Apparently oblivious to the fact that the franchise is up for sale and no-one knows who future owners will be or what they'll want, McG announced that he'll make two more Terminator movies, the first of which will feature Sarah Connor, even though "he's not sure how he's going to pull that off." We'd be more worried about future Terminator rights holders agreeing to him making two sequels to a critically-savaged movie that flopped at the box office (in comparison to expectations, at least; it's still in the top 20 movies of the year) and failed to prevent the bankruptcy of the owners of the property if we were him, but maybe there's a reason we're not successful Hollywood producer/directors and he is.

He was also disappointed that Salvation wasn't the best movie in the series so far, but thinks that it was better than T3 (which he "didn't really pay attention to"; he also only watched one episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Feel free to start your fuming now), and "tried to introduce credibility" back to the franchise. And, maybe most importantly, he showed that he knows movie direction:

7:15: Here's a tip that will go down in history from one of the film greats. "There's two elements that go into filmmaking. There's sound, and there's the picture."

There's more in Jason's epic journey into one director's ego, including how McG feels about the Charlie's Angels movies these days, that Moon Bloodgood topless shot and the downbeat end to the franchise that was possible. Go read, if only because Jason suffered for us, and because he's right about Community.

Terminator Salvation BD-Live Director's Commentary Liveblog [Gizmodo]

Bay, Kurtzman and Orci's Batman
Pros: You'd get a new Batman movie every two years, even if Michael Bay would complain and tell people that he didn't want to make it but the studio offered him so much money he couldn't say no. Plus, with Bay attached, you know that they'd get to Catwoman as soon as humanly possible instead of this whole "I am a nihilist Joker" crap from The Dark Knight.
Cons: Kurtzman and Orci would probably take their Daddy issues (Fringe's Walter/Peter complicated relationship, Star Trek's Kirk trying to live up to his dead father's memory by self-destructing but then coming through as the hero he was destined to be, even Transformers' Optimus as Tough-But-Fair Robot Daddy to Shia's Sam Whitwicky) to pop culture's most parent-obsessed character, leading to the risk of a third act emotional breakthrough where Batman cries. There are enough Batman characters to make Revenge Of The Fallen seem understaffed, and the various personality tics of said Batman characters could lead to more unfunny schtick like the Twins and/or Jazz from the Transformers movies. Michael Bay possibly already sees himself as Bruce Wayne. Also, there's every possibility that the movie would make no sense whatsoever (See: Transformers, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen).

JJ Abrams' Terminator
Pros: Abrams' sense of kinetic, fun filmmaking is just what the franchise needs after Terminator Salvation - He's a sci-fi nerd who knows how to make successful popcorn movies full of tech that are really all about people; in other words, he's a younger James Cameron, before Cameron fell more in love with the tech involved in making movies. A Terminator-ized "Bad Robot" logo would be awesome. There'd probably be a Simon Pegg cameo.
Cons: Abrams' inability to not have a happy ending would mean that Skynet would be completely defeated by the time he was done, whether it was a movie or trilogy. The time travel core concept would allow him to reboot the series whenever he wanted, with Zachary Quinto as Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. There'd probably be a Keri Russell cameo. Actually, fuck the cons. I really want to see Abrams do Terminator, the more I think about it.

Christopher Nolan's GI Joe
Pros: If anyone could give GI Joe some critical credibility, it's Christopher Nolan.
Cons: Nolan's attempt would probably be called A Real American Hero and would likely be three hours long, most of which would be spent filled with actors who should know better (Yes, Gary Oldman, we're looking at you) telling the audience how difficult it is to be a real American hero in a morally ambiguous world. There would be at least one subplot about abuse of military power to underscore the moral ambiguity until we move into the third act when the audience needs to get pumped and then Duke would abuse military power to stop the bad guy and then walk away in disgust in order to make a point that will be lost on the majority of an audience who were excited to see shit blow up finally. Cobra Commander would be so compelling that you'll start to wonder if he's wandered on set from a different, better, movie. Purists would complain about Snake Eyes' closing monologue about how difficult it is to be a ninja in the US military. No child would ever want to buy a GI Joe toy ever again.

