Moviefone Editorial

Tag: james-cameron

  • 7 Things You Need to Know Before Watching ‘Stranger Things’ Season 2

    “Stranger Things” easily ranks among the most popular of Netflix’s many original series, and fans have been waiting more than a year for new episodes to finally hit the streaming service.

    Thankfully, Season 2 is finally dropping on Friday, October 27. Here’s everything you need to know to get ready for the show’s return.

    1. It’s Just in Time for HalloweenNot only is the series conveniently returning in time for Halloween, Season 2 will feature a lot of Halloween trappings itself.

    Season 2 will pick up in October 1984, roughly a year after the return of Will (Noah Schnapp). Early footage showed the series’ young cast dressed as Ghostbusters, so expect plenty of references to period-appropriate pop culture as everyone gets into the holiday spirit.

    2. Everyone’s Back (Except Barb)All of the major surviving characters from the first season are back, including Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, David Harbour as police chief Jim Hopper, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, and Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers.

    Unfortunately, that leaves one notable hole in the lineup. Despite becoming a fan-favorite in Season 1, it doesn’t sound like Shannon Purser’s Barb will be cheating death. That’s already led fans to create the #JusticeforBarb hashtag.

    But then again, you never know what weird twists might unfold on this series.

    3. There Are Two New CharactersBoth of new additions are played by actors with serious ’80s movie pedigrees. First is Sean Astin‘s Bob Newby, a former classmate of Joyce and Hopper, who now runs the local RadioShack. Do we sense a love triangle forming?

    Second is Paul Reiser as Ownes, a Department of Energy representative who is tasked with covering up the strange events that lead us to paying the Upside Down a visit.

    4. There’s a Heavy James Cameron Influence“Stranger Things” proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, with the show owing a huge debt to “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” and the works of Stephen King. However, co-creator Matt Duffer said that Season 2 will be pulling from a different source.

    Duffer revealed to Entertainment Weekly that this season will draw inspiration from James Cameron‘s films, both in terms of their general appeal and Cameron’s willingness to differentiate his sequels from the originals.

    5. Say ‘Hello’ to Hopper’s DaughterWhile much of the focus in Season 1 centered around the search for Will, the series also explored Hopper’s lingering trauma as a father grieving for his dead daughter. Expect that to become an even bigger focus in this new season.

    “Hopper’s daughter will be the primary focus of Season 2, but not in the way that you think it will be,” Harbour told TV Guide. “Hopper’s understanding of that relationship — and Hopper’s understanding of being a father — and of being a man grows deeper and deeper in Season 2, and we get a lot of time to explore what that is, but it won’t be in the literal way that you think it is.”

    6. The Upside Down Is Back (Duh)Don’t think that just because Will is back, he and his friends are done with the twisted realm that is the Upside Down.

    The gang will continue to explore the mysteries of that realm and face a new foe that will “make that Demogorgon look quaint.” Co-creator Ross Duffer also teased that the season will open on a very disturbing note, so get ready for a dark road ahead.

    7. There Are More Seasons PlannedUnsurprisingly, Netflix plans to continue making this show a major part of its TV arsenal. Expect plenty more of the series after Season 2 wraps. At first, the Duffer brothers indicated that they had a four-season road map for the series, but now it sounds as though they may be planning a fifth season, too.

    That’s a good thing, because fans won’t be getting much closure for the next round of episodes. The show will end on another big cliffhanger this year. Hopefully, the wait for Season 3 won’t be quite as long.

  • Kate Winslet Joins ‘Avatar’ Sequels for ‘Titanic’ Reunion With James Cameron

    Director James Cameron(C) and actress Kate WinsletNow please sign Leonardo DiCaprio so our ’90s hearts can go on and on.

    Kate Winslet is following her “Titanic” director James Cameron into the “Avatar” world, Deadline reports, despite Winslet and Cameron maybe not having the best relationship when they made that other top-grossing film. No matter. It’s been since 1997 so time probably healed any wounds.

    Winslet will star as someone called Ronal in the “Avatar” sequels — it’s not clear how many.

    “Kate and I have been looking for something to do together for 20 years, since our collaboration on ‘Titanic,’ which was one of the most rewarding of my career,” Cameron said, via Deadline. “I can’t wait to see her bring the character of Ronal to life.”

    The first “Avatar” film came out in 2009 and became the highest-grossing movie of all time. There are four “Avatar” movies now in production, at a cost of $1 billion. Fans recently got a first look at the young “Avatar 2” stars who’ll be playing Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldana) children, along with kids from another Na’vi clan.

