Original James Cameron co-writer has kick-ass TERMINATOR 5 & 6 treatment!!

Just a few days ago when Hedge Fund company Pacificor obtained the rights to the Terminator franchise, we all that was it. Done. The fat lady had sung the last Skynet tune. However, two recent developments have emerged, which could provide a unlikely salvation for a series entering it's fourth different decade. One is The L.A. Times story that Sony and Lionsgate, the two runner up studio bids to the series last Monday have been given "an exclusive window by Pacificor to negotiate to produce and distribute the next Terminator movie", meaning a deal could yet be struck that keeps the franchise alive on our big screens. And two, is the spectacular story that Mike Fleming at Deadline posted yesterday that claims William Wisher, the original writing partner of James Cameron on his two Terminator movies - has been busy writing a detailed 24-page treatment for Terminator 5, and a 4-page concept outline for Terminator 6. It's said that Wisher has found a way to keep the continuity of the last two movies and at the same time containing major roles (sounds like leading roles) for Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese - and a role in the sixth movie for Arnold Schwarzenegger, shifting his villain from the first movie, to acting as the bodyguard of John Connor! The concept sure sounds great and short of inventing a time machine to have Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn and Arnie looking like they did twenty years ago, it's kind of genius. Now if the pieces were to fall into the right place, i.e. - Sony/Lionsgate strike a deal, they convince James Cameron to "produce" or "consultant" (directing seems a distant dream) and he takes to Wisher's draft (which given their history he would), and suddenly the future of the Terminator franchise looks rosier than it has for quite some time. Fleming writes;

As a Terminator fanboy myself, I think Wisher has done a terrific job with a plot that accepts the storylines from Jonathan Mostow€™s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and McG€™s Terminator: Salvation. Most interestingly, he turns the story back to the core characters and time travel storyline of the first two films that Wisher crafted with Cameron.

Wisher€™s 2-picture construct takes place in a post-apocalyptic battleground, and factors in an element of time travel that allows for Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese to interact beyond their single fateful meeting when he traveled back in time to protect her in the original film. Wisher has created a role for Arnold Schwarzenegger that is as surprising as his shift from villain in the first film, to John Connor€™s bodyguard in the second. Schwarzenegger wouldn€™t be needed until the final film, which wouldn€™t shoot until after he ends his term as California Governor. And who wouldn€™t want to see Linda Hamilton back in aerobic top fitness form as Sarah Connor?

Linda Hamilton - circa October 2009

There are several new villains, and plenty of firepower. For instance, a swarm of €œNight Crawlers,€ 4 1/2-foot tall border sentries that are set like mines to spring up out of the ground and ambush rebel fighters with 10 MM pistols built into their wrists, and fingers and feet that are razor sharp. Also fresh off the Skynet assembly line are new shape-shifting cyborgs that can morph together in Transformers-like mode, and are more lethal than anything we€™ve seen in previous Terminator installments. Wisher presents a satisfying conclusion to what by then would be a 6-picture struggle between Skynet€™s machines and John and Sarah Connor to preserve a future that allows mankind to prevail over the machines.