The machines are rising again, and this time on the Fox Network. The broadcast channel has made a pilot commitment to a new series spinning off from the Terminator films. Yup, a Terminator series.
Except without a Terminator. The show will be called The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and will take place after the events of T2, when Sarah Connor took off with John. Linda Hamilton isn’t expected to be involved with the show.
And neither is Arnold Schwarzenegger, no matter how badly Tuesday’s ballots were for him. The show won’t be just a shoot-em-up (seems the budget’s low, at least compared to the movies), but don’t rule out some sort of machine menace. Josh Friedman, a very good blogger and the original writer of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, as well as the upcoming adaptation of The Black Dahlia, is creating and running he series, and says that the time travel and alternate future concepts will allow him to play around with a few things. So don’t be too surprised to see another model of Terminator come through time, or perhaps for two more astronauts to land and for Galen to try to hide them from General Urko.
There’s more – the series is being designed to tie in with the fourth Terminator film, which is in "the final phases of development.” It’s also being seen as the first in a whole new trilogy of Terminator films.
"The last thing I want to do is take a title and exploit it," Friedman said. "The show needs to stand on its own while still being respectful of the franchise… There’s going to be a healthy dose of both (action and family drama)," Friedman said, noting that the "Terminator" mythology "has a lot of big ideas in it that don’t cost you a dime to explore.”