    “Avatar 2” is scheduled for release on Dec. 18, 2020. “Avatar 3” will come out in 2021, followed by “Avatar 4” in 2024, and “Avatar 5” in 2025. Let’s hope the world survives that long!

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  • Lynda Carter Tells James Cameron to Stop ‘Thuggish Jabs’ at ‘Wonder Woman’

    Lynda CarterLynda Carter just told James Cameron to stop sounding off against “Wonder Woman.” In a blistering Facebook post, the actress, who played the superhero on TV in the ’70s, asked for him to drop his “ill-advised thuggish jabs” about the hit movie.

    She also said, “perhaps you do not understand the character. I most certainly do. Like all women — we are more than the sum of our parts… This movie was spot on. Gal Gadot was great. I know, Mr. Cameron–because I have embodied this character for more than 40 years. So — STOP IT.”

    Cameron first dissed Gadot’s Wonder Woman back in August, saying that the character was “an objectified icon” that represented “a step backwards.” In a new interview this week, he repeated the claim, saying, “She’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that’s not breaking ground.”

    Because you can’t be gorgeous and strong? Director Patty Jenkins responded to his initial criticism, saying there is “no right and wrong kind of powerful woman.”

    Carter has been a big supporter of the film, including appearing at the movie’s Hollywood premiere alongside Jenkins and Gadot.

    [Via Variety, MSN]

  • Linda Hamilton Returning for ‘Terminator 2’ Sequel, But ‘Centerpiece’ Will Be 18

    Sarah Connor is back! Linda Hamilton is returning to her iconic “Terminator” role, James Cameron revealed, although he won’t be directing the sequel and an 18-year-old woman will be the “new centerpiece of the new story.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron and the new director, Tim Miller (“Deadpool”), are planning a trilogy that can either stand alone or form an overarching story.

    THR got the scoop on the new installment being made by Skydance and Paramount. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already been confirmed for what’s being treated as a direct sequel to Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” (Sounds like the other sequels, like “Salvation” and “Genisys,” have been terminated.)

    Even with Linda and Ahhhnold, the movie will focus on the next generation. Here’s what Cameron announced at a private event celebrating the “Terminator” franchise (via THR):

    “We’re starting a search for an 18-something woman to be the new centerpiece of the new story. We still fold time. We will have characters from the future and the present. There will be mostly new characters, but we’ll have Arnold and Linda’s characters to anchor it.”

    Cameron recently made headlines taking shots at “Wonder Woman,” making a comparison to Sarah Connor from his own films, inventing a girl-on-girl feud no one wanted. When sharing his news that Hamilton’s Connor will be back, Cameron told his audience, “as meaningful as she was to gender and action stars everywhere back then, it’s going to make a huge statement to have that seasoned warrior that she’s become return.”

    Cameron added, “There are 50-year old, 60-year old guys out there killing bad guys” — possibly referencing the “Mission: Impossible” films, or “Fast & Furious,” “John Wick,” etc. — “but there isn’t an example of that for women.” It would be cool if Helen Mirren or Linda Hamilton had their own action franchise, like 50-something Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise, but if this new trilogy is really following a younger generation, does it even qualify?

    Linda Hamilton is now 60. She made Sarah Connor iconic with her transformation from the timid passive victim of the first 1984 “Terminator” to the incredibly buff badass of 1991’s “T2.” It will be good to see her back, and she’d better have as big a role as ever now that Cameron is out there promoting her as a “seasoned warrior.”

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  • Patty Jenkins Slams James Cameron’s ‘Inability to Understand Wonder Woman’

    Patty JenkinsAfter James Cameron‘s out-of-nowhere diss that “Wonder Woman” is “a step backwards,” Patty Jenkins, who directed “Wonder Woman,” had an epic response.

    In a statement posted to Twitter, she wrote, “James Cameron’s inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising, as, although he is a great filmmaker, he is not a woman.”

    While she thanked him for praising her film “Monster” (which earned a Best Actress Oscar for Charlize Theron), she pointed out he entirely missed why women loved seeing a strong female lead — even if *gasp* she’s attractive. And that for a female lead to be considered “strong,” she doesn’t have to be “hard, tough, and troubled.”

    She added, “There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman.”

    Jenkins wasn’t the only one who objected to Cameron’s putdown, with people on Twitter — including Lena Dunham — pointing out his less-than-praiseworthy treatment of Kate Winslet and ex-wives Linda Hamilton and Kathryn Bigelow, who bested Cameron as Best Director at the 2009 Oscars.

