http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117932724.html?cs=1&s=h&p=0

'Terminator' retools
Fox TV series will breathe life back into Connor family

The "Terminator" franchise is rising again, this time as a Fox TV series.

Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar's C2 Pictures, which produced the most recent "Terminator" feature, has pacted with Warner Bros. TV and scribe Josh Friedman ("War of the Worlds") for the tentatively titled "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Skein will focus on robo-warrior Sarah Connor and her savior son John Connor.

Fox has made a pilot commitment to the project, with a significant penalty attached. Net declined comment on the project, which attracted serious interest from several webs.

Friedman is aboard to pen the pilot and serve as exec producer-showrunner of the series, which will take place in the fictional time frame between the second and third "Terminator" features. Vajna and Kassar will serve as exec producers, with C2 senior veep of development James Middleton also producing.

In addition, Vajna confirmed that C2 is in "the final phases of development" of a fourth "Terminator" pic (Daily Variety, Sept. 24, 2004) and that the series will have a link to what's being envisioned as a new feature trilogy.

"There will be a connection," Middleton said. Linda Hamilton is not expected to be involved in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." And because the series will be focused on the Connor family, it's not anticipated that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a regular part of the skein either regardless of his political fortunes a year from now.

Vajna and Middleton had no comment on any potential guest role for Schwarzenegger.

Middleton said the series will explore what happened to Sarah Connor after the end of "T2," when the character went on the run. "She has the weight of the world on her shoulder and she also has to raise a 14-year-old son who may be the salvation of the world," he said.

Friedman said his "challenge is trying to figure out how to reinterpret (Connor) for television."

Because the "Terminator" franchise involves time travel and alternate futures, Friedman believe he'll be able to take a few plot liberties in the series -- emphasis on "few."

"The last thing I want to do is take a title and exploit it," Friedman said. "The show needs to stand on its own while still being respectful of the franchise."

Unlike the features, "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" will not be non-stop shoot-'em-up or chase scenes, in large part because of the reduced budgets of television.

"There's going to be a healthy dose of both (action and family drama)," Friedman said, noting that the "Terminator" mythology "has a lot of big ideas in it that don't cost you a dime to explore."

"T3: Rise of the Machines," produced by C2 and Intermedia, grossed $427 million worldwide; the franchise overall has grossed more than $1 billion.

Vajna said C2 has been weighing an entry into TV via the "Terminator" franchise for nearly two years and said the company hopes to develop other projects for the medium.

After deciding to take the plunge, ICM-repped C2 pitched the idea to several studios, with Warner Bros. ultimately making the most sense, Vajna said. Warners handled domestic distribution of "T3."

Friedman, repped by UTA, wrote the script for Brian De Palma's upcoming "The Black Dahlia."
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Supposedly, this is coming out this year
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851851/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sarah_Connor_Chronicles

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.

Cattivo wrote:

This would have been a good idea about ten years ago.

The well never dries up.

But I'm hesistant. First, Fox is going to cancel it after three episodes. Second, Zach from "Heroes" and the kid with the birthday card from "Seinfeld" is John Connor. Third, there's low chance the show will find an audience.

Nonetheless, I'll probably watch it.

DarkMaze wrote:

I felt like the Terminator franchise ended satisfactorily with T2.

No. It ended with T2-3D co-directed by Gary Goddard, God among men.

DarkMaze wrote:

Also, I was unaware that Summer Glau was in it. Apparently kicking ass in "Serenity" wasn't enough. Now she has to do it naked.

You are aware that River's first [intended] appearance on Firefly was in the pilot "Serenity" where she was in fact naked. I guess we're combining the best of River moments... I haven't watched the clip, but that's what came to mind.

Syd Lexia wrote:

The only guys who are better at putting out consistently watchable action movies are Russell and Willis.

I argue Statham is another one. So far he's never disappointed me. Then again, his movies have also been getting progressively dumber... and more Uwe Boller... But so far so good.

