Many consider The Terminator films to be James Cameron’s defining original work, especially when compared to his notable franchise entry, Aliens. In 1984, Cameron introduced a groundbreaking story that anticipated today’s reality, as artificial intelligence has moved from fiction to a major societal topic.
Subsequent Terminator films failed to match the quality of the first two entries. Whether Cameron will direct another remains uncertain as he prioritizes other projects, such as two additional Avatar films following the upcoming Fire & Ash.
However, the Titanic filmmaker revealed that he is indeed working on something in that world, admitting the difficulty of imagining a story centered on robots and artificial intelligence, considering how advanced technology has progressed lately. (Cameron told CBS recently that he finds the idea of AI replacing actors "horrifying.")
“I’ve got a stack of notes this thick [holds fingers about three inches apart], which is how I start all my scripts, on what I want to do with a new Terminator film. I’m going to pour myself into that as a writer. It’s difficult. I have to tell you,” he told Gizmodo. “Science fiction has caught up and is actually overwhelming us at this point. We’re living in a science fiction world, and we’re literally having to deal with problems that in the past only existed in science fiction books and movies. Now we’re living it for real. I’ll never be as prescient as I was back in 1984, of imagining this one, because I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to be happening a year or two years from now. But I at least want to future-proof myself by being a couple of years out.”
Cameron's other confirmed in-development projects include an adaptation of Charles Pellegrino's Ghosts of Hiroshima and Joe Abercrombie's 2025 grimdark fantasy novel The Devils.
Meanwhile, the third Avatar entry, Fire & Ash, will open worldwide on Dec. 19. Advance bookings for IMAX open on Dec. 5.
Interestingly, the first teaser of another of Cameron's biggest contemporaries, Steven Spielberg, is reportedly attached to the screenings of Fire & Ash.