  • James Cameron Criticizes ‘Wonder Woman’: ‘It’s a Step Backwards’

    Opening Night Of Cirque du Soleil's 'Toruk - The First Flight' - ArrivalsJames Cameron has some angry “Wonder Woman” fans on his hands.

    The Oscar-winning director had some harsh criticism for the superhero flick during a recent interview with The Guardian. He went so far as to call the film “a step backwards” and to describe Hollywood’s response to its success as “misguided.”

    “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing!” he said of the heroine. “I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards.”

    While we won’t argue that Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is the perfect feminist film, it seems extreme to suggest the movie is detrimental to women’s representation or somehow worse than what we’ve already seen. At the very least, the movie was the first female-centric superhero blockbuster; it proved that women can carry a superhero movie — big time.

    Also problematic here is how Cameron juxtaposed the film with “The Terminator” to make his point. He brought up his film’s heroine, Sarah Connor (Linda Howard), and said she was “not a beauty icon.” Rather, he says, “she was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit.”

    Sure, Connor was tough and had many interesting character traits, but that is also true of Wonder Woman. Plus, it is hard to make the case that Connor was in no way objectified. (She did, after all, spend a lot of time running around bra-less.) Either way, though, whether or not a character is “a beauty icon” shouldn’t be the litmus test. A character can be simultaneously sexy, strong, beautiful, and empowering.

    Not surprisingly, reactions to Cameron’s comments popped up quickly on Twitter.

    “Wonder Woman” has some warriors on its side, that’s for sure.

    [via: The Guardian]

  • 11 Things You Never Knew About James Cameron’s ‘Terminator 2’

    Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator in 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day.'
    Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator in ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day.’

    It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 25 years since “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” first exploded onto the big screen. Like a good sequel is supposed to, it took everything that was great about the original and dialed it up to (at least) eleventy, while further cementing Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s reputation as one of the great Hollywood badasses.

    In honor of the film returning to theaters this week in a shiny, new 3D release, here are 11 things you need to know about one of the best sequels in the history of ever. Thanks, James Cameron!

    1. Robert Patrick wasn’t actually the first choice to portray the T-1000.

    Cameron originally had his eyes on musician Billy Idol, but Idol had to drop out after having a motorcycle accident.

    2. Cameron also reportedly mulled over the idea of casting “The Terminator” actor Michael Biehn (pictured) as the liquid-metal villain, with the explanation that Skynet had cloned the late Kyle Reese and turned him into a Terminator. Biehn did appear in “T2,” in a deleted scene, where his character came to Sarah Connor in a dream.
    3. Because “Hasta la vista, baby” doesn’t have quite the same impact when the entire film is dubbed in Spanish, the Spanish version of “Terminator 2” changed that line to say “Sayonara, baby.”
    4. Cameron revealed that the biker bar sequence was filmed across the street from where the infamous LAPD beating of Rodney King took place. Apparently the filming was taking place while the beating was happening.
    5. During the filming of that biker bar scene, a random passerby wandered onto set confused as to why Schwarzenegger was walking around wearing nothing but Bermuda shorts. The actor nonchalantly informed her that it was male stripper night at the bar.
    6. Edward Furlong was only 13 when he was cast in the role of John Connor. Not only did he visibly age over the course of the near six-month shoot, but Furlong’s voice also dropped, forcing him to rerecord a great deal of dialogue during post-production.
    7. As effects-driven as this movie was, Cameron relied on twin actors to save time and money whenever scenes called for body doubles. In the scene where the T-1000 is disguised as Sarah Connor, Linda Hamilton played the T-1000 while her sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, played Sarah. The two also appeared during Sarah’s nightmare sequence, with Leslie playing the younger version of Sarah.8. When our heroes are refueling their car after fleeing into the desert, a gas pump can be seen sporting the logo for Benthic Petroleum, the fictional company that owned the oil rig in “The Abyss.” Does this mean the two movies take place in the same universe?
    9. If the mini-gun Schwarzenegger’s T-800 wields during the Cyberdyne shootout looks familiar, that’s because the exact same prop gun was also used by Jesse Ventura’s character in 1987’s “Predator.” Neither character had time to bleed.
    10. While the original “Terminator” was a decent box office success in 1984, this sequel managed to top that gross in its first two days of release. The film went on to become the highest-grossing movie of 1991. (At the time, it was also the most expensive movie ever made.)
    11. The “Terminator 2” Blu-ray includes an alternate ending that showcases the happy, Terminator-free future that the Connors created by defeating Skynet. But as the sequels have shown us, that future never came to pass.
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  • Robert Patrick Recalls His ‘Terminator 2’ Audition in ‘Intense’ Detail

