Earlier in the week, I wrote about Michael Bay’s comments on his forum referencing the robots featured in Terminator Salvation. In his post, Bay basically claims ownership of all large robots in films this summer then boasts about the upcoming marketing blitz that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will engage in starting with the Super Bowl and leading up to it’s release.
Well, in round 2 of the Bay vs. McG matchup, McG fires back (slightly). The team over at Comcast caught up to the director of the 4th Terminator film at an early footage screening of it and asked him how he felt about Bay’s words.
“It bothers me to tell you the truth. Ultimately, our large robots have nothing to do with the “Transformers” robots,” MCG replied. “I say with respect, giant robots have been the theme of film for a real long time . So we want to do everything we can to create separation,” he continued. “Our film’s about T-800s and the Marcus character and the Connor character, and this, that, and the other. So, to have people have a problem with that wouldn’t be working for us so we want to make sure there’s separation.”
So while it’s obvious that he’s bottling up some anger inside, McG is taking the higher road in this matter in that while he’s admitting to it bothering him, he’s not attacking back or making fun of Bay’s work. Good on you McG, now you best follow this up with a high quality movie or all of this will be for naught.
Either way, this back-and-forth jabbing is good for both films and will generate plenty of free hype and discussion of the two movies. We all know both of these films will be summer blockbusters so neither director needs to worry too much on that end.
While on the topic of McG, he’s also taken the time to address some of the rumors out there regarding Terminator Salvation. The following are the key points:
He confirmed that they are in talks with Linda Hamilton (apparently, she is supportive of the movie) to have her do some voiceover work for the film. Story wise, her narration would come from the tapes she made for her son, John Connor at the end of the first Terminator and would be used to open and close the movie.
- For Danny Elfman’s score of the movie, they intend to incorporate themes from Brad Fiedel’s original Terminator score and they use quite a lot of it – including (obviously a must) the epic Terminator theme song from all of the movies.
- McG is still dodging questions relating to Arnold Schwarzenegger having an appearance in the film – the rumor has it that they are using face recognition software to use his face and voice and put it on another body for the movie – Hopefully a T-800 unit. McG does say however, that they will screen the movie for Arnold to get his blessing.
Well, these are all good things in my mind. It’s absolutely essential to pay homage to the original score and include the main parts of that into Terminator Salvation. For the other two points, it would be a big added bonus to the film to have Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger play a party, even if it’s just to make it more authentic and tie the new trilogy into the told one.
What do you think of the Michael Bay-McG debacle? How about the responses to the rumors?
Terminator Salvation hits theaters May 22, 2009 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen debuts June 26, 2009.
