Chrysler, which has received $4 billion in taxpayer bailout money (because God forbid we let shitty companies go bankrupt), recently announced plans to help underwrite Terminator Salvation for an undisclosed amount.

“This spring, Terminator 4 comes out and we will be one of the sponsors,” Chrysler director of media Susan Thomson said in a presentation at the Automotive News World Congress. “We have a following with the Terminator movies and we are going to continue with that.” [Reuters]

Thomson later added, “From now on, when people think post-apocalyptic wasteland, they’ll think Chrysler.”

Terminator Salvation starring Christian Bale opens in May, and what better place to debut new footage than on Entertainment Tonight?  It is, after all, Mayor McCheese’s favorite show.  Anyway, no, you’re not hallucinating, you did just see a giant terminator shoot a lightning bolt from a gun that popped out of its shoulder.  GRR, LIGHTNING BOT! Looks like they may have gone the Transformers route with this.  Personally, I’d like to see a Back to the Future angle.

REESE:  Connor!  You’re disappearing!
CONNOR:  *gasping*  Reese!  *cough, cough*  You’ve got to… go back in time and… f-ck my mom.
REESE: *shudder*
CONNOR: *cough* Sergeant Reese!  *cough, cough*  I said that’s an order!
REESE:  *salutes*  For you, son? Anything.

[thanks to ScreenCrave]

Since people know McG mainly as the guy behind awful movies like Charlie’s Angels, he’s been quick to point out that he took the job of directing Terminator 4 only with the blessing of Terminator 1 and 2 director James Cameron.  In an interview at Comic-Con (video after the jump), he said:

“The only thing I was concerned about is I didn’t wanna disrespect Jim Cameron.  So I went down and I talked to him and I told him what my take on the material was, and he told me he was actually interested in the way I made films, which I was surprised to hear, and then, uh, you know, he told me a story about how he was making the second Alien picture and he was following the great Ridley Scott and people thought he was nuts and he had a vision and he went for it.  And you can’t operate from a place of fear, and he kicked me in the ass and said, “Go do it.’”

Jim Cameron’s take on it appears to have been slightly different:

Q. Are you involved at all in the Christian Bale production of Terminator 4?
A:  It could be a big steaming pile or it could be brilliant. Sam Worthington is in Avatar and the new Terminator and he likes the script, but I never saw it. There was no blessing involved.

Obviously, one of them is lying.  Hmmm, director of the highest-grossing film of all time or the sleazy one-named dude who used to make Korn videos, I just don’t know who to trust…  I think what gave him away was that part about Jim Cameron being interested in how he made films.  “And I was like, I dunno dude, I just point the camera at chicks and make sure their hair looks really bangin, ya know?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Helena Bonham Carter has left production on Terminator: Salvation stalled after members of her family died in a car crash.  Bonham plays Serena, "the lead villain."

The actor’s relatives were on a South African safari holiday on Wednesday when the minibus they were travelling in spun out of control and flipped after a tyre burst.
Helena’s cousin, Fiona Bonham Carter, 51, escaped with a broken shoulder. But Fiona’s son Marcus Egerton-Warburton, 14; mother Brenda, 74; stepfather Francis Kirkwood, 75; and sister-in-law Kay Boardman, 54, all died.
The actor was given indefinite leave from the set in Mexico. [New Mexico, actually - Ed.]
"Everyone here was in a state of shock when the news came through," a source said. [News.com.au]

Well jeez, that sucks.  Not to make light of a tragedy, but if I die in Africa I would at least hope rhinos are involved. 

Terminator Salvation recently released this new poster.  Should you go see an unnecessary fourth Terminator, directed by the Charlie’s Angels guy, featuring a fake Arnold Schwarzenegger?  It’s better than a hole in the head, this seems to suggest. Though if the Japanese have taught us anything, it’s that a robot’s orifice should be nearer the vagina if you really want the magic to happen. 

[via IMPA]