    2017 Summer TCA Tour - CBS Television Studios' Summer Soiree - ArrivalsThe X-Files,” “The Sopranos,” “True Blood,” “Scorpion” — but none of them have been as enduring and instantly iconic as his breakthrough performance as the T-1000 in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

    With audiences getting a chance to revisit “T2” in a new 3D release hitting AMC Theaters on Aug. 25 (followed by 3D and 4K home video editions due in October), Patrick joined Moviefone to reminisce about the role that launched (and still, in many ways, defines his prolific Hollywood career), including fond memories of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a candid reflection on having to step out of the shadow of the larger-than-life role — as well as enjoying his good guy role on “Scorpion” while readying to release his new film “Last Rampage,” which he suggests may be his scariest bad guy since his Terminator days.

    Moviefone: Tell me what life was like when the movie first kind of tripped your radar and you were going in to audition for it. What was happening in your life?

    Robert Patrick: Oh, I was just a broke actor doing an Equity-waiver play over on the Santa Monica Pier. I was on unemployment. My wife was working three jobs. I had done “Die Hard 2,” it was coming out and I was just trying to maintain a positive attitude and hope that something great was going to fall in my lap.

    And all of a sudden I got a call from my agent saying, “Listen, you’re going over to James Cameron’s production office and you’re going to meet [casting director] Mali Finn and all we know is, is that they’re looking for an intense presence. Good luck.”

    You had some good luck! How was the audition? What was that whole process like?

    Well, it’s funny, but I find all this out: Billy Idol was originally cast in the T-1000 role, but he had a motorcycle accident. He broke his leg, so he physically couldn’t do it. It created a vacuum then, they needed to recast him. They had a physical idea of what they wanted the guy to look like, and my agent told them that I was a cross between David Bowie and James Dean — that’s how he described me.

    I walked in wearing all black. I essentially looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the movie, I was wearing black jeans, black t-shirt and a biker jacket from the 1950s, like the one Marlon Brando wore in “The Wild One.” I went in there, and they wanted this intense presence. Mali sat down and I started trying to figure out, “Well, how do I create this intense presence?” So I just decided I was going to try to kill her with my blue eyes.

    I started staring at her, and she looked away, and she looked back and she said, “Oh — whatever you’re doing right there, I want to get that on film.” They took me and they, Steve Quail, who’s now a director, was Jim Cameron’s assistant at the time — he got a video camera and they started filming me. They were saying, “Okay, now, we want you to create this intense presence, you’re this killer. You’re a sense-aware kind of a being, and let’s see you move around.”

    So I fell back into some actor trick-y kind of things, and started thinking like, “How do I do that?” All right, so I start thinking about the animal kingdom and I start thinking about bugs, and I was thinking like cats and predators and eagles and sharks, and how do they move? I slowed everything down and I started moving and I just started moving around, trying to convey that.

    He videoed it and I could tell he was pretty excited about it. I did this one trick with him, where he put the camera behind me and it was back of my head, and I snapped around and looked right down the barrel of the camera as intensely as possible. And I guess that’s the thing that Jim most reacted to, and he went, “Wow, that’s pretty intense!”Robert Patrick as T-1000 in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAYI think that audition perked his interest and the way I looked, I was real lean and I had those big ole ears. You know, he’s looking at me and I think he said this could work. I came back, I got a call that night, they said, “Jim saw your video and wants you to come in and work with him.” I went in and worked with him and he was just great because he was like in this creative free for all of him throwing out all these ideas. Still hadn’t read the script.

    There were no sides [of dialogue] or anything, it was just, “Let me see you move,” and I did all this stuff and it’s essentially what you see in the film, funny enough, so my instincts were right. What I did on those audition days was essentially what they were looking for and the next day they called me and said, “We’re going to let you read the script, you’re going to do a screen test in the cop uniform.” It took me, like, five hours to read the script. Just, you know, trying to wrap my head around it.

    I was just having moments where I was sitting there going, “Oh my God, Terminator — Jesus Christ. How did this happen? How did I get here?” The pressure was mounting and I thought, “Oh God, Jesus, don’t choke. This is so close. You can do this.” I literally walked into Jim’s office after reading it and I set it down on his desk and he took his glasses down, he looked up at me and he said, “Yes?” “I can do this.” He said, “Robert, that’s why you’re here.” There we go. We were off and running, baby.

