If you've always wanted to see James Cameron's 3D skills applied to one of his classics, your time is coming...eventually. Late last year, we learned that Cameron was working on a 3D digital remastering of his 1991 classic Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which was planned to hit theaters this year in conjunction with the film's 25th anniversary.

Well, that time has come and gone and for reasons we don't yet know, the 3D version never arrived. However, it seems the re-release is still on the books, as a new poster dropped on the official Terminator 2 Facebook page today with the following announcement (and a clever new anniversary):

August 29th 1997: The day Skynet first became self aware.

August 29th 2016: the day you first saw the brand new poster for Terminator 2 in 3D. Coming to theaters in 2017.

Check out the poster below:


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When the remaster was first announced, Cameron said, "If you’ve never seen it, this’ll be the version you want to see and remember.” As someone who's decidedly unenthused by 3D, I remain unconvinced by that sentiment, but after all, Cameron is the director who single-handedly made 3D a viable model again with 2009's Avatar, so if anyone's going to do it right, he's the guy. Plus, some of that T-1000 action could be mighty fun in 3D.

However, I remain dubious in light of the fact that the 3D version was initially conceived to rake in beaucoup bucks in the lucrative Chinese market. Cameron partnered with DMG Entertainment and Studiocanal to use cutting-edge StereoD (the company that worked on Avatar and Jurassic Park 3D) technology for the digital remastering. While the much-maligned most recent Terminator film, Terminator Genisys crashed and burned on the domestic front, failing to hit $100 million at the box office, it was a hit in China, grossing $112.8 million. Terminator 2 never landed on screens in China, and thanks to its "timeless appeal" (those aren't snarky quotes, I completely agree), it could be a huge hit upon a theatrical re-release.

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Image via TriStar Pictures

Cameron has been pondering a 3D re-release of Terminator 2 for a while now, and back at 2014's Hero Complex Film Festival, he discussed the possible profits of such a move and why the first Terminator wouldn't be a good fit (via /Film):


Terminator 1 I don’t think so because you could upgrade it to 3D but it’s still pretty gritty, available light photography, low budget filmmaking. We’d spend more converting it to 3D than we spent on the movie. That feels a little imbalanced to me.

 

But Terminator 2 is a more polished film and, I think, it has a kind of timeless appeal. If there was someone who was interested in doing that, and we could make a good case for the business model like, perhaps let’s say, it’s never been on screens in China which in the next few years is about to become the biggest market for films worldwide. That alone might justify the cost of a conversion which might be 6 or 7 million dollars. And then a 3D re-release might attract some eyeballs in North American and Europe and then the Chinese release, which would be the first release on the big screen, might pay for it.

What do you think? Do you want to see a 3D version of Terminator 2? Have previous 3D re-release done it for you, or are you more interested in seeing what James Cameron can do with it? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts.

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Image via TriStar Pictures

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Image via TriStar Pictures