Bryan Singer's Transformers
Pros: Singer's mix of geek cred and understanding of human drama/cheap angst is exactly what the Robots in Disguise need. His X-Men movies show that he can deal with large casts, and also keep the core of the original concepts and characters without getting weighed down by nostalgia. His Superman Returns shows that he, uh... knows Kevin Spacey, who could probably do a good Megatron voice? Okay, maybe not that last one.
Cons: Tom Cruise would end up playing Optimus Prime, and Ian McKellen would cameo as the Matrix of Leadership/Allspark/Creation Matrix/whatever the hell it's called these days. Singer would leave before the last film in the trilogy to go and make a Go-Bots movie about Leader-1 really being Jesus and stalking his ex-girlfriend.

McG's Dollhouse
Pros: Revamping Joss Whedon's television series into a stand-alone movie, McG would give interviews about really getting to the heart of the darkness at the center of the concept but then present a movie that's a series of comedic vignettes wherein Eliza Dushku, Lucy Liu and Ellen Page are sassy, independent girls who have to roleplay different personalities and lives while working undercover for D.O.L.L.house, a secret spy organization that pretends to brainwash people and rent them out to clients - with hilarious consequences!
Cons: Revamping Joss Whedon's television series into a stand-alone movie, McG would give interviews about really getting to the heart of the darkness at the center of the concept but then present a movie that's a series of comedic vignettes wherein Eliza Dushku, Lucy Liu and Ellen Page are sassy, independent girls who have to roleplay different personalities and lives while working undercover for D.O.L.L.house, a secret spy organization that pretends to brainwash people and rent them out to clients - with hilarious consequences!

So now that you've seen it, what do you think? Worth creating a huge public apocalypse and humiliating poor Moon Bloodgood over? I didn't think so either.

To refresh your memory, back in February, McG made Bloodgood stand up (fully clothed) in front of a crowd of Wondercon fans and shouted, "Who wants to see Moon's boobs?" until the crowd roared. McG explained that the studio wanted to cut Bloodgood's topless scene, to keep the movie PG-13. In the roundtables afterwards, they talked up the scene and how great it was:

Afterwards, at the roundtable, McG told us he saw Moon's breasts as expressing the human softness that's what we're fighting the machines for, and they're like the opposite of the hard machine world, but on the other hand maybe it's just a gratuitous juvenile scene that drags down an otherwise serious movie, and that's what he's debating with the studio right now. And Moon herself told reporters the scene is very tasteful and she felt very comfortable with it. And the scene is about knowing you could die soon and wanting to be close to another person, without any barriers in the way. Including clothing.

Did you get all of that from the above clip? No? Then you're obviously an ingrate, who cannot appreciate the subtleties of McG's film-making process. In any case, I'm probably the last person who would object to a little gratuitious nudity or extra trashiness — especially in an already cheesy apocalyptic film, where it mixes in with the shouting and the ridiculous stunts and the nonsensical dialogue. In fact, if Christian Bale had spent the entire movie nude, it might have been the one thing that would have salvaged his performance. But especially after having seen the rest of the film, the auteur-ish temper tantrums over this brief snippet of "Moon's boobs," and the grandiose boob exegeses seem a bit overplayed. Just a tad.

UGO noticed that a recent email from the MPAA listed the DVD release of the movie as being rated R, with a note that "content is different from PG-13 version" (The R rating comes because of "some violence and brief nudity," apparently). McG had claimed the only stuff that got cut to make the movie PG-13 were a glimpse of Moon Bloodgood's breasts, and one brief moment of violence.

Whether or not this Director's Cut version will be make the movie any better is, of course, unknown at this time. But since the theatrical release seemed weirdly edited — as if some important scenes were either cut altogether or trimmed severely — it seems at least plausible that a longer DVD version might make a bit more sense. Here's hoping, anyway.

