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BY LINCOLN GASKING | The
Terminator crashes through the leadlight paned glass of a lavish stone
crypt. Sitting heavily on his left shoulder is a wooden casket bearing
the name, "Sarah Connor". The peaceful surroundings of the grassy
cemetery are further broken by the staccato sound of thirty shotguns and
machine guns opening fire on the leather-clad figure.
Concrete splinters in all directions as stray bullets make short work
of centuries-old tombstones in between the Terminator, the SWAT vans and
police cars that now surround him. The Terminator twists slowly to face
the oncoming blasts. His face bloody from bullet wounds, he lifts his
free left arm and points his chain gun at a cluster of SWAT team members
squatting behind the door of a police car. His massive gun comes alive,
and with a roar louder and deeper than its adversaries, it erupts, spewing
flame from its mouth as The Terminator returns fire.
"CUT!" The A.D. yells into his megaphone. "Thanks everyone,
thats lunch!" The surreal situation of being on the set of
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is supplemented with the fact that
not only are we standing within a real cemetery; but a real funeral has
been taking place all morning amidst the sound of machine gun fire just
a few hundred yards away. (The unit publicist swears they were aware of
the situation)
Arnold is back in his iconic role for a third time, and while hes
having the time of his life, theres also a little pressure. "Its
fun and it is a big responsibility at the same time because people expect
this movie obviously to be as good if not better than the second one,
and the first one" he says. "So the good thing about this is
that Hollywood -- the whole industry -- is in a mood for making the sequels
better than the originals whereas in the old days, just ten to twenty
years ago, it was just like a hit-and-run thing where they throw a bit
of money at something, and say, Lets make some money out of
that and bow out. Now theyre making them much differently,
theyre making them in a quality way, they hire good people, the
best in the business in every department, and spend the money on it."
The difference this time is that Arnold is the only one who will actually
be back. Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Jim Cameron all passed, leaving
director Jonathan Mostow (U-571) to helm the project. Arnold describes
the differences: "Theyre two different personalities, but theyre
both very talented I just had dinner with Cameron last Saturday
and we talked about that [Mostow] is very intelligent, hes
very knowledgeable with visual effects, he has the patience, he has the
discipline hes the director. He directs every department,
he has control of every dept, and because he comes from that background,
he also is very much into directing the actors, rather than some directors
[who] have the tendency to pay a lot of attention to details of the action
but not a lot of details to the scene itself -- the acting -- so he concentrates
on both, which is very good."
Mostow has his own viewpoint: "Its a daunting, semi-masochistic
endeavor to step into this directors chair, but you know what no
pain no gain," he says. "I dont think about [the pressure]
thats the one thing I worry about the things I control,
all I can control is trying to make the movie as good as I possibly can
Ill leave it to other people to sit there and go, well, it
wasnt as good, it was better or whatever, its sort of
irrelevant, all Im hoping is that this is a movie [that] as a story,
stands up as a companion to the other two movies, and essentially Ive
done justice to the franchise, and Ive told a good story, that people
go to and they go, You know what, that was a good story, that was
an enjoyable two hours spent at the movie theater and I was so engrossed
in what it was."
"I thought that there was a great story to tell for me its
about the story, I think ultimately at the end of the day, thats
why people go to the movies: if theres a compelling story with characters
they care about, and the world that Cameron created is one that allows
for opportunity and storytelling that you dont usually get, and
you add to that the fact that when you go into a movie, you have to introduce
the characters , and introduce them to the world and get everybody on
board, its not like a TV series where everyone knows what the characters
are when they plug in each week.
"Here you have this mythology thats known all over the world
and the audience knows the back story of all these characters and the
great thing is that so much time has elapsed. This isnt like this
is a sequel to a movie done two or three years ago and the only reason
to make the movie is sort of, to cash in, although Im sure the movie
wouldnt be made unless they thought they couldnt cash in,
but from my perspective you have characters that have now -- you have
the main character of John Connor as a kid whos now a decade [older].
