Terminator 2: Judgment Day

I believe the way it goes is:

• Studio Executive needs idea for movie.
• Executive talks to Film Producer about idea.
• Producer hires writer to make script based on idea which they do.
• Producer comes up with more ideas to tell writer. Writer tries to work them into script.
  • (Optional)
    • Writer is fired, new writer is hired to make new script for same idea.
    • Inform film media about expected release date.
    • Fire writer, go in a new direction.
    • Inform film media about new expected release date.
    • Rinse and Repeat
• Producer starts hiring people
  • Director- he'll want input on the script and will perform rewrites.
  • Big name actor- he'll want input on the script and will ask for rewrites.
  • Another writer- will be hired to do minor touch up at small fee, will get forced into doing major rewrites.
  • Note, these hirings may be done in any order.
• Director takes over project, work begins on pre-production.
  • Unforeseen problems/ new "innovations" by producers and studio executives/ civil war in Phillipines necessitate minor rewrites.
• Production begins, director takes pet writer friend (Quentin Tarantino, Joss Whedon etc.) with him.
  • (Optional) Take writer along to fix some dialogue for one scene. When writer is stuck in jungle/desert/frozen wastes with crew as only way out, force them to write even more dialogue.
    • Give writer acting position in cast and then hope that he'll do some writing when stuck in jungle (aka the Predator option).
• Post-production begins. Director starts to pass on footage to Producer and Executive.
• Producer and Executive question marketability of creative decisions.
  • Rewrites. Scenes reshot.
• Film nearly complete. Film shown to test audiences. Test audiences treat showing as occasion where they have to pass judgement of how the world should work.
  • Rewrites. Scenes reshot.
• Film shown to MPAA. MPAA demands changes.
  • Option 1: Film is edited to conform to MPAA requests.
  • Option 2: Studio Executive uses huge piles of money and influence to get away with current cut. *** Inconsequential changes may need to be done as symbolic gesture.
  • Option 3: rewrites- unavailable due to production crew having moved onto other products (and writer having moved onto life of alcoholism).
  • Note, these options assume enough influence to actualy get MPAA feedback in the first place.

Can occur at multiple points during process:

• Successful film is released which includes element X. Studio Executive demands that element X is rewritten to be more prominent in his movie.
• Studio Executive secures toy deal with Burger King. Movie is rewritten to give kid-friendly role a bigger part and to aim for lower MPAA rating.
• Director gets bored waiting for shooting draft to be decided on. Moves onto other project in the meantime. While away, shooting draft is completed and new director needs to be hired.
  • Fans who were excited by inclusion of original director are disappointed.
  • New director wants rewrites.

Catwoman had more than two writers. The first draft (which was never used) was written by Daniel Waters (of Heathers fame). John Rogers (the creator of Leverage) also worked on the script (and was credited) and a few writers who didn't do much else also worked on the script.

Also, William Wisher Jr. (the co-writer of Terminator 2) did some work on Rise of the Machines and Salvation.

And Ferris also worked on Goldeneye and The Punisher (Thomas Jane version), so it balances out in the end.

edited 24th Jan '12 5:14:37 PM by Buscemi

I've noticed that a lot of the best movies tend to be when they minimize the number of writers and give them more room to work. It tends to make for more focused and balanced stories, rather than what we usually get in juggling a half-dozen things that don't go anywhere.

Do you mind if I link and repost that on my blog?

Just gave you a shout out on Made Of Forum Win.

Sure, fine.

Meanwhile on the topic of T2: Judgment Day, just listen to this version of the iconic T2 theme song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjXyarN3-Y&feature=related

The original and T2 were of course the best of the bunch. Machines and Salvation just... just didn't need to be made. I know that studios want to milk every franchise they can but they still didn't need to be done from an artistic point of view and that really shows.

T2 took the original idea and said "awesome, but what if we had two Terminator's going at it?" and it worked brilliantly. Machines just repeats what T2 did but doesn't add anything and doesn't take the story anywhere. Salvation, although probably better than Machines. just abandons the original idea of a stalker murder robot and goes into full-on Fallout territory and, again, nothing happens that particularly adds to the story as a whole.

Random question that's always bugged me:

Does the T-1000 have a HUD like the T-800 and T-X do?

Nope, they never showed it.

I don't think in any of the extended media either.

Given that the T-1000 is a blob with no central CPU they probably don't see things quite the same way as any other terminator would. At the least their vision and field of view is probably a little more than what is reasonably able to replicate with a camera (Humans see at just under 180 degrees, even wide field lenses let a camera see far less then that).

The thing that bugs me about T2 is the scene where Sarah is shown pics of the T-800 at the Galleria, along with pics of the T-800 from the first film. So there is proof of the Terminator's existence, but Dr. Silberman still thinks Sarah's full of shit? It's one thing to be skeptical, but didn't it strike him as terrifying that a massacre occurred at the police station where he works within minutes of his departure?

edited 13th Feb '12 2:08:28 PM by Premonition45

Silberman isn't so much a character as a two-legged portrayal of disbelief in the face of the blindingly obvious. Which makes it really nice that when L.A. gets obliterated in the Terminator 3 film, it is just after he had seen proof that Sarah Connor wasn't crazy. The last thing that went through his mind, apart from all the good stuff that goes with a nuclear initiation must have been, "oh crap".

edited 11th Feb '12 10:56:49 PM by TamH70

Rise from the dead, old thread!

Terminator's Skynet is actually the second government missile control system. The first was the WOPR. Essentially, the government didn't really learn from its mistakes and used a solely computer controlled system for faster response time.

That is actually, scarily enough, quite plausible. Btw, did you know that Skynet is an actual Thing? It is the backbone for the UK military's satellite communications system.

And came online about 20 years before the first Terminator film...

Wouldn't surprise me if the name was inspired by reality. Plus it just sounds cool.

Related to my above post: while later Skynets in the time loop were based on the T-800 chip, the original was based on the work of Professor Steven Falken. The only problem is that they stopped letting it play games. If they just played chess with it, the world wouldn't have lost so many lives.