Terminator Salvation Was Rated R After All [UGO]

In and interview with Sam Worthington on the set of his new picture, The Clash of The Titans, Worthington addressed the terrible hype that surrounded his last picture, Terminator Salvation and told Hitfix:

It's kind of humbling the way they described your performance against Christian's, but we have no control over that. We just have try and do the best character we can do at that time. And I can nitpick with the best of them, man, and go down the list of things I saw on IMDB where they found holes in it and go, 'You are f***ing right. If there was a big ten-ton robot coming outside that gas station, surely we would f***ing hear it!' And I missed that! So I go, 'I gotta be a bit better when I'm looking through my scripts!' So that kind of raises my games a bit, cause I feel like an idiot for not saying it to McG.

It's refreshing to see Worthington addressing the film's gigantic issues in a no-nonsense way, responding honestly to Internet chatter instead of blinding himself in a "It's them, not me" kind of way.

Worthington also goes on to address the Avatar naysayers explaining that you have to see the James Cameron film in an IMAX, not on your laptop. Read the entire interview over at Hitfix

Talking to IESB, the director said,

Obviously, Michael Bay had tremendous success following Transformers, in a very short window. Sometimes people like to take time off, but I'm excited about the next installation of the story, in the Terminator idea. So, for me, it's terribly exciting to get back out there and show a different face of that idea, and perhaps get out of the apocalyptic world and into a contemporary world. I think the audience is going to be very excited about our way in.

Is that a hint that the next movie will abandon Salvation's "No time travel! All apocalypse all the time!" hook for a return to the traditional set-up of the first three movies?

Meanwhile, McG's also busily listening to critics of the last movie and setting up straw-man arguments to respond to:

I listen to everything. It's interesting because a lot of people don't like me, but a lot of people just don't like my name. I can't take that too seriously because that's been my name my whole life. It's not something that I prescribed myself.

Really? Your parents really called you "McG"? You didn't come up with that one yourself?

McG Tells IESB He's Currently Prepping Terminator 5 and Says He's Taken his Lumps in Stride [IESB]

Robert Simons did these designs a couple years ago, but I haven't seen them posted too much elsewhere. The Kraken looks especially imposing, but the alien-looking diving suit is also fantastic. Check out the rest at the link. [Robert Simons via Super Draw]

In January we warned you about the sexy sword-playing script that was getting tossed around for the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea prequel. The script sounded epically hokey, at best. We even asked McG what was the deal with this over-the-top screenplay, and he assured us it was nothing like that.

In any case, The Hollywood Reporter says that the big script is now undergoing a hefty rewrite from Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace. Let's hope they get it right this time.

But with all the hub-bub around the disastrous Terminator 4, will Will Smith still be game to sign as baby Nemo? And isn't he getting a little old to play these youngsters? Although granted, Captain Nemo wasn't super young in Jules Verne's novels. Plus, isn't Captain Nemo usually depicted as either a Hindu or a Sikh?

What do you do when the one person that went to bat for your career slowly backs out in favor of another project? Cohen, has basically left Diesel's latest picture to rot, in favor of another awful-sounding project called Medieval. Is the next xXx script so terrible that Cohen is willing to turn down truckloads of money, in favor of making a historical film that's been called the Magnificent 7 in the olden days?

Cohen said it was a tough decision. Who can replace him? Maybe Diesel can rope in McG. Honestly, he should just do it. It'll give him a chance to turn his special attention to a franchise that can only benefit from his touch. And Diesel needs a director who can give him some cool backdrops to emote against.

[Variety]

Oh, and there are spoilers in this write-up, although I'll try to keep them as vague as possible.

As with Watchmen, Titan Books has put out a couple of coffee-table books connected with Terminator Salvation. There's the "Art Of" book I just mentioned, plus Terminator Salvation: The Official Movie Companion. Both books give you a sense of just how deep the people involved in this movie went in trying to imagine a horrific robot-dominated future for us. Plus, if you're the sort of person who actually owns a coffee table, these books will look cool on it.

(Digression: I'm now trying to imagine someone who owns a coffee table and has people over for fancy dinner parties, and who loves the Terminator movies and bitchin skeletons on fire. I can actually picture it: You could make a decent case, as you swirl the sherry around your mouth and chew bits of stilton on pears, that some of these paintings of future desolation and anti-robot warfare really are art that belongs on the same nice Ikea table as your giant-size book of Hogarth woodcuts. For one thing, they're a lot more relevant to the technological era we live in, and they present a vision of the future that we should pay heed to. Okay, I'm convinced — pass the sherry.)