    It’s no small feat to play an adversary equal to Arnold Schwarzenegger at that moment in time, at the height of his movie stardom. What was the fun of creating that relationship with Arnold onscreen, and also the relationship you had with Arnold when the cameras weren’t rolling?

    I’m going to tell you a funny story: when the movie was done, Arnold invited me to an art thing, a wonderful event, and Joel Kramer, the stunt coordinator from “T2” brought me over to meet Mr. Clint Eastwood. Here I am, this big-eared kid — well, I was a 30-year-old man, but I’m green as green. I’ve just completed this movie and there’s all this excitement around it and then Joel introduces me to Clint. Says, “Robert is the guy that kicks the living crap out of Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘T2.’”

    Clint stuck out his hand, he looked at me and he shook my hand, he went, “Well, that’s certainly a … formidable task.” It just so struck me because here’s one of my screen idols and I’m meeting him and the way he put it, it was just awesome.

    You’re an unknown guy, you’re going against a No. 1 guy, and he’s a guy you admired your whole life. I followed his body building career. His charisma was infectious, just like it is with everybody. He’s a bigger-than-life guy. He came in from Austria. All these successes, all these wonderful things that he’s done. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an amazing, amazing American success story. You’re going to go toe-to-toe with him in his most famous role.

    It was not lost on me, the importance. It was a big deal to me. All the way through the movie I didn’t want to let Jim down, I didn’t want to let Arnold down. It was a big deal. I wanted him to look good. I wanted to be an equal, if not more powerful adversary. I really wanted it to work for him as much as I did for me. That’s kind of how I approached it.

    Now, he was very forthcoming with you know, “Atta boys,” and pats on the back, and in one particular sequence I remember running out of the Pescadero State Prison and I was running through the parking lot. It was right before I hook onto the back of the car and all this kind of stuff. He’s watching me do this sprint, he’s watching me do this stuff over and over and over, seeing me jump and dive and roll and all this crap, and I see the big thumbs up coming from the car. He was, very impressed with my commitment and very, very forthcoming with appreciation for that. It just motivated me to do better.

    Your character in “T2” became almost instantly iconic, and I’m sure that it changed your life and changed your career. Tell me about the upside of having an early role like that be so huge, and tell me where you pushed against it and tried to like not just be pigeon-holed into doing that over and over again.

    I’m going to give you a big answer, from a philosophical point of view as a 58-year-old man who looks back in time and says, “What was it like?” It’s interesting because I was a total unknown, then all of a sudden I’m known — but I’m not known, the character’s known. The character’s iconic, the actor’s not. “Who is that guy that played that part? I don’t know.”

    So, on the one hand, I couldn’t walk around anywhere without people recognizing me, on the other hand they had no idea who I was. So when I’d walk into an office to get another job, it wasn’t happening. People weren’t going to hire me. It was like the only thing I was getting offered was, “Go play another robot, or go play another you know cyborg.” And I was like, “I can’t do that.”

    I remember I got a Budweiser commercial offered — to sell Budweiser as T-1000. And I said, “I can’t do that. That’s not me. That’s not who I am. There’s more to me than that. It’s just a performance. What have I got to do?”

    I gained some weight and I grew my hair long and I kind of got depressed about it. It was like a year and a half before I could get some work. And I thought to myself, “God, is this a f*cking fluke? How can that be? How can it be that I get such a great opportunity but then no one wants to hire me, I mean, I did the job too well? What the f*ck?”Robert Patrick as Mike Rogers in FIRE IN THE SKYThen I got a movie. [Producer] Cassian Elwes actually cast me in a movie, “The Cool Surface,” and I had long hair. It was me and Teri Hatcher, it was a low budget movie, I did it and I was happy with the performance. I walked into [director] Rob Lieberman, and I auditioned for “Fire in the Sky,” I got that role. Rob Lieberman was like, “I don’t believe that’s the guy from ‘T2’ — that’s not the same guy that played the Terminator. No, that’s a different guy!” “No, that is me.” “That’s you?” So things started rolling. I did that movie for Paramount, for Rob Lieberman, “Fire in the Sky,” and things started rolling.

