Today’s news is not exactly a surprise – Tim Miller’s name has been closely associated with reboot rumours swirling around the Terminator franchise since he stepped away from the helm of Deadpool 2. But now, Skydance has made its official announcement indicating that, not only is the project – popularly referred to as Terminator 6 – moving full-steam ahead, but that the visual effects expert will be calling the shots.
The announcement came in the form of an open invitation – shared across social media and publicized by fan-site Skynet’s Army – to attend a 3D screening of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The September 19th event will apparently include a conversation with James Cameron and Tim Miller.
“Join filmmakers James Cameron and Tim Miller on the Paramount Lot for an exclusive conservation with The Hollywood Reporter’s Matt Belloni about their collaboration on the upcoming Terminator.”
So far, there’s been mixed reactions to the idea of further Terminator movies, but it’s important to note that the developing project will mark the first franchise involvement of original creator Cameron since the 1991 release of his classic Terminator sequel. James Cameron himself is busily working on several Avatar sequels simultaneously, but has clearly committed to the notion of Tim Miller directing the new Terminator film.
Furthermore, it’s been suggested that the narrative of this reboot will return to the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and bypass the decidedly lacklustre sequels that followed – something that’s entirely possible in a story arc that involves time-travelling robots.
Aside from the return of James Cameron, it’s particularly noteworthy that Tim Miller is the director of choice here. Any Terminator movie is a very high profile project, and yet, this will be only Miller’s second feature length film as director. Clearly, 2016’s Deadpool was a giant critical and commercial success, but it’s still quite a promotion to move from delivering a debut film, to shepherding a Terminator reboot. It’s the combination of his Deadpool success and his experience in visual effects that stand him in good stead here, though.
More importantly, however, Tim Miller’s Deadpool is a film that achieved a great deal of spectacle with a relatively low budget, and a small cast. His selection as director therefore raises the question of whether it’s the intention of James Cameron to return the Terminator franchise to the nature and aesthetic of its real roots – being the low-budget 1984 film The Terminator. If so, Terminator 6 could legitimately be the kind of resuscitation this ailing series so desperately needs.