For many years, "The Terminator" franchise has been up in arms and fallen on some hard times. Reboots have been tried and sequels have been attempted, but none of them ever captured the same feeling of the first two iconic films. Well, James Cameron has had enough of it and he is now back in charge, with plans to end things in the right way.
Cameron has regained the rights to the franchise and it will officially become his again in 2019. At that point, the copyright reversion goes into effect and it will be time for him to take control of things once more.
That being said, he already has a plan in place and knows what he wants to do.
A new version of 'The Terminator' will come to be
It appears as if James Cameron is taking charge of things and "godfathering" a new version of "The Terminator," and he's going to have some help. Tim Miller, director of "Deadpool," in currently in talks to direct the new film in the franchise which is being called "a reboot and a conclusion of one of cinema's great science fiction tales."
Miller and Cameron will have some help with the new "Terminator" film as David Ellison is going to be joining them. Ellison is the head of Skydance which co-financed "Terminator: Genisys" in 2015. He is working with some of the best science fiction authors to creatively find the movie and make the franchise mean something again.
Without Cameron, 'The Terminator' franchise has fizzled
"The Terminator" was a cinematic masterpiece in 1984 with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the ultimate bad guy/robot. In 1991, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" became one of the very few sequels in franchise history that is actually better than its incredibly impressive predecessor.
It may be needless to say, but James Cameron was in charge of both of those films and they were extremely successful.
In 2003, the franchise came back around with "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" which wasn't bad, but it just didn't have the same feel as the first two. "Terminator: Salvation" took a different turn in 2009 and was just a weird movie.
In 2015, "Genisys" went another route entirely and was even stranger, with back-and-forth time travel that didn't seem to work even though Arnold was back.
All three of those films were missing something, and it is obvious now what it was -- James Cameron. With the man back in charge of the franchise that he made so popular with the first two films, it appears as if it will finally be laid to rest in a few years, but in a respectful way that "The Terminator" deserves.