The possibility of Josh Brolin playing a terminator in the onerously titled Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins is not enough to boost my interest above the “Can’t It Just Go Away?” level, but if McG isn’t just floating some dream casting via the two-one-three, I guess I’m happy for Brolin’s bank account. Not that he needs my fiscally motivated glad tidings; the guy’s married to freakin’ Diane Lane.
Here’s the salient passage from the interview that’s got everyone in a tizzy this morning (provided they’re not preoccupied with the Super Duper Tuesday results, the half-mile wide tornado that tore up the south last night, Heath Ledger’s autopsy findings, or Shaquille O’Neal inexplicably getting traded to the Phoenix Suns):
(213): Come on, who would be McG’s “dream Terminator”?!
McG: You know, those are big shoes to fill. If you go back and look at the first picture it’s so funny because there’s such a decided difference between what Arnold was doing in the first picture and in the second and third picture. I mean there’s this decided physicality – look what Robert Patrick did to get ready for the role. He’s a guy who I adore, I put him in every movie I’ve ever done. And it’s very difficult to say because it’s a decidedly masculine role and I think we’re living in a time where a lot of actors are very effeminate and they’re sort of skinny, heroine chic and there’s really a masculine component to the role. And there’s guys out there like Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, bring a good physicality, they do what they do, but I don’t know if they’re exactly right at the end of the day. (Smiles) Josh Brolin is a very exciting actor – we’ll see.
I agree, McG! It’s just too bad he’s booked Milk and Bush for the first half of ’08. When were you hoping to head into production again?
Brolin would join Christian Bale, who’s already been cast as that perpetual target of robotized assassination, John Conner. The involvement of Brolin and Bale suggests that the screenplay from David C. Wilson and the reliably mediocre writing team of Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato might actually be decent. I doubt I’ll ever read the sucker to find out my damn self, but I’d certainly prefer an above-average Terminator movie to a run-of-the-mill summer event flick. But the number of behind-the-camera craftsmen who’d have to raise their game considerably to make this a reality leaves me doubting. Hey, prove me wrong, fellas!