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The Governator gets face time in “Terminator Salvation”
Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably better known outside of California for playing a Terminator in the movie franchise than he is for acting as governor of the Golden State.
So for the movie “Terminator Salvation” opening on May 21, Schwarzenegger had to figure out how to be both the Governator and the Terminator, because as a busy man he didn’t want to spend time being both.
“Terminator Salvation” director McG, whose given name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, said that the problem was solved by using visual effects to superimpose Schwarzenegger’s face onto the body of a deadly Terminator robot in the movie, for a short scene. The image was taken from Schwarzenegger’s appearance in an earlier movie, before he became California’s governor in 2003.
McG said he spoke “at great length” with Schwarzenegger about “Terminator Salvation.”
“He was always very supportive and very helpful, but he has a job to do running the state of California in a difficult time where there’s budgetary problems and job problems, and he just didn’t want people to think he was down messing around on a film set,” McG said.
A representative from Schwarzenegger’s office was not available to comment.
What does The Governator think of the final result?
Dave Gibbons gives “Watchmen” movie artistic license
Illustrator Dave Gibbons and author Alan Moore are not on the same page about the movie adaptation of their magnum opus, the 1980s comic book series “Watchmen.” It’s not a minor difference of opinion — Gibbons lent a helping hand to director Zack Snyder for the movie, which opens in the U.S. and many countries on Friday, and Moore has famously pledged to be “spitting venom” at the film.
“Alan has said that he doesn’t want any involvement with it at all, and I would imagine that would include seeing the movie,” Gibbons told reporters recently.
But Gibbons was obliging enough to illustrate three new pages in the style of the original comic series for a crucial moment in the film, to help Snyder plan out how that would play out on-screen. It was for a sequence at the end of the film that was changed from the comic series, and Gibbons said that he had no problem with the change, which removed the giant killer squid used in the comic series.
“The squidless ending, I’m very relaxed about it,” he said. “What I particularly like is the way they’ve tied it back into the story and it makes perfect sense.”
And Gibbons said he visited the set during filming, and had the odd sensation of seeing actors walking around in costumes as the superheroes he drew on the page more than two decades ago. “Cigar smoke and these big guys in suits and gorgeous women, and it was like stepping over the line into fantasy,” he said.
Gibbons said that back in the early 1990s, there was a plan to adapt “Watchmen” into a movie with action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is now the governor of California, playing the part of powerful and often nude superhero Dr. Manhattan. “I’m really glad that it wasn’t made at that point,” he said.
In the version of the movie that has been made, Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan with the aid of computer generated animation that gives the character a blue glow. Producers say the technology to do that was not available until just a few years ago.
New “Terminator” movie gets L.A. preview
For the first three “Terminator” movies, nuclear destruction and an epic war between man and machines loomed in the future. “Terminator Salvation,” the next installment in the saga due out on May 22, takes everything up to the year 2018, and it features plenty of newfangled machinery.
In a preview on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, the movie’s director McG (given name Joseph McGinty Nichol) played for a small audience scenes from the upcoming film.
In one scene, a giant robot called a Harvester tore through a decrepit gas station, picking up humans and depositing them in a mobile jail cell. One of the plotlines in the film is that machines will use humans for ghastly research as they develop their latest Terminator machine.
The movie’s cast of fearsome machines has many more players. They include Hydrobots, machines that swim underwater and look like robotic barracudas. In one scene previewed for the audience, actor Christian Bale flies a helicopter close to a lake and gets ambushed by the Hydrobots, but manages to keep them at bay with a an assault rifle. Bale plays John Connor, leader of the embattled human resistance against the machines.
In his talk, McG talked about the role that Arnold Schwarzenegger could play in the film. Schwarzenegger starred in the first three “Terminator” movies, and he was talked about for a possible cameo in the latest film. McG offered few details, but said that he plans to show Schwarzenegger the movie soon. Schwarzenegger is now governor of California, a state embroiled in a budget meltdown.
McG also said he expects the film will be more than two hours long. And he said it will be released in IMAX format, although it will not be shot in that format.
And he talked about another movie coming out this year with deadly machines. The film “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is due out on June 26, from director Michael Bay. “It’s a healthy competition, so we’ll see who the last man standing is,” McG said.
Stallone, Schwarzenegger in Bollywood? Not both.
Action star Sylvester Stallone will make a cameo appearance in a Bollywood movie, but movie fans hoping Sly would share the screen with action hero-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will have to keep waiting. And maybe for a long time.
Aaron McLean, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman in the California governor’s office, dismissed recent media reports that the “Terminator” star will appear in the Bollywood movie “Incredible Love.”
“He is not involved in that picture,” McLean said.
But Stallone, star of the “Rocky” and “Rambo” films, will make an appearance in “Incredible Love,” which will be shot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
“I will confirm that Mr. Stallone is doing a cameo,” said his spokeswoman Michelle Bega.
“Incredible Love” is the story of an Indian stuntman in Hollywood, and it features Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. The New York Daily News reports the movie’s $21 million budget will be the most spent on any Bollywood picture.
Stallone, 61, and Schwarzenegger, 60, have never starred together on screen, but in 2002 they performed voice work for animated series “Liberty’s Kids: Est. 1776,” about the American revolution. Stallone played Paul Revere and Schwarzenegger had the role of Baron von Steuben.
Its incredilble that we’ll get to see sylvester stallone in a bollywood flick.frankly i wudnt mind watching him even in a persian movie.stallone is a legend!!!he’s got the best body and the best looks…the best action hero ever…just cant wait to see his movies!!!
Can’t wait for this movie. Looks very cool. Cool that Arnold is in it. Like Nemoy in Star Trek, even though that will end up being way better