Warner Bros sent out a press release announcing the start of production on Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (wait, didn’t they decide to change the title a while back? I’m confused…) And yes, this press release is a tad bit late, considering the film began lensing in Albuquerque, New Mexico almost two and a half weeks ago (May 5th). If it’s old news, then why report it at all? Well because the press release features a brand now plot synopsis:
In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind. The film also stars Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Charlotte Gainsbourg as Kate Connor, Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, Common as Barnes, and Jadagrace as Star.
Notice the new release features two new casting tidbits:
Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Science of Sleep, 21 Grams), pictured right, as Kate Connor, a character introduced in Terminator 3 as Kate Brewster, played by Claire Danes. If you remember correctly Brewster was actually the one who sent the last terminator back in time to protect John, as Connor was said to have been assassinated on July 4th 2032 by a T-850. Judging by the character’s name, it appears that Kate and John have since gotten married. The film begins 14 years before his assassination. However, one must wonder if that plot point may change now that John knows it is coming.
And no, we have no idea Jadagrace is. She’s not listed on IMDb, and Warner Bros doesn’t yet have bio information available. We did some digging and found that someone named Jadagrace Gordy is listed as a former student of Gary Spatz’s The Playground (started in 2005), a conservatory for young actors. Yes, YOUNG actors. Interesting… We’ll keep you update.
Principal photography is taking place at the Albuquerque Studios and on location throughout New Mexico. Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins hits theaters on May 22nd 2009.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
This is going to be the Star Wars prequels of the Terminator series.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
no good. brolin needs to be the terminator. he is bad-ass (see Trupo in american gangsta). Brolin !!! Bran !!!
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I don’t know why everyone’s so down on this. I know that people hold up T2 like some kind of holy grail, but everything I’ve been reading about this inspires confidence that it could be a great series - from the designs to the casting. Providing there’s a good story to be told I think a lot of people are going to be surprised.
Regarding McG, his films haven’t been my cup of tea either, but he is a capable director and I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
“Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past.” I’m looking forward to this but that just sounds dumb…
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
*edit* not to mention the whole you can only go back in time you can’t go forward one way trip thing from Terminator 1
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I can’t decide which of the titles is more awful, but it’s interesting that they’ve reverted. I seriously hope it gets rethought at some point.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I just find it so dissapointing that a talented actor like Bale who could be doing meaniningful work has tied himself up with this crap for the next 4-6 years.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I have confidence in anything Bale does, he’s just that fraking good in my opinion. I’ll confess to watching the new series and while its not great and the whole “emo” Connors really bugs me, the Terminator universe is just interesting enough to make it good. Besides while T2 was good, it had its flaws like any movie and with the backing this movie has it seems dressed to impress.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I give up. The machines have won.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I’m pretty sure they introduced the jumping forward in time in the Sarah Connor Chronicles. As for the plot well…I need to hear more about it. I’m still trusting the fact that Bale would bail (hehehe) if things went bad.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:30 am
Is it just me, or is Skynets time displacement chamber the No.1 bullseye here?
All Connor has to do is destroy the Time Machine to prevent Judgement day….
Sheeesh it gets easer as we near the focal point.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:09 am
@790,
Wouldn’t that cause a Paradox?
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:03 am
@ Allynd
The terminator series is full of paradox’s that somehow get solved. in the third film its revealed that judgement day is inevitable while the new TV series is centered around stopping judgment day (though theoretically Connors wouldn’t know the actions of the third film at all but the whole forward TimeJump versus growing up is something thats never addressed). Also I don’t think it would cause a paradox as while their future would cease to exist, they would have preserved the whole of the human race, their end goal. However If they go that way then that their going to drag the idea of inevitable judgement day though the mud.
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:06 am
@790
That would be sweet! But if they were going to do that I hope its either done tastfully over the 3 films with the greater emphasis being on the later two, or just making it the ultimate goal of the 3rd. I’m with you in hoping they don’t throw away the idea of time travel anytime soon, its what this series is fraking founded on.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
«If you got the Time»
In T1,Kyle Reese stated that “the future is not set”, it can be changed.
Sarah and John tried but ultimatly couldn’t prevent Judgement Day in T2.
In T3, we saw that Skynet had the advantage by sending back a TX model to kill Connor’s top staff and jumpstart the War against Mankind.
