The Future Is Already Here — James Cameron Wants to Return to Terminator, But There's a Catch
Hennadiy Chemеris
Legendary filmmaker James Cameron still wants to work on a new film in the Terminator universe, but he admits that reality itself is making the project much more complicated. In a recent interview about his new movie Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron revealed that he already has a thick stack of notes for a potential script, and plans to seriously focus on the idea once the Avatar marketing campaign wraps up.
However, Cameron says that "the future has already arrived": modern technology and the rapid development of artificial intelligence have made the premise of Terminator feel uncomfortably close to reality, making it tough to craft a new story and "predict" the future the way he did back in 1984.
It’s difficult. I have to tell you. Science fiction has caught up and is actually overwhelming us at this point. We’re living in a science fiction world, and we’re literally having to deal with problems that in the past only existed in science fiction books and movies. Now we’re living it for real. I’ll never be as prescient as I was back in 1984 of imagining this one because I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to be happening a year or two years from now. But I at least want to future-proof myself by being a couple years out
I’ve got a stack of notes this thick, which is how I start all my scripts, on what I want to do with a new Terminator film. I’m going to pour myself into that as a writer.
In addition to Terminator, Cameron is also considering other projects: a film about the atomic bombings of World War II, an adaptation of the book "The Devils," and more sequels to the "Avatar" series (two more films are in the works).
It's still unclear if Cameron will find the right idea for a new "Terminator," but it's obvious he hasn't stopped thinking about it.
The Terminator franchise currently includes six films. The first two are widely praised by audiences, but the more recent entries have not fared as well. For example, Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) has a score of just 6.2 on IMDb.
By the way, James Cameron recently made some strong comments about the use of AI to create characters in movies.
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