[IMG:L]They kept saying they’d be back.
Even though the accented muscleman from the first film became the Governor of California and the central heroine was killed off-camera between sequels, the saga of the Terminator just keeps coming, much like the relentless cyborg of the title.
Taking place between the second and third films, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles stars Lena Headey (300) as the mother of John Connor (Thomas Dekker), future leader of the human resistance when he grows up. Now, a new protector Terminator played by sweet and innocent-looking Summer Glau (Serenity) has come back to help them stop Skynet once and for all.
The stars, series premiere director David Nutter and producers Josh Friedman and James Middleton shared their mission objectives for the new Terminator TV series airing Monday nights on Fox.
Objective #1: Bring Back Sarah Connor. T3 says she died, but Sarah Connor Chronicles picks up after Terminator 2.
“I realize that she’s an iconic character,” said Headey. “I’ve seen the first movie and it’s obvious who she is and what she’s about. I think I just take from that what she is fundamentally, which is her great humanity…Linda Hamilton was absolutely superb and I know she’s held very dear to people, but I’m coming in now and it’s a different stage for The Terminator, so hopefully people are going to enjoy what I bring to her. What I’ve taken from her is the heart that she so obviously shows.”
Objective #2: Undo Terminator 3. The series does not have to end setting up Rise of the Machines.
“When we first started this, people said, ‘Oh, this takes place between T2 and T3‘ and I think that was incorrect,” said Friedman. “This really is, as far as I’m concerned, T3. This is a continuation of what I would call the Sarah Connor trilogy. I think anything that happens after T2 is fair game for us.”
[IMG:R]Objective #3: Teach John Connor to Save Us. The teenage leader still has his own doubts.
“John is a bit of a volatile character,” said Dekker. “He’s a little brash. He makes his decisions very quickly. The thing I’m trying to add is that I think at this point in the story, he’s a little more repressed. He’s having to keep his head down a lot more because before in the film, he wasn’t hiding. Now he’s hiding. He’s hiding from the police. He’s hiding from the terminators. He’s hiding from his future. There’s a lot more angst and he’s a lot more pensive. He thinks about things a little better.”
Objective #4: Redefine the Terminators. Cameron (Glau) looks like a teenage girl, and can even cry!
“Cameron is supposed to be the most advanced model of terminators,” said Glau. “Josh’s idea is that the way that she’s more advanced than the rest of them, she’s more human than the rest. Even her slightest mannerisms, they’re programmed but they’re so human. She’s so hard to detect and that’s what makes her special and I think that’s what makes her so much fun to play.”
Objective #5: Get Linda Hamilton Arms. Lena Headey isn’t rockin’ the tank top just yet.
“I’m in training and just doing regular workouts,” said Headey. “This series is going to develop and along with that, so will her physicality because we find them at a different point. If you came full force with the muscles and the guns and all that madness, it would be wrong. So we’re creating something from the very beginning. Certainly for me, I can’t wait until it’s all madness. It will definitely rise. I train with a great woman here. I don’t want to walk on with these huge arms. That would be very obvious…I started Bikram Yoga so I can be lean. I don’t want to be this bulky character. Strength comes from weights anyway.”
[IMG:L]Objective #6: Insert Catch Phrases. “Come with me if you want to live” and variations on “I’ll be back” are vital.
“The first time I did it, I burst out laughing,” said Glau. “I just couldn’t believe that I was getting to say that line. And David made fun of me and we turned around and said it again. That second take was the only take we did. It was like that, ‘That’s the one.’ I hope it comes across. I’m honored.”
Objective #7: Keep up the Kick-Ass Action. Sarah Connor Chronicles has to do knock down drag out robot fights on a TV budget.
“I think it’s the audience is expecting it,” said Nutter. “It’s a situation where movie screens are getting smaller and television screens are getting bigger. The audience is expecting large, big-scale stuff. I think that we have to fill that void…A lot of the stuff isn’t really as expensive to do – create more Terminators and things of that nature. So there will be just as many effects and large scale things alongside many of the episodes.”
