The brash excessiveness of Terminator 2: Judgment Day coupled with the low-budget moxie of it’s predecessor The Terminator make the series one of the great one-two punches in action/horror hybrid cinema.  This in addition to the various underlying thematics of both pictures – the malleability of identity, fatalism versus free will, man versus machine – has helped the series endure over time, growing in acclaim with each passing year.  We’re in the thick of the summer movie season now – and Terminator 2: Judgment Day is still the blueprint for what-to-do when making a big budget tent-pole film; whereas The Terminator remains a hallmark of independent filmmaking, proof of just how much is possible on a relatively shoe-string budget with a little nerve and creativity.

The Hero Complex Film Festival celebrated these two movies with a double feature last night, followed by an interview with the man behind them: filmmaker James Cameron. During the post-screening Q&A, Cameron reminisced on coming up with the Terminator concept, casting Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role and the iconography of the Sarah Connor character. In addition, Cameron gave his thoughts on the upcoming Terminator sequel/reboot (Terminator: Genesis) and how he wanted to do a Spider-Man movie.  For all these highlights and more, hit the jump. For Cameron’s revealing thoughts on the writing process behind his soon-to-be-in-production Avatar trilogy, click here.

Terminator: Genesis (tentative title) looks like it will have a bit of a funky timeline.  Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) is young again, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is still young, and John Connor (Jason Clarke) is older than the both of them.  There’s also an old T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the mix.  With four movies already laid out (I’m assuming the new film will ignore the TV series entirely), and Genesis functioning as a spinoff/sequel/prequel/reboot-thing instead of a straight-up remake, how will the upcoming picture tie into the overall story?

Hit the jump to learn about the possible Terminator: Genesis connection to The Terminator.  Keep in mind that this might be considered a spoiler, so read on with caution.  But before hitting the jump, Paramount has released some exciting news for Doctor Who fans with the announcement that Matt Smith has joined the cast.  Per the press release, “Smith will play a new character with a strong connection to John Connor.”  The cast also includes J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi, and Byung Hun Lee.  Terminator: Genesis opens July 1, 2015.

Production on Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genesis has officially kicked off!  We got word of the start of the Skydance Productions reboot via the production company itself, which has posted an early slate that features both Taylor’s name alongside a sticker that reads “R.I.P. Sarah” as part of the Slates for Sarah movement.  Although it’s not much to go on as far as the movie is concerned, it’s good to hear that the picture is underway, especially with a theatrical release date coming in a little over a year.

Terminator: Genesis stars Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Jason Clarke as John Connor, Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson, and, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role that made him a household name.  Hit the jump to see Skydance’s start-of-production announcement for Terminator: Genesis.

Though filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are widely considered some of the most popular directors of all time, James Cameron has the distinct honor of directing the two highest grossing films ever made in addition to helming films in two other incredibly successful (and ongoing) franchises.  Fans had to wait over a decade for the follow-up to Cameron’s mega-hit Titanic, the performance-capture-heavy Avatar, and we’re currently in another waiting stage as we prepare for the long-promised Avatar sequels.

Cameron is deep in pre-production on Avatar 2, 3, and 4 right now with production set to get underway on all three films simultaneously later this year, but he recently took some time out of his schedule to participate in a fascinating and characteristically candid Reddit AMA in support of his upcoming Showtime docu-series Years of Living Dangerously.  In the lengthy AMA, the director discussed the status of the Avatar sequels, his initial plan for Alien 5, his thoughts on Prometheus and the Terminator reboot, the status of Battle Angel, what he thought about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and even his South Park “appearance”.  We’ve compiled some of the more interesting highlights after the jump.

Here’s the latest casting news of the day:

• Norman Reedus will join John Hillcoat’s Triple Nine, starring Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Teresa Palmer, and Gal Gadot.
• Byung-hun Lee is the latest to join Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genesis, along with Michael Gladis and Sandrine Holt.
• Jonny Weston takes on Olivier Megaton’s Taken 3, starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, and Forest Whitaker.
• Sean Mewshaw’s Tumbledown, a comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Rebecca Hall, adds Dianna Agron, Griffin Dunne, Richard Masur, and Blythe Danner.

Hit the jump for more on each film.

Here’s the day’s latest casting news:

• Peter Dinklage is in final negotiations to join Chris Columbus’ Pixels, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Josh Gad.
• The Hunger Games’ Dayo Okeniyi has landed the role of Miles Dyson’s son in Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genesis starring Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney and Jason Clarke.
• Tom Wilkinson is being eyed to play President Lyndon B. Johnson in Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King Jr. movie, Selma.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

In filmmaker David Ayer’s Sabotage, elite DEA task force agent John “Breacher” Wharton (Arnold Schwarzenegger) heads a team that takes on the world’s deadliest drug cartels.  But after the team successfully executes a high-stakes raid on a cartel safe house, they mysteriously start to be murdered, one by one, making everyone a suspect, including the team members themselves.  The film also stars Sam Worthington, Terrence Howard, Mireille Enos, Joe Manganiello, Josh Holloway, Max Martini, Olivia Williams, Harold Perrineau and Martin Donovan.

At the film’s press day, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about always looking for projects that are unique and different, why he wanted to work with director David Ayer and follow his lead, how impressed he was with his fellow actors, and what he does to make sure that he’s not singled out with any special star treatment.  He also talked about returning to the Terminator franchise and how the script for Terminator: Genesis has the feel of Terminator 2, reprising the role of Conan for The Legend of Conan, and the Twins sequel, Triplets.  Check out our Arnold Schwarzenegger after the jump.

