In a recent Sci-Fi Wire interview with Terminator Salvation director McG he talks about his new film in IMAX:
…we’re going to bump it up to IMAX. We are going to bump it up, and it holds up very nicely, and it looks and sounds that much more impactful.
McG wanted to shoot with “dead stock” (old film that has been distressed to give the movie a desaturated look) therefore he couldn’t shoot in IMAX, since it requires a much higher quality film. The “dead stock” he shot with looks to coincide well with the gritty, post-apocalyptic world McG has set out to create.He also talked about the MPAA rating:
We got together early on, I got together with Christian [Bale, who plays John Connor], and we want to make the best film possible. We don’t care about the rating. We can’t aim for the rating. There’s one guy in the world who would be sharp with me about the rating, and he’s sitting in here right now. He’s [Warner Brothers executive] Jeff Rabinov, and we talked about this at Comic-Con. [He] was the one who was cool enough to say, “Just shoot the movie. I’m not worried about it.” All three of those [previous Terminator] films are R, so you’ve got a fearless Warner Brothers, which was excellent for us because it freed us up to just shoot the movie. We don’t aim for a rating, and we’ve been given freedom by the head of the studio to just make the best picture possible.
I believe the film will definetely get a PG-13. I can’t see a mass appeal summer blockbuster like this getting an R. I don’t care what the rating is either way though. With films like The Dark Knight getting a PG-13 I can’t see a problem getting the “dark'” theme across with whatever rating it is given. McG also told us about the running time:
We’re not particularly concerned about it. I mean, it’s probably going to be right around two hours, maybe a little more than two hours, but we’re not trying to target…Now I happen to think a lot of filmmakers are overindulgent in how their films run too long, but I don’t like a movie that’s 90 minutes in-out. I want a movie to have a correct length to have the maximum impact and give you something to think about as you exit the theater. I also think the audience is so intelligent that you can tell, oftentimes as a function of runtime, the amount of confidence in the quality of the film.
On Schwarzenegger’s involvement:
I will be showing him the film shortly. I’ve got a lot to talk to him about in regard to the role he plays in this. It’s something we’ve talked about a lot. It’s a double-edged sword, because we’ve begun again; this is a new idea, and this is a new idea with Terminators, a new language. But he’s such a part of it, the degree to which he’ll be part of our film, you’ve got to be respectful of the seat he’s in right now. We have to be sensitive, be intelligent, and he’s our partner. He gets it, he does indeed wish us well, and I look forward to showing him the movie. I didn’t want to do the movie if Schwarzenegger was like, “F–k you guys!” I want Schwarzenegger to at least feel respected.
On a possible sequel:
We have already broken stories for the second and third movies. We don’t explore time travel in this movie, and it’s a huge part of the mythology. Having said that, we would never be so bold as to presume there will be another movie. A lot of people get in trouble thinking they have the best thing since sliced bread, the audience goes like this [thumbs down], and there isn’t a second movie. I would never presume a second movie, even though Christian and I have talked about it. We talked about all of that, and we’re ready to go if audiences say, “We want it.” And we prefer to leave that to the audience.
I certainly don’t think Terminator Salvation is going to be the best blockbuster this summer but I’m looking forward to it. With McG putting this much faith in the audience and the addition of IMAX my anticipation is growing.
Are you looking forward to Terminator Salvation?