Video:Terminator Salvation - Director McG Interview
with Rebecca MurrayDirector McG and four of the cast of Warner Bros Pictures' 'Terminator Salvation' wowed the jam-packed hall at the 2009 WonderCon when they showed off new clips from the action drama. But before taking the stage, I spoke with McG about his film.
Transcript:Terminator Salvation - Director McG Interview
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the 2009 WonderCon.
Interview with Terminator Salvation Director McG
I'm going to have to admit this - Terminator I know basically. I remember the first film, I remember the second film, but I'm not really heavy into the mythology. Am I going to get this one?McG: "You are indeed going to get this because we begin again, and we don't create an environment where you have to understand intimately the ins and outs of the first three pictures. It's made very, very clear from the opening narration of the picture all the way on through. And put most simply, if the first picture was about saving Sarah Connor, the second picture's about saving John Connor, this picture's about saving Kyle Reese because we've got to keep that triangle alive to save humanity."
How tough was it to narrow down what this one does focus on?
McG: "It wasn't that tough. I just wanted to focus primarily on the world after Judgment Day. That was what made the story worthwhile to tell is that Jim Cameron never really gave away too much information regarding after the bombs went off – just little glimpses and vignettes in the early pictures. And the body of this picture takes place in that so therefore I regarded it as a worthy platform to start telling a new story."
And then you were able to actually create the sets and get your own vision of a post-apocalyptic world, right? How easy was that to come up with?
McG: "Well, I had to be in the right environment to begin with and we chose Albuquerque, New Mexico, because of its vastness. I wanted it to have a real David Lean sort of expanse, and big, difficult landscapes that suggest the world of duress. And then what we also did is we developed our own film stock and we added three times as much silver as one would traditionally add to give it an otherworldly patina as though the bombs had melted the ozone and the atmosphere. So the color of the sky, the color of the earth, everything feels slightly off and slightly different."
I went to one of your previews and you said Christian Bale said he needed to be able to read the script without the special effects on a stage by himself [and have it make sense]. Can you do that with this script?
McG: "Yeah. I mean what we wanted to do is have the script hold up onto itself, without visual effects and without explosions and without anything going on in the background. Just reading it from a place of character so you understand how the John Connor came into the picture at a certain place, grew over the body of the picture, and then completes the film having experienced that growth. And in the absence of that, you don't really have a great character journey and we wanted to make sure that we had that. And you don't need visual effects to do that – you just need a great story and a great character. We brought in Jonah Nolan to write the picture, Chris Nolan's brother, a very accomplished writer who has a great shorthand with Christian. I'm very pleased with the results."
What's happening with Linda Hamilton?
McG: "I'm circling Linda Hamilton right now. We're discussing the role she's going to play in it. I'd like to keep that a little bit of a secret. But put most simply, she's the mother of the film and without her you've got nothing. So, I feel comfortable in saying John Connor does indeed have a mother, that mother is Sarah Connor, and she's a big part of the movie."