T3 --- Could It Be Really Good'

Hey folks, Harry here... There's a lot of negativity about TERMINATOR 3 out there... Most of it that I've been hearing has been coming from sources I have over at Warner Brothers, but the negativity may in fact be coming from a bad draft and continued secrecy, even at the studio level.

I don't WANT to be negative on TERMINATOR 3, and frankly... of every film coming out this summer, TERMINATOR 3 has the chance to kick my ass the hardest, simply because... If Mostow miraculously saved this film with the writing help of John Brancato and Michael Ferris (the screenwriting pair behind THE GAME) well then it would blow me away. And I'd be the happiest boy in town.

You see folks, I don't really try to root against films, I'm an optimist at heart, but here at AICN, there's been a lot of negativity about this project. Tonight, I found out some stuff about just why that may have been. 1st... Warner Brothers was kept pretty far out of the loop. How? Well the film was being heavily controlled by INTERMEDIA and Mostow/Lieberman. Reportedly the shooting draft (which never leaked, due to rampant paranoia) was seen only at Warners by Alan Horn and Lorenzo DiBonaventura.

Turns out that very very few people have seen the whole film at this point. It was screened for top executives at Warner Brothers and Sony by Jonathan and the results of that screening was him being told "not to change a thing." Word was that the Execs flipped for the film. SO -- The folks that had been talking to me, prior to today, claimed they had seen the movie, but I do know that while at Warners - I wouldn't say they were the TOP BRASS, so there is a chance that they saw pieces they didn't like... or felt out of the process and decided to shit on the film, or something along those lines. There is a habit that lower execs that are not directly involved in a project, playing a project down, simply to make another project look even better... That IS a possibility.

Right now, the picture is locked. Yup, the film is done in terms of editing, way the hell in advance of its July 2nd opening date. The scoring sessions are going on, and the final effects are being delivered. The huge AMERICAN trailer is due on THE MATRIX RELOADED, will that be the one?

Apparently the biggest secret on the film thus far has been the last 20 minutes. They've kept it quiet because as Mostow, Brancato and Ferris have structured this... They didn't want you to know what was going to happen to the very last page, and they wanted those last 20 minutes to be harrowing as hell. DID THEY DO IT?

Here's the thing... I think most of us like Jonathan Mostow as a director. I know that I absolutely love BREAKDOWN, and U-571... if you move past the historical issues that the UK-ers had with the film... well, it was the last damn fine Submarine movie we had. (BELOW - while set on a Submarine is a Haunted House movie predominately in my mind) When Mostow came aboard T3, I desperately wanted him to make a good TERMINATOR movie, because... a new TERMINATOR movie was going to happen with or without James Cameron. Handing the project over to a Mostow... A director very much in the style of Cameron, just with out that... Magic Big Movie under his belt. I wanted this to be that film, and it might be.

I liked the trailer that came out before the SUPER BOWL spot, didn't care for the Super Bowl spot - and it was at and around that time that the negativity that I was hearing stepped up a notch. About a month and a half ago, it got a little worse. Has someone that I absolutely trust seen the film yet? No.

This summer is looking like it could be a great one for big geeky cool movies. It is actually very important that TERMINATOR 3 not flop... One, it would hurt Mostow's career. Two, it would cast a shadow over KING CONAN for Milius. And third... I know several producers in town, that are rooting for TERMINATOR 3 to hit (and BAD BOYS 2) because they are R - rated summer fare, and if those two... In tandem with the MATRIX RELOADED performed gigantic... Then, there would be a chance that other... tougher... meaner... and rougher projects could go forward.

Ultimately, I just want this to work. I don't want to walk out this movie with that feeling I had when I walked out of ALIEN 3 or ALIEN RESURRECTION. I don't want this to fail, I want to believe in this film. That latest trailer helped. An email I got today from someone inside the production that I am familiar with and have a degree of trust in helps... But I'm still nervous. I'd love nothing more than for my jaw to crack from the fall to the floor it could take if they did their job. That's a medical bill I want.