Word on the net is that Arnold Schwarzenegger himself has confirmed his involvement with the latest Terminator film.  While there is no official confirmation as of yet, Schwarzenegger was said to announce his appearance in Terminator 5 during a recent press day for The Last Stand.  The Kim Jee-woon actioner was intended to be Schwarzenegger’s big return to a leading role in action, but the opening weekend’s box office was a huge disappointment.  Perhaps returning to one of his signature franchises would help return the living legend to his former glory.  Terminator production has been ramping up behind the scenes as of late, so we’ll have to wait and see how all of this plays out.  Hit the jump for more.

The new Terminator film has taken another step forward closer to production.  Last month we learned that Megan Ellison’s brother, David Ellison, had come aboard the project to co-produce the next installment of the franchise through his Skydance Pictures banner alongside Megan’s Annapurna Pictures, and now the producers have tapped a couple of writers to start work on the script.  Deadline reports that Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier will write the script for the new Terminator film, though further details are understandably being kept under wraps.

Kalogridis previously penned the scripts for Shutter Island and Alexander, as well as the pilot for the TV series Bionic Woman.  Lussier, meanwhile, was responsible for writing 2011’s Drive Angry and received a “story by” credit on Dracula 2000, which he also directed.  As I mentioned, we know next to nothing about where this new Terminator stands in relation to the previous films, but Megan Ellison has confirmed that it will indeed be rated R.  With screenwriters now firmly onboard, expect to hear more news regarding the next Terminator sooner rather than later.

Producer Megan Ellison has been plenty busy financing films like The Master, Killing Them Softly, and Zero Dark Thirty through her Annapurna Pictures banner, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting that she’s also the person behind the new Terminator film.  Ellison bought the rights to the franchise over a year ago with plans to move forward on a new movie, but after a few starts and stops, not much has come to fruition.  Per Deadline, she has now brought on her brother, David Ellison (True Grit, Star Trek Into Darkness), to be her financial and creative partner on the project as the rights deal for the franchise has now officially come to a close.

The film still has no script or studio attached, but David Ellison’s close relationship with Tom Cruise (he produced Ghost Protocol and Jack Reacher and is also producing M:I 5) has many wondering if Cruise might eventually be a part of the new Terminator film.  It’s frankly too early to start that kind of speculation, but I wouldn’t completely rule the notion out.  The Ellison siblings are now starting from scratch on the new Terminator as they set out to find a screenwriter to put on the project.

Movie series take many forms. Some, such as James Bond, are almost like non-episodic television, with very little connection between the individual films save for the primary character. On the other end of the spectrum is The Lord of the Rings series, serialized from start to finish, shot together and released on a schedule to maximize such. Somewhere in between lies the Terminator series, available now in the 5-disc Blu-ray box set Terminator Anthology.

What is interesting about the Terminator series as a collection of films is that they at once have that interconnectedness of story, due to their epic scope spanning the series, and episodic individuality, due not only to the vast periods of time that pass in between each story and the movies’ releases.  Hit the jump for my review of the box set.

As someone that has been attending San Diego Comic-Con/Sci-Fi/Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book conventions for almost my entire teenage and adult life, this year’s New York Comic-Con blew me for one reason: I’ve never seen so many people Cosplay in one place.  While conventions always get a few people dressing up, NYCC absolutely set a new record for percentage of attendees willing to cosplay.  I was very impressed.

Over the last four days, as I walked up and down the convention floor, I always had my camera ready to go.  So if you’re a fan of cosplay and want to check out some great costumes including Batman, Bane, Spider-Man, Captain Planet, Doctor Who, Megatron, Admiral Ackbar, Two-Face, Terminator, Ghost Rider, and so many more, hit the jump for almost 200 images.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he was ready to get back into the movie business following his tenure as Governator of California, no one was really expecting him to dive headfirst back into Hollywood.  Cut to 2012 and the actor has already shot a substantial role in The Expendables 2, just wrapped his “comeback” starring role in The Last Stand, and is poised to team up with Sylvester Stallone for the actioner The Tomb.  Oh yeah, and a Twins sequel.  Just last week we learned that Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are planning to reprise their roles from the 1988 comedy Twins in a sequel called Triplets with Eddie Murphy playing their long-lost sibling.