Knowing all this, John Connor’s No.1 main goal would be to take out the Time Machine before its used by Skynet.
If he can do this, Judgement Day will have never occured. John Connor would be sacreficing his life (paradox) but he would do this rather than suffer the guilt of knowing he had the knowledge and didn’t act on it to save Humanity.
According to James Cameron & William Wisher’s T2,screenplay/novel, there is only one Time Machine and its located at Skynet Central (Area 51).
(Here’s what I would do, WARNING, this is the part where I just ramble on like a super geek)
Have the resistance go after the Time Machine. To do this there going to have to start hacking there way into Skynets network. So you could have resistance teams set up to capture Terminators on the battlefield. They could hack Terminators and reprogram them to defend humans. (Something we know has to occur because of T2). We could even see huge battles where Terminators would be fighting alongside humans. (How cool would that be?).
Anyway…. Its a race against “Time” to see if Connor can get to the Time Machine before its activated. Of course its never that easy, Connor’s forces take out Skynet only to find that they were too late. (They could show a little drop of T-1000 left behind)
Now what? Kate tells a emotionally damaged John that he has to send Kyle back now. They argue yet John relents.
We see Connor’s tech team reprogram the Time Machine, and then the (Big Franchise Moment) we see Connor send Reese back to 1984.
Think with CGI nowdays how cool the interior of Skynet would look not to mention the Time Machine going off. (Wowowow).
Just as Connor’s team is prepairing to send the last Terminator unit to 2003 (T3), Skynet starts to reboot its systems. (Alarms going off). They have some memory problems with the Terminator and have to send it back in a hurry. (This is why in T3 the T-800 follows Kates command and believes it killed John in the future).
At this point Kate and John start to think of a better strategy and decide to try and cripple Skynet with a EMP burst right at its core CPU,
John sees that Skynet will be back in control of its armies in a matter of minutes. Johns techs tell him that they can’t get the EMP to work this fast. The techs discover that the Time Machine draws power from the core of the planet and John then decides to just blow the Time Machine and take Skynet with it.
They gain partial access to Skynets assembly line and divert fusion power cells to the time chamber area. (Since there in Area 51 who knows what other weapons they could find). They rig up a huge bomb and at the last second trigger a 10 second countdown.
Skynet comes back online and see’s the Bomb. In a desperate attempt it activates the Time Machine in hopes of transporting this bomb the hell out. But Time has finally run out for Skynet, 3, 2, 1…….ka fricken boom
(White Screen).
We see a heathy looking John Connor wake up its a sunny day outside. He grabs the remote on the stand next to his bed and turns on the tv. The monday morning news comes on. We see that its 2029, and a very high tech looking society. A commercial pops up for the new Bio-Dyne home android unit. (Now with real looking skin).
News comes back on and the last thing we hear as John looks out the window is that, Mankind is possibly only a few decades away from Time Travel.
The End?
Yes its very slow at work today……;-)
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Dude I give you massive props on that, very intriguing and detailed :P
Plus like you put it their wouldn’t really be a paradox as Connors is still alive, its just the world events that get changed, which is what happens during Time Travel anyway. Plus I can just imagine the look on Bales face when he’s giving his father his mothers picture and sending him back in time. The word Epic won’t be a near enough word to describe the awesomeness my friend.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Thanks Mecline!
Yeah as a big fan of the Terminator, that scene with Reese and Connor I’m sure will be in one of these sequels. Let’s hope they do it right! ;-)
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I know what you mean, I’m a huge fan of just about any medium that tackles the idea of time travel and alongside the Back to the Future trilogy, The Terminator Saga is one of my all-time favorites. Everyone always talks about T2 but I still gotta give my ultimate nod to the original, the story was awesome and Reese’s acting was pretty fraking sweet. Thats not to say I disliked the 2nd by any means, because lets face it, Arnold taking out tons of cops as the Terminator is just too cool. I just love how the first one set up the origins for what was coming.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am
So is Sam Worthington taking the Marcus role or not?
I heard Steve Innes is to take the G.I. Joe role as Worthington turned it down to do T4 but cant find anything to follow that up.
Both Innes and Worthington are from Perth Australia and are good friends though Innes is about 6 years older.
I read Innes is related to writer Hammond Innes and actor Laura Innes.