Tishwitch wrote:

Tebor wrote: Syd Lexia wrote: The only guys who are better at putting out consistently watchable action movies are Russell and Willis. I argue Statham is another one. So far he's never disappointed me. Then again, his movies have also been getting progressively dumber... and more Uwe Boller... But so far so good. I can't argue whether Statham's films are getting worse, but if you just take a look at The Transporter I and II, you can find love for him again. Everybody makes a few bad movies occasionally, except Liam Neeson.

I'm not saying they've been getting worse, just that the intelligence is getting dumber. I love "Crank" more than "Transporter 2", but there's a few more impossibilities in that one than tearing a bomb off the bottom of a car by driving it into the air and against a crane hook.

I think there's three other Terminator threads on this board already, but let's bump this one.

So the pilot? What did I think of it?

Well, it was directed by David Nutter from X-Files, who also directed several other high profile pilots like Dark Angel and Smallville. Guess they got the right guy.

It opens in 1999, following the T2 timeline. For half the pilot I wondered if they would be able to continue a pre-9/11 show without goofy continuity problems. Even Lost has had it's share of flashback mistakes. Somewhere in there I realized that they needed to travel through time... But then they actually whipped out the time machine. Besides the fact that I couldn't believe the parts of that device were in that bank for 40 years, I couldn't believe the show would actually do it. Let me back up, I do believe that the future gun parts being left in the bank... But the time machine is just goofy. Whatever, we're in 2007 so now we don't have to worry about out dated cars.

The cast includes the queen from 300 as Sarah, Gayman Zach from Heroes as John, River Tam, and one of the cooks from Kitchen Confidential for a one episode appearance. Lena was passable IMO. She didn't really have the strength or conviction of Linda Hamilton, but she definitely tried her hardest... Sometimes too hard with the B-movie script which led to lots of laughs on my part. John Conner is alright, but I miss the drugged up Furlong; I'm not going to lie. It was the same problem I had with Stahl in T3. Then again, I guess anyone could play John Conner.

River/Summer rocks if only because her name is Cameron. Right on. Although kicking ass is definitely something she does well. Last was the Terminator played by Yeoman. I'm one of the three people who LOVED "Kitchen Confidential" so taking him seriously as a killer was almost impossible. I thought he did well, but it doesn't hold up to Arnold or Robert Patrick.

Speaking of Doggett, I hope this show is on the air long enough for Robert Patrick to guest star, along with Xander Berkeley and Earl Boen.

Anyway, Terminator is a superhero show which already won it my favor long before people were tearing guns out of their legs and knocking down vault doors. However, the pilot did not run as smoothly as I had hoped. The plot is incredibly B material and unless you're The King of the World yourself it's going to be hard as hell to sell it as A quality. There were plenty of laughs I had with the show, but something told me they weren't gunning for a lot of them. There was also a strong sense of retread I felt such as with going after Cyberdyne and the new 2011 Judgment Day date. The lack of originality really made them feel like they were skimming the Terminator well.

As always, pilots are hard things to produce and there's been very few home runs right out of the gate. I thought Terminator lived up to my expectations for the most part, so I'll keep watching for as long as I remember it's on.

...And something tells me the Bill and Ted the future sent back in time left Sarah and John plenty of other gizmos for them to find.

Episode II and we're moving right along. No dragging here. Some answers, some more questions. They put the big action set piece at the beginning of the show. Aside from the underwhelming 9/11 scene, I thought it was pretty good. Not revolutionary, but it moved. Go pacing! Yay!

Yowza. Go ratings for this show. Although, the unspoken truth is that it did so well because NOTHING ELSE IS ON!!!

But maybe Terminator will get more audience members than it would have had the strike not happened... audience that stays I mean.

BTW, I get serious "Blade" vipes watching this show. Maybe we should make more shows off movies that bomb Buffy-style than shows based on kick ass films. There's a big sense of quality drop off.

The effects are still better than most cable shows.