    You’re an actor, you’re trying to make a living, you only have access to material that people are going to provide you. You only get access to material after other people that are up on the food chain that are bigger and more powerful pass on it — they get access to the quality stuff and you got to kind of sift through there and find what you can and make a living as an actor. So I would do some direct-to-video movies, and what I would call art movies. Art movies, and exploitation-type films. You try to get a good studio film here and there, and you do your battle as an actor. You go out there and fight for whatever you can and hopefully, you know, the chips fall where they can.

    Now, as I look back, I’ve had a really, really good run. I’ve had some wonderful movies, and some wonderful opportunities, and I’ve worked with some great people. So it’s weird. It’s kind of like you’re introduced to the world as a bad guy — “Is that the only way people are going to see me? Will they ever see me, because I could be a love interest. I could do this …” You kind of battle yourself and go, “How do I create an opportunity in another way?” So I don’t want that to sound like I’m not grateful, because I am hugely grateful and I know the only reason you’re talking to me is because of that movie. Everything that’s come after is a result, but you know, it has its challenges.Robert Patrick as Agent Cabe Gallo in CBS's SCORPIONOne of those results is “Scorpion.” As you’re coming into a new season, what’s been kind of exciting and challenging to continue to be a part of that series?

    Oh, I love being a part of this series! This series has so many challenges for me. It’s a wonderful thing, it’s certainly something that I’m really thrilled to be doing right now. I’m so grateful for the success. I love the comedic aspects of it. I love the chemistry of the cast. We have a really, really unique chemistry. It’s hard to explain — we’re all so uniquely different and the writers have really found a way to write for us.

    I just love my role of a curmudgeonly old guy that still gets in there and fights for his kids and has values, and he’s got a heart of gold. He’s rough around the edges. It’s just, it’s fun. Every day going to work is fun. The grind of TV is a challenge in itself, but I love it. I’m so, so thrilled to be on “Scorpion” and I love making it. You can’t take it too serious — it’s just pure entertainment. God knows when you watch the news right now, if we need anything right now, we just need some fun and some entertainment.

    You’ve played many good guys like since “T2,” but it looks like you’ve got another epic bad guy coming up in a movie we’re going to see next month, “Last Rampage.” Tell me a little bit about finding a new big-screen bad guy persona.

    Well, this is probably the darkest character I’ve ever played in my life. It resonated with me on so many different levels. It’s a true story. It’s a story of a father who raised three boys while he was locked up in prison on double murder charges — two life sentences for a murder — and of his domineering personality, of his charisma, of using his own boys to break out of prison, their love and loyalty that he develops from prison, with the help of his god-fearing wife played by Heather Graham.Robert Patrick as Gary Tison in LAST RAMPAGEAnd then once they break him out, the betrayal by my own brother of not providing me with the things that he was supposed to provide me with to allow me to escape to Mexico according to my plan. I go on this rampage where seven people are murdered. It’s all about me trying to get my freedom.

    When you go on hiatus from the show that you do 10 months out of the year, where you’re playing a good guy, you got the heart of gold, and you’re a good guy that leads a team of geniuses and takes care of them. It’s great fun and you enjoy it, then you get this free time where you try to fill it creatively with something completely at the opposite end of the spectrum. Total juxtaposition from what you do for the majority of the year. I look for something I can really sink my teeth into and take me into a whole other direction, and this just fell together.

    God I’m really, really proud of the movie. I can’t wait for people to see it, and it is very disturbing. It was disturbing to me when I watched it. I am a monster. You know, I just can’t wait for people to see it. It’s very compelling. It’s very, it’s so complex — of family loyalty, betrayal, you know. A horrible, horrible story.

    Ironically enough, because it’s such a brother story, my real-life brother composed the music, and he was the former guitarist of Nine Inch Nails, went on to become a platinum, multi-platinum recording artist himself with a band called Filter. In the ’90s, he had a big song, “Hey Man, Nice Shot, Take a Picture”. He does one of his first film compositions. I think he did a beautiful job with the music. I’m excited for people to hear it.

  • Joe Morton’s ‘T2’ Memories, ‘Scandal’ Farewell, and ‘Justice League’ Hopes

    Portraits From ABC Television Group's All-Star Cocktail Reception and Interview Opportunity During the 2017 TCA Summer Press TouTwenty-six years ago, Joe Morton‘s on-screen alter ego was being hunted by a powerful cyborg recruited to save the world. In a nice bit of synchronicity, before the end of this year the actor’s film persona will be mentoring his son, a powerful cyborg, to save the world.

    There have been plenty of roles in between his turn as Skynet’s inadvertent creator Miles Bennett Dyson in “Scandal” — but Morton remembers well what a significant boost that James Cameron‘s muscular mega-hit gave to his career.

