TalkFilm Terminator 3 article

With Skynet trashed, the nuclear nightmare of Judgement day averted and the T-800 melting itself down, John and military mum Sarah Connor were finally contemplating getting on with life... .

Talk about speaking too soon. A decade on, the maniacal machines have yet another plan to destroy the now twenty something Connor (Nick Stahl). Their latest weapon? The 'Ultimate Terminator', the T-X, which is composed of energy and can assume any form (in this case, supermodel laydee Kristanna Loken). And it seems that only anotherT-800 (Schwarzenegger) can stop it.

According to Stahl (In the bedroom), John Connor is still suffering from the effects of his run-in with the liquid metal T-1000: "He has bad memories of what happened 10 years ago. So he's very guarded and wary of technology." Some one who's not so guarded is director Jonathan Mostow (U-571) who, when asked about the rumours of delays and problems affecting the T3 shoot, says: "I'm surprised we're on schedule! I just thought that, with all the stuff that could go wrong on this kind of movie, we would go over. We had some things happen. We had a fire on the stage across the way. One day a light caught fire and it turned into a huge blaze. We had to shut the set down for a week."

But what we really want to know is, can T3 kick arse the same way that T2 did 12 years ago? Fears that this will be the 12A Terminator has yet to be entirely calmed, though Mostow's confirmed he's aiming for an R rating in the US. And Mostow is well aware of what makes a successful Terminator film - at least in his eyes: "You have to be a fan of the other films. I really feel confident about the fact that this movie does not violate the sensibility that the other films created. Obviously, we have to do some things that are new and fresh, but I think having Arnold as the Terminator in a big, black leather jacket is probably 90 per cent of it".

Did you know? Even though Arnie's arguably getting too long in the robo-tooth, T3 producer Hal Lieberman has indicated there's the possibility of a T4. "There's been some discussion," he says, "but there's nothing concrete."

Cameron speaks! Terminator creator James Cameron on why Arnie agreed to do a T3 without him...

"Arnold made one last-ditch effort to draw me into T3. I wasn't really that interested, but he had been holding out because he wanted me to do it. But I said, 'Just do it. Ask for a shit-pile of money and just do it.' And that's what he did. I said, 'Don't take anything that doesn't have a three in front of it. You've earned that.' I don't know how it worked out, but I'm sure it cost them dearly.

"But he is a good friend of mine, so I wanted him to have it. I had to be able to say: 'That character's as much yours as it is mine at this point. I may have come up with it originally, but you've earned that, so go for it."

This interview is from the UK edition of Total Film - Issue 73 - February 2003

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