So yes, as seems to be par for the course, Terminator Salvation has spawned art that's easily as memorable and eye-catching as anything you'll see on screen, and looking through the film's storyboards and concept art puts me in mind of a really intense European graphic novel.

The Art Of Terminator Salvation, in particular, showcases just how brilliant Martin Laing's concept art is and how sweeping the movie's visuals are going to be. It makes a strong case that Terminator 4 will be a horror movie as well as a war movie, thanks to all of the weird experiments Skynet is doing on the last survivors of humanity. At least, if all of the imagery from the book makes it into the film, you'll be seeing lots of images of half-starved humans who are carved up and turned into miserable cyborgs, with weird metallic pieces sticking into their flesh.

Martin Laing first blew our minds with his incredible design work on the vastly underrated subterranean adventure City Of Ember. He created an entire city that felt like a lived-in place, with a real history that stretched back centuries, and a believable geography. And then he created some great set pieces, including the ending where the hydo-power station starts to blow up as the river leading out of Ember is revealed. But his work for Terminator Salvation is even more impressive, maybe because the film had a huge budget to play with.

Here are a few of our favorite images, out of the hundreds of gorgeous pics in the book:

You get some amazing, kinetic storyboards, like the helicopter-on-Terminator assault we showcased a while back. You can see how Laing and company created actual blueprints for the different models of the Terminators in the film, to deliver to Stan Winston studios, which created "puppet" Terminators for some sequences. We see how the nice, shiny T-1 from Terminator 3 got dirtied up and turned into a grey, dingy killing machine for the new movie. The T-600s look more disturbing and inhuman every time I see them, and this book has some incredible images of them. The Aerostats are like huge evil flying spiders, searching for humans to harvest. And then there are the Hunter-Killers, which have never looked so dark, massive or predatory.

And the good news is, Terminator Salvation appears to have some pretty striking action sequences that we haven't already seen a million times in the trailers. In particular, if the film manages to pull off a bit involving Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) and a falling jet engine, then I'll be astounded. There are some great images of soldiers rappelling down into Skynet's underground facility in the movie's first big action sequence. There's John Connor descending into the Resistance's undersea base. And then there's the ruins of San Francisco, a flaming slag heap where Skynet has set up its base, which we see in an incredibly panoramic painting.

There are definitely a few ideas that we're glad didn't make it onto screen. For example, at one point, the designers thought that since Eddie Furlong wears tiger stripes in Terminator 2, Christian Bale's version of John Connor should have a tiger-stripe motif on his pants. (As if John Connor wakes up in the middle of a post-apocalyptic landscape and thinks, "I have to lead humanity to victory over the machines. But first, I must find several yards of tiger-print fabric to make my new uniform!") And then there's the original design for the moto-Terminators, which our sister site Gizmodo already mocked:

And if you like religious art, there are tons of intense paintings, drawings and photos of Sam Worthington in a crucified pose. Apparently he spends the whole movie being crucified in one way or another, and the designers admit they didn't see quite how blatant the symbolism is until afterwards. (Don't they realize there's only one character in the film whose initials are J.C.?) More than any other Terminator movie, this film deals with what it means to be part machine and part human, and it ventures into extreme body horror in the process.

All in all, The Art Of Terminator Salvation is a book you could easily spend hours poring over — it'll whet your anticipation for the film, and it'll probably be awesome to look through after you've already seen it, to see some of those stark, violent, disturbing images in a new light. It's an art book you can actually show to your friends.

