Hasta La Vista, Budget: "T3" Is On
Seventeen years later, some things apparently haven't changed. Plans are now underway for a third installment of Ah-nuld's action megafranchise, but Terminator 3 may wind up the most expensive film ever greenlit by a studio.
(Hint: It can buy plenty of pants, leather jackets and Gargoyles sunglasses.)
With a budget projected to be more than $170 million, Daily Variety reports that Schwarzenegger is working out the final contract details to star in the third installment, with Jonathan Mostow (U-571, Breakdown) replacing James Cameron as director.
Shooting on the film is expected to begin in April, with C-2 Pictures partners Andrew Vajna and Mario Kassar serving as producers. Intermedia is financing the pricey production and handling overseas distribution, but a host of major studios are reportedly vying for domestic rights to the film, including Paramount, Disney, Universal and even DreamWorks.
If the $170 million budget figure is correct, it would top the previous record holder, Pearl Harbor, which got a greenlight for $145 million. Arnold may enlarge his wallet significantly, with rumors that he may snag as much as $30 million for the gig. (Schwarzenegger's camp did not return phone calls.)
The script for Terminator 3 is being kept under wraps. But Variety reports that the storyline takes place 10 years beyond T2, with John Connor and his Terminator buddy going up against a female cyborg with powers beyond anything they've ever seen.
Despite an enormous price tag, the frenzied jockeying by nearly every major studio makes sense. It was, after all, 1984's Terminator that launched Schwarzenegger from a thick-accented, grunting unknown in Conan the Barbarian to a bona fide action star.
The film's pre-apocalyptic 1991 sequel, co-starring Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong, cemented his status as king of all action flicks. Both films combined grossed more than $560 million.
Lately, however, Schwarzenegger's lost a bit of his box-office muscle, having appeared in forgettable flicks like End of Days and The 6th Day. The release of his latest film, Collateral Damage, was pushed back to February 8 because of its terrorist-related plot in the wake of September 11.
T3, however, may be just what Ah-nuld needs to regain his big-screen strength.
"I like the idea, but it's not only me," Schwarzenegger told Access Hollywood last year. "I always go by what the people out there in the world would like to see. If I go to Russia, when I was in China or when I go anywhere in Europe or Africa, it's the most asked question, 'Will you do another Terminator?'"
It's been more than a decade since Terminator 2 first hit theaters, which might lead some to wonder whether the franchise has been out of sight for too long. But Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations says Terminator is one of those films that has held onto its devotees. More recently, fans have been getting their fix from DVD collections and the Terminator 2: 3-D attraction at Universal Studios theme parks.
"That name will excite a lot of movie goers," Dergarabedian says. "There are certain movies people will always want to see in a sequel."
The enormous budget may make the production massive and somewhat risky, he says, "but the Terminator name is a pretty good insurance policy against failure."
(UPDATED 12/5/01 at 10:15 a.m. PT)
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