Christian Bale Compares Terminator 4 to Batman Begins; Helena Bonham Carter Joins Cast
Christian Bale took to the defensive, insisting that he accepted the role as John Connor in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins because it reinvents the series.
“What I saw with Terminator was what I saw with Batman Begins,” Bale told at The Dark Knight junket.
But accepting another franchise role was not an easy decision in the least.
“That was actually something that I questioned greatly… ‘Do I want to do that again?’” Bale continued. “While Batman Begins was clearly an origin story and we were in many ways ignoring any of the other films that had come before it, this won’t be the case with Terminator, as we’re staying true to the mythology, certainly to one and two more than three, but it gave us the opportunity and the chance to reinvent and revitalize that. There is no point in making it otherwise. So that is my aim, and that is why I finally decided yes, I want to try this. Because that is the responsibility we have as filmmakers, and that is what I’m aiming to achieve.”
Meanwhile, the trades are reporting that Helena Bonham Carter is in talks to join the film in a “small but pivotal” role.
In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind. The film also stars Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, Common as Barnes, and Jadagrace as Star. Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins hits theaters on May 22nd 2009.
Christian Bale to Play Robin Hood in Ridley Scott’s Nottingham?
UPDATE: According to sources, this rumor is totally bunk. Thanks for the new pollution, Daily Mail. Anyhow, who should play Robin Hood for Scott?
Bruce Wayne. John Connor. Bryan Adams’ muse? According to the Daily Mail, director Ridley Scott is seeking out Christian Bale for the role of Robin Hood in Nottingham, which is scheduled to begin filming this summer…
“Nothing is signed for Bale, but director Ridley Scott is exceedingly keen to cast him. Costume fittings begin next week, so he’ll be either in or out by then. Vanessa Redgrave and William Hurt are also in discussions about being in the film, which is called Nottingham.”
Bale would join a cast that also includes Scott-staple Russell Crowe (as the Sheriff of Nottingham) and the freshly signed Sienna Miller as Maid Marian. However, both of those actors have expressed moderate concern about a looming SAG strike putting the kibosh on the project. Unlike prior versions of the tale, Crowe’s sheriff will be the protagonist and Robin Hood will be a quiver-carrying bad guy (terrorist for the poors?). Bale and Crowe faced off in last year’s superb Western remake 3:10 to Yuma.
Earlier today we reported on the teaser for Terminator 4 with Bale starring as John Connor. He remains attached to the Pablo Escobar adaptation, Killing Pablo, though news on that film has been very quiet as of late. Scott will follow-up his 180-degree Robin Hood flick with a longtime dream project, Brave New World, based on Aldous Huxley’s 1932 sci-fi classic. He also has an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian on the burner. More on Nottingham/Bale as it develops…
Hollywood Wizard Stan Winston Dies
From The Terminator movies to Iron Man, Stan Winston made the magic that make movies magic.
The Oscar-winning visual-effects and makeup guru died Sunday of multiple myeloma at his Malibu home. He was 62, and had been battling the plasma cancer for seven years.
“The entertainment industry has lost a genius, and I lost one of my bestfriends,” said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom Winston helped make an iconic killing machine of in The Terminator and its two sequels.
Long Hollywood’s go-to creator of creatures great and occasionally frightning, Winston won four Oscars for his wizardry on Jurassic Park, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which earned him two statuettes, one for makeup and one for visual effects. He was nominated a total of 10 times.
His handiwork can be seen in the current summer hits Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan and Iron Man, for which Winston’s namesake studio built the hero’s high-tech armored suits.
Stan Winston Studio is also set to work on the upcoming Terminator 4, the big-screen, live-action G.I. Joe and James Cameron’s Avatar.
Although Winston tended to work on films that were heavy on special effects, he maintained his life’s work was about building characters, not gadgets.
“I don’t do special effects. I create characters, and I use the tools of special effects necessary to do it,” Winston told the BBC in 2003.
Winston’s career began in 1969 when, according to his company’s website, the aspiring actor took a would-be day job as an apprentice to a Disney makeup artist. Just a few years later, he scored his first major awardan Emmy for his makeup work on the 1972 TV movie Gargoyles.
Throughout the 1970s, Winston created makeup looks for everything from low-budget horror films to a Diana Ross TV special. In the 1981, he earned his first Oscar nomination for using makeup to make a robot of Andy Kaufman in the 1981 comedy, Heartbeeps.
In 1984, he began a storied association with Cameron and the T-series cyborgs of The Terminator movies.
Moving beyond makeup, Winston was responsible for creating the futuristic effects for the relatively low-budget sci-fi thriller. While he didn’t rate an Oscar nomination for the film, he established himself as a special-effects specialist. He and Cameron would later go on to help found Digital Domain, the special-effects house.
After Terminator, Winston seemingly had a creative hand in every popcorn movie to pop out of Hollywood, including: Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park movies, for which he created the large-as-life dinosaurs; Cameron’s Aliens; Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence: A.I.; Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands; Predator; Interview With a Vampire, even Tank Girl.
In 2001, Winston received an honor usually reserved for faces in front of the camera: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2003, Winston told the Los Angeles Times that he’d become so associated with creating creatures that the calendar date Oct. 31 drove him underground.
“There’s no way I could do anything on Halloween that would live up to what anyone would expect of me. If I were going to a costume party, what would I do? It would just be disappointing,” Winston said with apparent humor. “Halloween has become the tragic day of the year for Stan.”
Stan Winston is Dead
I have a bit of unfortunate news to report. Academy Award winning special effects and make-up artist Stan Winston died last night. Winston is best known for his work in the Terminator series (Winston designed the original Terminator Endoskeleton), Jurassic Park, Aliens, Predator, and Edward Scissorhands. A frequent collaborator of James Cameron, they co-founded Digital Domain in 1993. Winston was the second special effects artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Winston also worked on The Thing, Friday the 13th Part III, Alien Nation, The Monster Squad, Pumpkinhead, Interview with the Vampire, Congo, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Small Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Big Fish, Constantine, Batman Returns and Iron Man. His work will be seen in upcoming films: Black Mountain, James Cameron’s Avatar, and Terminator 4.