I would say the Terminator Salvation: The Official Movie Companion is maybe a bit less essential than the art book, just because it's a little less heavy on the gorgeous art. There's a lot more of the film's actors and McG talking about their ideas for the film, which you've probably already read plenty of. But there are still some amazing images, like close-up stills of a man's boot stepping on a human skull, and tons and tons of set pics of Christian Bale going through post-apocalyptic Hell in slow motion. He is constantly in agony and/or setting his jaw with determination. There are more storyboards and concept art, some of which are also in the art book. But there are also some fantastic "making of" pics, showing the explosions and robotic dogfights coming together. And lots and lots of shots of Terminator skulls and skeletons being mass-produced for the film's robot-heavy Skynet sequences.

Here are a handful of the images we love the most in this book, which is jam-packed with equally great ones.

The Official Movie Companion also includes a lot more about the movie's creative process generally, including all of the rewrites the script went through and how McG conceptualized the film as a war movie. And what the word "Salvation" in the film's title means to McG. (Surprise: it's Biblical.) There's also a whole section on the scene where a Harvester attacks a 7-Eleven and then gets into a huge chase with a truck and Moto-Terminators, and you can see how wire work and practical effects merged with CG for the sequence. There are a lot of pretty amazing photos of explosions being filmed and actors (especially Worthington) being tossed around like confetti.

In the end, I'd say these books are possibly even more impressive than the similar books for Watchmen. The Watchmen books were all about translating a great work of graphic art to the screen, and they focused on capturing Dave Gibbons' vision and converting it into a new medium, which was no small achievement. But in these books, especially the art book, you get a real sense of how much creativity and imagination went into creating a whole new post-apocalyptic world, extrapolating a lot from the future glimpses we saw in the first three films. The end result is pretty thrilling, and worth reading through more than once, to appreciate the wholesale artistry of armageddon. Oh, and then you should totally paint some of these images on your van.

The Art Of Terminator Salvation and Terminator Salvation: The Official Movie Companion at Amazon.

We talked to McG at the Terminator Salvation press roundtable today, and asked him about the movie's original ending. What he said surprised us beyond measure.

At the roadshow, you said that fans would either love or hate the ending? Can you address that now that fans have seen the film?

That was at a time when there was a very dark ending. There was a great irony in the way this film shook down. There was this leak that Connor dies and they put Connor's face on top of the machine body of Marcus. Everybody went, "Booooooo, what's that?" That's half of it [the ending]. We had a jet-black ending. Connor dies, we're in a room with all the people we care about. You take Connor's likeness, you put it on the living machine of Marcus. He sits up, now looking like Christian Bale, takes a gun, kills Kate, kills Kyle, kills Star, kills everybody, eyes flare red, [snaps] the end.

Would you put it in the DVD?

I haven't decided... But, just take a deep breath. Imagine that's the ending. I would hope the oxygen would just go right out. You'd be like, "They can't do that. That's the biggest bummer I've ever seen in my life."

[Screenwriter Michael Ferris explained more about yet another not-so-dark scrapped ending at the press event.]

Ferris: There was an ending of intermediate darkness, in which ... the mechanical Marcus takes over as Connor and goes on to lead the resistance. It's essentially a secret to everybody, except the inner circle, that John Connor is now a robot, is now a Terminator. We're going for some irony there.

Holy hell, that is bleak. Looks like those rewrite rumors were true. To see the real ending, go see Terminator Salvation on May 21st.

Talking to Film Journal, McG explained what he thinks will happen in his second Terminator film:

I strongly suspect the next movie is going to take place in a [pre-Judgment Day] 2011. John Connor is going to travel back in time and he's going to have to galvanize the militaries of the world for an impending Skynet invasion. They've figured out time travel to the degree where they can send more than [just] one naked entity. So you're going to have hunter killers and transports and harvesters and everything arriving in our time and Connor fighting back with conventional military warfare, which I think is going to be fucking awesome. I also think he's going to meet a scientist that's going to look a lot like present-day Robert Patrick [who famously played the T-1000 in Terminator 2], talking about stem-cell research and how we can all live as idealized, younger versions of ourselves

All I can say, is whoa. I don't even know where to start.

Actually, I do know where to start: throwing out the Terminator series' most iconic rule for time travel — that only living tissue can travel, and anything covering it gets shredded — seems like a really weird notion. If you can send a Hunter-Killer back in time, what can't you send back? At what point do you shred the space-time continuum so much that nothing makes sense any more? Also, according to Terminator 3, Judgment Day happens in 2004. So what moves it forward seven years?

