Justin Lin Says Whole Cast Won't Return For TERMINATOR 5

Last week's sensational rumour that the new Terminator pitch that is being shopped around studio's right now would feature not just the officially attached Arnold Schwarzenegger as the returning cyborg, but the 'whole original cast' (which we presumed meant Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn and T2's Edward Furlong) has been dismissed as untrue by director Justin Lin (Fast & Furious franchise). Speaking to MTV (the guy's biggest fanbase for his flashy, muscle bound, sexy, car thrillers) Lin said;
€œNo. I don€™t know where that came from... I have certain elements, but it€™s never been about, €˜Hey, let€™s bring everybody back!€™ I just don€™t process that way. To me, thematically, there are certain things that I want to see in a €˜Terminator€™ movie. A lot of that does draw back to creating this timeline that is an extension, closer tonally to the first and second movies. But to me, it€™s not as mathematical as, €˜Hey, let€™s get everybody back together and we€™ll shoot the movie.€™€
Good news.... anything that is trying to capture the mood of the James Cameron movies over the shite that came after it, can only be a positive. Lin talks some more after the jump;
"I always feel like what€™s great about the €˜Terminator€™ franchise is that there€™s time-travel and there are different timelines to play with. There are also a lot of gaps from what we love about all of the €˜Terminator€™ movies, so there€™s a lot of things we can do and play with€ But obviously, answering your question, [€˜Terminator€™] does have that capability, finding fresh ways of going back without destroying other , because you can tell your own stories.€
Lin & Schwarzenegger are about 10 days into trying to convince a studio to pick up their pitch, but the stumbling block is always going to be a price. Just to hold the rights to make one film alone it will cost at least $30 million to pay of Pacificor, then you have to budget the movie around $150 million or more, and suddenly things are looking very expensive but the return of the series iconic star, despite him being as old as your Grandad, has gotta be a draw for someone.
€œWe€™re talking to different studios, but it has to be the right situation... If it€™s not right, then I could totally move on and I should move on. Probably in the next three or four weeks, I€™ll have a very clear picture .€
So if nothing does come off, Lin will move over I would presume to Fast Six, a sequel to Fast Five. And Arnie will quickly follow up with another franchise character he wishes to reprise. Either way we should know in a couple of weeks.
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.