All the issues that you face as a young adult are different to those as
a kid, and thats really interesting. Heres this kid whose
carrying this burden of being this leader in the future, thats this
very lonely burden, because nobody else in the world knows about it, or
believes, even if you tried to explain it to somebody, theyd think
he was crazy and thats a really interesting character. "
On the change of Claire Danes a week ago, Mostow explains: "We had
initially cast an actress in Claires part who I think is going to
be a major movie star, and shes only nineteen years old and the
gamble I took was that that would perhaps her star quality would sort
of compensate for the fact that she was sort of too young for the part.
At the end of the day, after looking at a couple of days worth of
footage shot, this footage she was just too young Ive
always been a huge fan of Claires Claire was someone Id
been thinking about early on anyway I want great actors in this
movie if you look at the cast we have in this movie Nick
Stahl and Claire Danes are two, actually both the same age, and theyre
two great actors of their generation."
Continues Mostow, "In making [T3], you only develop even more respect
and admiration for everything that Jim Cameron did the guys
a genius and created a mythology that is incredibly compelling and executed
it in an extraordinary way and T2 was the beginning of digital special
effects, that was really the first movie whenever there was
a big effect, the effect literally stops and the audience goes, ooh ahh,
as the effect happens... Nowadays, that stuffs a dime a dozen, and
I think audiences are frankly burned out of running up on ceilings and
triple somersaults, weve sort of seen all that stuff and Im
making the bet that people hopefully just want to go see just a good story."
"On my approach [to the action] the great thing in this movie
is you have two robots, each weigh a tonne, fighting each other, so it
already the fight sequences are going to be different than other
movies weve seen and also the fact that Arnold, the fact
that its Arnold you cant talk about this movie without
[saying that] youre not going to see the terminator doing
chop socky, and its not what people want to see either, and the Terminator
is a character that everybody knows, they have their own BS Detector about
what feels right and what doesnt feel right, and were kind
of guided by that instruction of a fight scene.
"My focus again, I come to it as I think of myself as a storyteller
over anything else, and Im just trying to come up with a story that
you go, Wow! Cool, that took this to a place that I didnt
know what was going to happen. Thats ultimately the best
movie in my book: when we just dont know whats going to happen
next, and thats a huge part of it theres a lot of special
effects movies out there and whats always been great about
the Terminator movies is that they have great story. And thats really
where we have a start from and all the other stuff is the bells and whistles
of filmmaking.
"This is totally kid in a candy store kind of situation,
because I dont go see movies in screening rooms, I go see
them in regular movie theaters, I dont go to fancy West Side theaters,
I go see my movies in like, the Valley or something like that (Thats
where the real people are!) --- its funny, every actor whose worked
in the movie their first day, after their first scene with Arnold,
always to turn me and they go, Im in a movie with the Terminator!
I cant believe it - thats so cool, and we all feel that every
day, its just completely fun, and hes such an iconic character.
"[Being a Terminator fan] -- you know what you want to see
you go, thats fun, and I like seeing that, so you kind of get to
sort of its the ultimate audience interactive experience,
its what movies will probably be in three centuries, well
all come there and press a button in the movie theater and see whatever
movie we want to see."
[Making T3] is a little like a through-the-looking-glass experience, its
just... fun! This is the most fun Ive ever had coming to a set every
day. [Arnold] is a delight to work with and you see why this guy - how
some guy [who] arrives with a gym bag and two dollars in his pocket got
to where he got to. Just completely focused on what he has to do. Im
not about to go tell Arnold how to play the Terminator because hes
been doing it for twenty years and he does great. If he does something
that I think is like, wrong for The Terminator, Ill tell him but
that hasnt happened because I always joke with him I say
it feels like Im making the movie of the Bible and Ive got
Moses playing the central character. Hes so dialled into this role
.. often I sit there watching it like, I cant believe Im not having
to pay eight bucks and just watch him do this stuff"
Stay turned for Part 2 of these T3 interviews soon! Next up: Stan Winston!
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