I'm also wondering what happens to make Skynet so desperate, it's willing to invade the past in such a dramatic fashion. I could be wrong, but isn't one of the cornerstones of the series that Skynet treads somewhat carefully about tampering with the past, lest it undo its own rise to power? There could be a clue to the ending of Terminator Salvation in there somewhere — maybe John Connor does something that puts Skynet in a no-win situation?

Or maybe McG's just yanking our chains?

Meanwhile, here are some pics from Yahoo that I don't think we've posted before:

So either McG is messing with us or right now Arnold seriously isn't in Terminator Salvation. In an interview with MTV, McG said point blank, "We don't know if Schwarzenegger is in the movie or not; it's not clear. I can say that." He then went on to call the Arnold wrangling "a complicated, delicate balance."

He even dismissed Terry Crews' confirmation that Arnold is indeed in the flick.

But McG has said that some version of Arnie's T-800 will be in the movie one way or another, so I'm not sure what to think but I'm guessing that they are haggling over a voice over for some sort of robot like face that may or may have Arnold's likeness. I hope there isn't some adviser out there, instructing Arnie to stay away from this flick. It's a recession, and it's his job as California governor to boost our morale and our economic spending, the best way he can - with action movies and Terminator cameos. No one has forgotten that Arnold was the Terminator. In fact, that whole shtick probably helped him get elected in some marketing way or another. Get out of the way of progress.

McG also touched on Linda Hamilton's voiceover in the MTV interview, explaining that

Everyone knows she instructed her son how to survive and how to fulfill his destiny via audio tapes. There is a great deal of listening done to those audio tapes done in hope of guidance. There's some scenes with Christian being inspired by the character Linda played.

In other bloody robot news, there is a new a new Terminator video game trailer stuffed with resistance goodness. Listen to the human army call out for help, blow up some bots, and hug it out.

The work, posted at Sarah Connor Society, showcases the brilliant painting of ILM artist Christian Alzmann and Art Director Warren Fu. Images like this get me very revved up and hopeful for a lot of sweeping views of mass destruction, with familiar landmarks wedged in here and there - like the remnants of the Golden Gate Bridge.

If you're looking for more check out the Harvester from last week. Terminator will be out May 21st.

Help me out here: right around 00.26 in this trailer, who is he yelling at?

Terminator Salvation will by out on May 21.

FearNet asked Robert Patrick if he'd ever consider coming back as the "cell replication scientist" who helped develop the T-1000, an idea McG dreamed up and pitched a while back, for the fifth Terminator installment.

"Yeah, he talked to me about it," said Patrick. "I'm interested. I was listening to him tell me about it. I had no idea that he thought about that. I love McG. He's a great guy. I've worked with him before, had a great experience working with him both times – I did Charlie's Angels 2 and We Are Marshall. And I certainly can't think of anybody to tackle T4 other than him right now.... But we saw each other and he talked to me about it, so we'll see what happens. The sci-fi genre, and specifically that character, is something I'm very proud of. It's what broke me out big to the world. And it's a character that I've lived with ever since, and I kind of carry it with me everywhere I go, for good or bad. So it's obviously something that's very dear to me and real special to me. That was a real special time. That franchise means a lot to me. All of those people were great people to work with. I love ‘em all – Jim Cameron and Arnold and Linda and Eddie. It was a real, real special time in my life."

I love that he loves this character as much as I do. While I'm a little iffy about meeting the T-1000 as a human (because he'll always be the cold blooded "Have you seen this boy" cop to me) it would be great to see him back in the franchise, one way or another.

So there you have it — if you go to UC Berkeley, you won't have your girlfriend lit on fire on the ceiling, or get accused of cheating to disguise the fact that your brain is uniquely suited to being a human computer. They should totally put that on the recruitment brochures.

Terminator Salvation will be in theaters May 21st. If you want to see another exclusive photo from Terminator 4, complete with Christian Bale modeling his hot leathers in front of computers, visit our sister site Gizmodo.