We got the chance to speak with Schwarzenegger in a recent group interview and the actor talked about the idea behind Triplets, how his personal life has affected the likelihood of a sequel to True Lies, and he also had some choice words for the most recent entry in the Terminator franchise.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Opening this weekend is the action-comedy This Means War. Directed by McG, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy portray the world’s deadliest CIA operatives who are also inseparable partners and best friends…until they fall for the same woman (Reese Witherspoon).  Rather than giving up and allowing one of the two to continue seeing Witherspoon, Hardy and Pine put their CIA gadgetry and know-how to work in order to derail each another’s relationship with the girl.  For more on the film, here’s six clips and Matt’s review.

During the recent Los Angeles press junket, I was able to land an exclusive video interview with McG.  We talked about making This Means War, the battle with the MPAA over rating and what they had to cut to get a PG-13, test screenings, deleted scenes, and what will be on the Blu-ray (it’ll have a Bond-style title sequence).  In addition, with McG attached to so many other projects, I got updates on his TV pilot Guilty (about a lawyer that’s been disbarred), Spring Awakening, Dead Spy Running (a spy movie that Stephen Gaghan is writing and possibly directing), Face It (a romantic comedy), Monster Squad (he’s not involved anymore), Medieval (the status is up in the air at Regency), Tink (will star Elizabeth Banks as Tinkerbell), I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President (they haven’t cracked the script yet), Puzzle Palace (a thriller like Die Hard about a boy who has to break in to 1 Police Plaza in New York), Ouija (he’s not involved anymore), The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League (will star Amanda Seyfried as a girl who steals someone’s identity to attend an Ivy League school), and we also talked about the 30 to 40 minutes of deleted scenes from Terminator Salvation and an alternate ending where Skynet wins.  Hit the jump to watch.

Though Terminator 5 is currently without a director or screenwriter, a brief yet relieving update regarding the project was revealed a couple of days ago. Megan Ellison, who holds the rights to Terminator 5 and is the savior/financier of many projects including Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest effort, was asked on Twitter what kind of rating the fifth installment would carry. She responded simply:

“We can’t really tell you guys anything about Terminator BUT it will be an R rated film as God and James Cameron intended.”

Hallelujah! Following the disaster that was Terminator: Salvation, it’s refreshing to know that Terminator 5 will return to the less compromised quality of the earlier films. Fast Five helmer Justin Lin was onboard to direct, but was forced to drop out in order to finish out the Fast and Furious series. Hopefully we’ll hear more regarding Terminator 5 soon. Until then, fans can rest a bit easier.

With Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt) set to star as rebellious hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next week, we thought we’d take a look back at past female badasses in cinematic history. Noomi Rapace nailed the role in the original Swedish version, so Mara will have a lot to live up to. Not only will she be compared to the performance of her predecessor, but also to the relatively few female heroines that came before her. Will Mara equal or surpass Rapace? Can she hang with the baddest ladies in movie history? Will she impress us enough to fight her way to the top? Hit the jump to check out our selection of the five most badass female leads of all time.

A self-admitted lover of technology, it’s no surprise that McG is producing the new media series Aim High, premiering on Facebook and Cambio on October 18^th, and mixing the quality of any television series or big screen feature with interactive content. Using technology to break down the wall of separation between the viewer and the show, Facebook will incorporate the pictures from your profile into the six-part first season, while looking to do the same with your personal music for a possible second season.

At a press day for the web series, McG spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about the appeal of working on such a cutting edge project, assembling such a strong cast, the challenge of getting such a quality product done in such a small time frame (less than two weeks) and without a great deal of money, and why he thinks mixing acne with espionage is a winning formula. He also talked about juggling so many projects at once, in both film and television, how fun it is to create something that touches the world, knowing when to move on from something that isn’t working out, and his hope of someday releasing a DVD cut of Terminator: Salvation with the extra footage from the film. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Two weeks ago we brought you the news that Justin Lin would not be helming a Terminator reboot in the immediate future due to a scheduling conflict with The Fast and the Furious 6 (Fast Six?). While that remains the case, Lin has certainly been vocal in his reverence for both franchises. After the runaway success of Fast Five (which has currently brought in over $616 million), Lin plans to finish up his involvement with that franchise in two more installments before moving on to the Terminator reboot:

“Creatively, I’ve had to put some stuff on hold and walk away from some projects that I’d really love to do, but this is an opportunity for me and for us to close out the franchise the right way. It comes with a price but it’s something that I look forward to.”

