Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a box office hit that is to this day considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made – so why didn’t James Cameron return to direct Terminator 3? Following the release of Judgment Day in 1991, more than a decade passed before Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines finally arrived in theaters, and Jonathan Mostow (U-571) was in the director’s chair instead of Cameron for the long-awaited sequel.
James Cameron did in fact start developing his own ideas for Terminator 3 soon after the second movie was released, and the reason why it never manifested comes down to one word: rights. While the movie was in the development phase the production company that owned 50% of the rights, Carolco Pictures, filed for bankruptcy and its assets – including the Terminator sequel rights – were sold off. What followed was a period during which the rights were in limbo, and Cameron’s plans to make Terminator 3 with 20th Century Fox ultimately fell apart when those plans hit a surprise speed bump.
Cameron has never revealed what his original plans for Terminator 3‘s story were. He did begin developing a third movie with Fox, but whatever ideas he might have had never made it past the early scripting stage. Here’s the story of why James Cameron’s Terminator 3 never happened – from bidding wars to broken friendships.
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
A lesser-known fact about the Terminator franchise is that Cameron did actually make a mini-sequel to Terminator 2. This came in the form of a Universal Studios attraction called T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, which was filmed in 1995 and made its debut at Universal Studios Florida in 1996. The short film used in the attraction, which was co-written and directed by Cameron, reunited Terminator 2: Judgment Day cast members Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick. It cost a staggering $24 million to produce the 12-minute film, which was shot from multiple angles using special 3D cameras.
T2-3D: Battle Across Time had the effect of reigniting the cast’s enthusiasm for Terminator 3 after it had been dampened by the gruelling experience of making Terminator 2. According to a People magazine article at the time, Cameron actually began writing a script for Terminator 3 after making T2-3D. Schwarzenegger said of his fellow cast members, “The scars have healed, and now they’re all saying, ‘I love to work with Cameron.'” It seems that fans were tantalizingly close to getting a Terminator 3 that would reunite Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, Furlong and Patrick on the big screen – but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
20th Century Fox & James Cameron’s Plans For Terminator 3
Carolco Pictures filed for bankruptcy in 1995, and a bidding war for its assets followed between French television company Canal Plus and 20th Century Fox. Canal Plus came in with an early offer of $47 million, Fox countered with $50 million, and Canal Plus came back with a bid of $58 million for all of Carolco’s existing films (though not the sequel rights). Fox withdrew its overall bid with plans to purchase the Terminator sequel rights individually in bankruptcy court at a later date, and began laying the groundwork for the sequel with Cameron so that he could get started right away once Fox obtained the rights.
One of 20th Century Fox’s biggest concerns was the budget for Terminator 3. The studio wanted to make a sequel in line with Terminator 2‘s production costs, which were just south of $100 million. That would not be possible with the combined cost of bringing back Schwarzenegger (whose star at its peak in Hollywood) and purchasing Carolco’s rights from the bankruptcy court auction, and the other half of the rights from producer Gale Ann Hurd. Fox chairman Bill Mechanic sought to avoid the expensive upfront costs by cutting a deal with Schwarzenegger and Hurd for a bigger share of the back-end profits. His efforts would prove fruitless, however, when the Terminator 3 rights were bought out by the founders of the very studio that had been forced to sell them.
Why James Cameron Didn’t Direct Terminator 3
Movie producers Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna co-founded Carolco Pictures in 1976 and first rose to success with the releases of First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II. Keen to follow up that success with more action movies, Carolco acquired the rights to a Terminator sequel and brought back Cameron to direct and Schwarzenegger to star. By that point Vajna had sold his shares in Carolco to Kassar and parted ways with the company, due to disagreements over its direction. However, following Carolco’s bankruptcy in 1995 the two old partners reunited to found a new film company, C2 Pictures, and launch it with a new movie: Terminator 3.
Just as Fox and Cameron were finalizing months of planning for Terminator 3, Kassar and Vajna made a bid of $7.5 million for the rights, which they later raised to $8 million. The two had a close relationship with Cameron and had actually learned that the Terminator rights were still up for grabs after he treated them to an early screening of Titanic. When he found out that his old friends had bought Terminator 3 out from under him, Cameron was “shocked and furious” according to the LA Times, and his fury “permanently damaged their once close relationship.” Vajna, for his part, couldn’t see what the problem was, arguing, “What difference does it make to Jim who’s financing the movie, a studio or us?“
In late 1997, deep into post-production on Titanic and still angry about Vajna and Kassar buying the Terminator 3 rights, Cameron finally decided that he wanted nothing more to do with the movie. Fox was still willing to buy the rights, whether by outbidding Vajna and Kassar or buying the rights from them, but Cameron losing interest was the final nail in the coffin for Fox’s Terminator 3. Quoted in a Variety article at the time, Mechanic said, “Right now Jim (Cameron) has decided not to make this movie, and we have always said we will only make it with Jim.” Cameron did give his blessing for Schwarzenegger to work on a sequel without him, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was eventually released in summer 2003.
Cameron recently returned to the Terminator franchise, acting in a producer role on Terminator: Dark Fate, which he also wrote the story for. That movie ignores the events of Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation and Terminator Genisys, instead following on directly from the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In that sense, it’s about as close to a James Cameron version of Terminator 3 as we’re likely to get.