    With that landmark film — long considered one of the best action films ever made, a rare sequel that topped its high-concept original and a quantum leap forward for early digital effects — about to be released in 3D in AMC theaters across the country Aug. 25 (along with 3D and 4K home video editions arriving this fall), Morton joined Moviefone to reflect on the making of the movie and the impact it had on him, as well as to provide glimpses ahead into the forthcoming final season of “Scandal” and his place in the DC Extended Universe.

    Moviefone: When you made “Terminator 2,” you had already done your share of acting work in film, television, and on stage. But what was the eye-opening, very different thing that you found while you were making this particular movie?

    Joe Morton: I think the first thing that impressed me was I’d never worked on a film quite that large before. I was coming from “Brother From Another Planet,” which was basically a $360,000 budget. To suddenly walk into a film that’s budgeted for millions, that was pretty impressive to me.

    Just before we finished shooting my death scene, for instance, James decided that he wanted to take a look at something, with no cameras on. The scene that follows my eye as Linda [Hamilton] crawls across to the other side of the laboratory, and the SWAT team blows out the windows with their machine guns. He blew out those windows with no cameras running, simply so he could see what it looked like. And I thought that was very impressive. I had never been around that kind of expenditure before.Miles Dyson, in a lot of ways, is the most human and the most relatable character that we get in the movie. How did you find your way into him? Was there a reference point that helped your understanding of him?

    The first thing that James did is he gave us a whole bunch of material for artificial intelligence. And then, as you say, because he is sort of the most human character, it was fairly simple just to sort of navigate through what happens to him. He’s leading kind of a normal life. He’s awe-inspired by the machinery that’s he’s either developed or discovered.

    Then suddenly, these people invade his home, only to discover that these invaders are in fact what he’s been researching, in terms of Arnold’s character. It was a pretty straightforward kind of thing, where you realize, where this character realizes what science is capable of, what it will do if he allows it to grow, and what he has to stop.

    Was the movie a game-changer for you, career-wise?

    I think it certainly helped. I wasn’t that well-established. “The Brother From Another Planet” had happened, and a couple of other films had happened. I was doing a television series at the time, which was fairly popular.

    Yes, I felt as if I was on my way up, and certainly, “Terminator 2” was a huge lift, if you will. It was seen around the world…I can’t tell you the number of people who walk up to me during the course of a particular day and talk about how much they love “Terminator 2.”

    It was obviously a huge hit at the time, but when did you start to get a sense that it was a movie for the ages — one that people were going to watch over and over again for who knows how long?

    I’m not sure when that actually hit me. The fact that it was an enormous success, I think it was several days after the movie opened. I was on the Third Street Promenade, and a bunch of guys ran out of a restaurant, The Beanery, and ran out to compliment me on the death scene in “Terminator 2.” That was shocking. That had never happened to me before. People had come up and said they saw my work and they liked my work, but to come up and talk to me about a specific scene, that was something new and different…My son and I were once sort of surrounded by a whole bunch of kids who had just seen the movie. So I think it was around all that time that I realized, “Oh, maybe this is a big one.”

    It’s nice to have a hit, and it’s really nice to have something catch fire in pop culture, which you had a second time around with “Scandal,” in particular. Here you are about to see it go off into the sunset. What has that experience meant to you to have “Scandal” come at this point in your career?

    “Scandal” has just been amazing, from all kinds of perspectives. The writers are just astounding. The cast itself – we’re very lucky in that we are a group of people who really and truly enjoy working with one another.

    I know you may hear that from lots of actors, but this is actually true! This group of people actually enjoys working with one another. All of us are theater actors, and so we speak the same language when it comes to working a script. It’s just been great. And career-wise, one could not ask for anything more. After my first full season on the show, I was honored with an Emmy. So obviously, “Scandal” has been an enormous deal in my life.

    Protecting secrets as you must, tell me a little bit about your experience making this final season. Give me a little of your perspective on bringing everything to a close.

    The emotions are running very high. It’s like when you’re doing a play, and you know that tonight, for instance, is closing night. So you think, “Every time I speak a line from this play will be the last time I’ll speak this line.” So I think that’s kind of where we’re at with “Scandal.”

    We know that this season, every time we go through an episode, every time we go through a scene, that we know that will be the last time that kind of thing will happen with this show. So my feeling is that, by the time we get to the last episode of Season 7, people are going to be kind of filled with all kinds of emotions.