I’ll translate that into: I can make a boat-load of money on this sure thing first before taking chances with a problem-riddled franchise. Hit the jump for more quotes from Lin.

At the press junket for the new interactive web series Aim High, starring Jackson Rathbone (Jasper in The Twilight Saga) and Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights), executive producer McG was there to express his passion for the cutting edge project that will incorporate viewers’ personal Facebook profiles into the story of a high school student (Rathbone) living a double life as a government operative while dreaming of the most popular girl in school (Teegarden).

While we will run that portion of the interview closer to the web series’ October 18^th premiere, we did want to let you know what he had to say about what else he’s currently juggling. In post-production on the action-comedy This Means War (starring Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine) and with six television series currently in development for next season, McG said that he’s looking at a few films right now and will probably decide what he’ll focus on next before the holidays. With so many things on his plate, not everything will end up actually getting made, which he said may be the case with the Ouija board movie that Universal dropped from their production schedule. And, while he knows they did a lot of things right with Terminator: Salvation, he also knows that they did a lot of things wrong, so only time will tell whether or not that director’s cut with all the additional footage will ever be released on DVD/Blu-ray. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Following the (surprising) critical and (not so surprising) commercial success of Fast Five, director Justin Lin has been mentioned among many director shortlists for some of Hollywood’s biggest projects, and recently found himself attached to the next film in the Terminator franchise. While one might surmise that Lin would strike while the iron’s hot and move on to another high profile franchise, looks as though the director’s follow-up to Fast Five will actually be the sixth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise (which just recently got a release date of May 2013).

Terminator fans need not fret though, as Lin is still working on Arnold Schwarzenegger-starred film. In fact, the director just recently met with  Schwarzenegger and James Cameron to talk a bit about the franchise. Hit the jump for more details, including why Lin turned down the directing job of Die Hard 5.

Arnold Schwarzenegger put his acting career on hold when it was discovered he had a in-no-way-surprising secret love child with his housekeeper.  That threw a wrench into Justin Lin’s Terminator 5 but producer Megan Ellison, who now holds the rights to the franchise, isn’t going to sit around waiting until the public moves on to the next scandal and forgets that Schwarzenegger is no hero.  With that in mind, What’s Playing has some interesting rumors to report on the film.

First up, the new film may bring back original characters Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor but it may do so in a Star Trek-style alternate timeline fashion where new actors could play the roles and take them in a new direction.  Since the franchise has always included some element of time travel, a fractured timeline wouldn’t be a crazy idea (especially since they already used that premise to spin off the short-lived The Sarah Connor Chronicles).  That’s a solid way to reboot the franchise and it would be even better if they could just cut out Schwarzenegger entirely.  But I could live with his casting if it didn’t mean another disturbing rumor coming to fruition.  Hit the jump for more.

Amidst the firestorm that has engulfed his personal life, Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to postpone indefinitely what was once his full-speed ahead return to acting. TheWrap reports that the former Governor/actor has instructed Creative Artists Agency to “put all acting projects on hold” as he attempts to turn over a new leaf that doesn’t involve lying to his family for more than a decade. In a written statement, Schwarzenegger’s team says:

“Governor Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines. This includes Cry Macho, the Terminator franchise and other projects under consideration. We will resume discussions when Governor Schwarzenegger decides.”

In addition to Cry Macho and a Terminator sequel, news of Schwarzenegger’s delayed return also means that his animated TV series, The Governator, is also on hold for the time being (a tough pill to swallow, no doubt). For now, there is no way of knowing exactly how long the actor’s return will be put off. Nevertheless, it does seem as if the ball is entirely in his court meaning that, as soon as he’s ready to return to acting, there will most likely be projects waiting for him on the other side. Whether or not it will be the same ones listed above may depend on whether Cry Macho director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) and Terminator franchise rights-holder, Megan Ellison, want to wait around for Schwarzenegger to sort things out.