The Star Wars casting game has been going on for a long, long time now, but the latest bit of casting rumors offered up an exciting possibility for one of the leads: John Boyega.  The young British actor had his breakthrough role in the excellent 2011 sci-fi film Attack the Block, and he seems like an inspired choice to lead this new Star Wars universe.

However, director J.J. Abrams remains undecided on the young leads in Episode VII, and now it appears that another major franchise property has Boyega in mind as well: the reboot Terminator: Genesis.  Moreover, the role that Boyega is being eyed for in Genesis is Terminator canon, as he would be playing the son of Skynet creator Miles Dyson.  Hit the jump for more.

Arnold Schwarzenegger first played the Terminator when he was 37, and then returned to play the role again in 1991 at the age of 44.  He once again played the Terminator in 2003 for Terminator: Rise of the Machines, and at that time he was 56.  Rise of the Machines explained the older-looking Schwarzenegger by saying that he was an older model, the T-850 instead of the T-800.  Now Schwarzenegger is 66, and he’s still happy to be playing a killer robot, and never has a catchphrase been used so literally.  The series is undergoing a reboot of sorts with Terminator: Genesis, and yet he’ll still be around, so how is he going to be back this time?

Hit the jump for Schwarzenegger’s explanation even though it raises another question.  The film also stars Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, and Jai Courtney.  Terminator: Genesis opens July 1, 2015.

With Divergent opening this weekend, I recently landed an exclusive video interview with Miles Teller and Jai Courtney.  During the interview they talked about working with director Neil Burger, why the police called so many times to the apartment building where the cast was staying, what can they tease about Reed Richards and Kyle Reese in Fantastic Four and Terminator: Genesis, and more

For those unfamiliar, the film is based on the Veronica Roth novel of the same name and takes place in a society where people are divided into factions based on their personalities.  Tris (Shailene Woodley) is a young girl who doesn’t fit into any of the pre-assigned groups and faces grave consequences due to her status as a “Divergent.”  Hit the jump to watch the interview.  Divergent also stars Theo James, Ashley Judd, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort,Maggie Q, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Christian Madsen, and Kate Winslet.

In Sabotage, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays elite DEA task force agent John “Breacher” Wharton, whose team takes on the world’s deadliest drug cartels.  But after the team successfully executes a high-stakes raid on a cartel safe house, they mysteriously start to be murdered, one by one, making everyone a suspect, including the team members themselves.

During the film’s press day, Collider was given the opportunity to sit down with the film’s star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is truly reinvented by filmmaker David Ayer for this role, and while we will run what he had to say about Sabotage closer to the film’s March 28^th release, we did want to share what he had to say about his upcoming roles, returning to the Terminator franchise, reprising his role as Conan for The Legend of Conan, and the Twins sequel, Triplets.  In regard to Terminator, he said that the script for this Terminator film has the feel of Terminator 2, that they’ll start shooting in April in New Orleans, that he doesn’t yet know if it will be PG-13 or R, but that there will be hardcore action and some great visual effects, and that the title of the film is not yet official.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Here’s the latest casting information for the following films:

• J.K. Simmons is in talks to join Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genesis, starring Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The film opens July 1, 2015.
• Aubrey Plaza is set to lead Hal Hartley’s dark comedy, Ned Rifle.
• Adeel Akhtar will play Smee to Garrett Hedlund’s Hook in Joe Wright’s Pan.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

With next summer’s Terminator: Genesis, the Terminator franchise is getting a reboot except for the one piece it can’t seem to let go: Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He was even awkwardly shoehorned into Terminator: Salvation, and now he’ll be along for the new installment even though all of the other major characters—Sarah Connor, John Connor, and Kyle Reese—are being playing by new actors.  Speaking to TheArnoldFans, Schwarzenegger said, “We start filming in the middle or in the end of April and it will be a four or four-and-a-half month long shoot. We will be filming it in New Orleans with some of it in San Francisco and maybe a little of it in LA but most of it will be done in New Orleans.”

Hit the jump for the full quote from Schwarzenegger as well as some possible details about the script.  The film also stars Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, and Jai Courtney.  Terminator: Genesis opens July 1, 2015.

The new Terminator film has found its Kyle Reese.  After testing a number of actors for the key role in director Alan Taylor’s (Thor: The Dark World) reboot Terminator: Genesis, we learned recently that Taylor and Paramount had narrowed their focus to two actors: Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher) and Boyd Holbrook  (The Host).  Now Variety reports that the former has come away with the role, as Courtney has been tapped to play Kyle Reese opposite Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Sarah Connor, Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) as John Connor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the iconic Terminator.  Hit the jump for more. 

About a month ago, we reported that Jai Courtney and Boyd Holbrook were among a shortlist of actors testing for the part of Kyle Reese in Alan Taylor’s Terminator: Genesis.  It sounds as if you can narrow that list down further to just those two individuals.  Courtney’s latest efforts include the actioners Jack Reacher, A Good Day to Die Hard, and I, Frankenstein, with a role in Divergent coming out March 21st.  Holbrook has had less high-profile pictures of late, including The Host, Out of the Furnace, and television’s Behind the Candelabra.  He’s got a hot list of films coming up, however, such as David Fincher’s Gone Girl, Gavin O’Connor’s Jane Got a Gun and Terrence Malick’s untitled project.

Whoever wins out to play the role made famous by Michael Biehn in the original film will join Arnold Schwarzenegger in the robotic title role, Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, and Jason Clarke, who was in talks to star as John Connor at last report.  Terminator: Genesis is due out July 1, 2015. (Via Deadline)