    What was it about this character that fascinated you as the actor playing him, all the way to the end? What kind of kept you excited about being him?

    The only thing I knew originally was that I was going to be introduced as Olivia’s father. So that in itself was exciting. At that point, it wasn’t clear to me where they were going to take the character. So I wasn’t quite sure, until the beginning of Season 3, when Shonda [Rhimes] wrote that incredible monologue about the “hell and the high water.” I thought, Oh, if this is the guy, then this is going to be a lot of fun. Someone who knows how to use language the way he does, someone who deals with the kind of power that he does.

    And it was a day-to-day learning experience, because, you know, they don’t tell us anything until we actually sit down at a table read. That’s how we know what’s going to happen next. So for a little while, it was really just kind of learning on the job, if you will, about who this guy was, depending on what they gave me to do, and all of those incredible scenes with Olivia out in the park sort of gave me the answers that I was looking for.

    Many people are very excited to see you show up in “Justice League.” Why was that something that you were excited to do? I know there’s been some tweaking, but what can you say about the storyline between the Stones?

    The thing I love about “Justice League” is: one, it’s not only interstellar, if you will, it’s global. It goes all over the world. The particular storyline that I’m involved in, which is Cyborg, I love because for Ray [Fisher], the guy who actually plays Cyborg, it’s an opportunity to talk about what it’s like to be “the other,” even if what you have to offer the world is awesome.

    I think that there are lots of black people, lots of people with color, lots of women, lots of people who are considered “the other,” who can look at this character and can look at what he and I will go through together in the film, as a great metaphor for how to accept and overcome the obstacles of being “the other.”What’s your take on Silas Stone? In the comics, I know he’s been a little colder in some incarnations. He’s been a little more supportive of his son in others. Where are you coming at it from?

    This is a little bit more supportive, I would think. This Silas realizes that he was not there for his son, which is the motivating force to rebuild his son, and then even after rebuilding, he’s looking for a way to teach him, not only how to use the powers that he has, but to understand how those powers can be used for the greater good.

    You’re working with, on that film, two world-class filmmakers. How did that experience compare to your memories of “Terminator 2”?

    Both Zack [Synder] and Joss [Whedon] are very different guys. I think that world is very different. I think that directors who make comics book [films], their sort of approach to shooting is a lot lighter, is a lot more laid back, a lot more collaborative. Whereas I think when you’re doing action-adventure, and you have that kind of budget, if James is an example, the pressures sort of tend to find their way out in terms of you yelling at everybody else on the floor.

    The couple of action-adventure directors that I’ve worked with both sort of followed that category, whereas the directors, both Joss and Zack, were very different than James in so many different ways.

  • Josh Brolin Tries to Clarify Quotes on James Cameron & Turning Down ‘Avatar’

    Disney's D23 EXPO 2017Josh Brolin is not the kind of guy you want to tick off, hence his casting as both Thanos and Cable in the superhero universe. He seems upset about how the James Cameron quotes in his Esquire profile were interpreted. That much is clear. However, it’s not clear if he’s mad that the quotes were taken out of context in the profile itself, or in subsequent posts suggesting a feud, or both, or what. He even just posted “I don’t know him” of Cameron, which confuses it all further. What the hell was he talking about then?

    For your own context, here’s that part of the lengthy Esquire profile, starting with a quote from “Only the Brave” director Joseph Kosinski:

    “My first impression of Josh,” Kosinski tells me, “was how honest he was. He’s genuinely a good dude.” After five minutes with Brolin, you can see what Kosinski means. Brolin not only tells me about turning down a role in the sequel to Avatar, he also has no problem admitting the decision caused tension between him and the director. “If I don’t want to do Avatar,” he says, “I’m not going to do Avatar. James Cameron’s f*cking calling me this name and that name. Whatever. If James Cameron came to me and said, ‘Hey, man, why’d you say that?’ I’d go, ‘Because it happened.’”

    Did it happen, or was that just an example of what he’d say? The line about James Cameron calling Josh Brolin names made the media rounds after the profile came out, and in a new Instagram post, Brolin tried to clarify the situation:

    Fans enjoyed his little jab at the press, but what was he doing talking about James Cameron in the first place if he doesn’t know him, and what was the full context of that “Avatar” story? Maybe he’s just afraid to make James Cameron angry, since he’s also someone you really don’t want to tick off.

    Brolin’s “Only the Brave” comes out October 20. He’ll later return as Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War” on May 4, 2018, and debut as Cable in “Deadpool 2” on June 1, 2018.

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