Coming off of a ceremonial run at the box office with a 3D limited re-release of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, James Cameron's continuing efforts toward resusitating the franchise have advanced through its latest milestone in being actress Linda Hamilton back to the screen. Deadpool helmer Tim Miller is directing the new movie aiming as a direct follow-up from Cameron's 1991 action blockbuster headlined by Hamilton along with lead actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong, essesntially skipping the films between 2003 and 2015.
Hamilton's return will mark her first foray back into the franchise since starring in Cameron's 1984 hit sci-fi thriller with Schwarzenegger and actor Michael Biehn and its sequel in which Robert Patrick also stars. Cameron had a hand in writing both movies in which the actress stars as Sarah Connor, a waitress whose chance meeting with a soldier from the future and their first confrontation with a killer cybernetic assassin from the future assigned to killer, transforms her into a stoic, physically fit, battle ready heroine by the second film with her long lost son - the would-be leader of the human resistance against Skynet's mechanized uprising - now in danger from an advanced model killing machine.
Schwarzenegger, also set to return, has appeared in all of the films in some capacity, including a motion-captured action finale with the actor's face and physique opposite Christian Bale in McG's Terminator Salvation (2009).
THR's exclusive report covered the event in which Cameron himself delves into the actress's forthcoming reprisal:
Cameron made the announcement at a private event celebrating the storied franchise, saying, "As meaningful as she was to gender and action stars everywhere back then, it’s going to make a huge statement to have that seasoned warrior that she’s become return."
With Hamilton’s return, Cameron hopes to once again make a statement on gender roles in action movies.
"There are 50-year-old, 60-year-old guys out there killing bad guys,” he said, referring to aging male actors still anchoring movies, “but there isn’t an example of that for women.”
Similarly, Cameron also cites a "passing of the baton" to a generation of new characters in the reboot with the goal of a trilogy in mind, each starring in three standalone films that will connect:
"We’re starting a search for an 18-something woman to be the new centerpiece of the new story," Cameron said. "We still fold time. We will have characters from the future and the present. There will be mostly new characters but we'll have Arnold and Linda’s characters to anchor it."
The new reboot hails from Skydance and Paramount, the latter who will distribute with Fox representing the film internationally. Cameron, who is producing, has a writers' room with Miller in which also included are David Goyer (Blade trilogy, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy), Charles Eglee (TV series Dark Angel) and Josh Friedman (TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).
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