and people still love the show and would like to see it back in some form. There were talks of a DVD/Blu-Ray movie to tie things up but it seems a legal issue prevents it from happening.
Did the writing on TSCC make us put Josh Friedman on a pedestal? Not really and besides, as far as we are aware he may have created/wrote on it but he didn’t write it all by himself (not that we’re saying he takes all the credit for himself). The whole core plot of TSCC hinges around the idea of will John Connor sleep with a robot… sorry but it kinda did.
The writers room for Terminator 6 still slightly worries us due to the number of writers involved (8 to be exact) but only a soulless machine would not worry after the last three Terminator movies failed to rejuvenate the franchise. This is lightening in a bottle and catching it is really difficult.
No offense but we really don’t want this superhero world that David S. Goyer lives in seeping into Terminator and this is what David does for a living. We can pull Blade out of his writing credits and say “fuck yeah, we really enjoyed that movie” but then you compare that to Blade: Trinity and then we really start to worry about his involvement. He did write the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines of the Blade franchise and why didn’t the sequel to Blade take place in Moscow? Now- THAT was really annoying.
Sorry but TheTerminatorFans.com is all out of patience… it just seems like history is constantly on repeat with writers constantly trying to put their own stamp on things (and this is already a case of James Cameron has had to say yes and no but of course he is a consultant…) if you were doing the job correctly he would never have to say no or, at least, say it very rarely; you wouldn’t be asking him what you can and can’t “change” and you wouldn’t be surprised when he has to say no to your stupid ideas because if he did say no… they obviously sucked. What mess would this film be without James Cameron saying no? A fucking disaster waiting to happen but in Hollywood you fail upwards so it doesn’t really matter what we say… does it?
Source: Rotten Tomatoes