Dakota Johnson is 'Forever, Interrupted'; Douglas Smith Joins 'Terminator'; Kate Beckinsale Enters 'The Disappointments Room'

* Dakota Johnson is reaping the benefits of starring in Fifty Shades of Grey, as she's now developing her own separate projects. She's set to produce and star in Forever, Interrupted, an adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid's book about a woman who must come to grips with the sudden death of her loving husband, a man she eloped with after a whirlwind romance. Part of that is learning to forge a connection with his mother, who she never knew existed.

* Douglas Smith (Big Love, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters) has joined Alan Taylor's Terminator reboot in an unspecified role. Filming is currently underway with Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jai Courtney starring. Look for it to open on July 1st 2015. [Deadline]

* D.J. Caruso has landed Kate Beckinsale for the lead in The Disappointments Room, a psycho-thriller and ghost story that is being compared to The Shining. The apparently true story follows Dana (Beckinsale) her  husband, and 5-year-old son who move into their dream home only to discover a secret room hidden in the attic. When unexplained events lead her to unlocking the room, she unleashes  "a host of unimaginable horrors that reveal the house’s past is terrifyingly tied with her own".

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'Doctor Who' Matt Smith Takes Major Role in 'Terminator' Reboot

The time-traveling worlds of Doctor Who and Terminator are about to converge in a way nobody would have predicted. The film formerly titled Terminator: Genesis (it could be again, just not right now) has just added former Doctor Who Matt Smith to the cast in what is said to be a major role.

Smith will play a totally “a new character with a strong connection to John Connor." What that means exactly is anybody's guess but his part is said to grow throughout the trilogy. Jason Clarke is set for the role of future savior John Connor, with Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as a Terminator, with J.K. Simmons, Lee Byung-hun, and Dayo Okeniyi co-starring.

The Terminator reboot is directed by Alan Taylor and opens July 1st 2015. 

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Has the 'Terminator' Reboot Title Been Revealed?

The search for a young actress to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator reboot is ongoing, and a TV series may be in the works, but the film still needs an inspiring title. Unfortunately, it isn't getting one as Production Weekly says it will be titled Terminator: Genesis. As dull as that may be, it at least has some relation to the rumored plot, which is more than can be said for other subtitles such as 'Retaliation' and 'Reloaded'.

Early reports have suggested the film, the first part of a brand new trilogy, will be an origin story that shows us a young Sarah Connor and her first encounter with the killer robot of the future. Brie Larson and Emilia Clarke are the frontrunners for the role, with Alan Taylor looking like a sure thing as director. Sarah Connor's son John Connor will be cast later, and so will her protector from the future, Kyle Reese. Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning, as well, and there's the chance he'll be playing a human who comes to her aid and later forms the model for the T-800 Terminator.

If all that holds up then Terminator: Genesis makes a lot more sense. Whatever it's called, look for the film to begin shooting early next year and hit theaters July 2nd 2015.

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'Terminator' Reboot to Get Tie-In TV Series

So how did that whole Sarah Connor Chronicles thing work out, anyway? Not very well, and it certainly didn't do anything to expand the Terminator franchise during the television series' brief two-season run a few years ago. But with a reboot in the works and Arnold Schwarzenegger coming back as the cyborg killer/defender/whatever, all eyes are on Terminator once again and that means a return to TV.

THR reports X-men: First Class writers Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller have been brought on to pen a new Terminator TV series that will tie-in to the upcoming big screen trilogy. How exactly is that going to work? The new show will follow an important moment from James Cameron's original film, but will take that moment in a very different direction. Eventually the narratives of the reboot movies and the TV show will intersect in unexpected ways.

Pretty bold idea, especially in light of the difficulties Marvel has faced trying much the same thing with Agents of SHIELD. It could pay off huge if audiences flock to it, but if it flops early it could throw things off-track for the movies, too.

Terminator is set to hit theaters July 1st 2015.

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Brie Larson or Emilia Clarke will be Sarah Connor in 'Terminator' Reboot

While plot details on the Terminator reboot remain non-existent, the search for an actress to play Sarah Connor has come down to two. Last month it was Emilia Clarke, Brie Larson, and Margot Robbie vying for the role of the woman who will give birth to future freedom fighter John Connor, and now Deadline reports Robbie is out of the running.

That leaves Larson and Clarke as the final choices for director Alan Taylor, who is hoping to lock down the Sarah Connor role before deciding on actors to play John Connor and Kyle Reese. Larson probably has the most heat behind her at the moment, recently winning Best Actress for her performance in Short Term 12. Clarke may have the edge considering her work with Taylor on HBO's Game of Thrones, or at least that's what Deadline seems to think.

Tom Hardy is the model Universal has in mind for John Connor, with Boyd Holbrook and Garrett Hedlund among those rumored for it. As for Kyle Reese, we've heard Nicholas Hoult and Taylor Kitsch, although I doubt anybody would have a problem if Anton Yelchin reprises the part from Terminator Salvation? It won't happen but a guy can wish.

Whatever the future holds, Terminator is set to open July 2nd 2015.

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'Terminator' Casting Rumors Include Emilia Clarke, Brie Larson, and Garrett Hedlund

There are more questions than answers when it comes to the next Terminator film. Is it a reboot? A sequel? A little of both? What will Arnold Schwarzenegger be doing exactly? Will he battle The Rock? Will it be set in the 1950s? Is Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) directing? And now we can add a few more rumors to the pile as some names are emerging for the lead roles.

According to Schmoes Know, Brie Larson, Emilia Clarke, and Margot Robbie are vying to play Sarah Connor, while Garrett Hedlund and Boyd Holbrook could be her all-important son, John Connor. The fact that all of these contenders are the same age could be telling as it suggests multiple timelines may be at play. Or we could see a situation where John runs across his younger-aged mother, or some variation on that idea.

Robbie will be seen next in The Wolf of Wall Street so she's due for a break out soon. Larson is coming off of the excellent Short Term 12, while Clarke is familiar with the director having worked with him on Game of Thrones. Hedlund's a pretty boring choice to do anything, frankly, but this would be a significant part for Holbrook, who last appeared in The Host.

So what do you think? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Let us know your thoughts.

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'Game of Thrones' Director Alan Taylor to Helm Next 'Terminator' Film

HBO's Game of Thrones continues to offer up a wealth of opportunities for everyone involved. We've seen a number of the Starks and Greyjoys make the move to the big screen, while director Alan Taylor has jumped over to Marvel's Thor: The Dark World, where he's bringing much of the same medieval-fantasy look to Asgard. Now as that film prepared to open this fall, Taylor has just been tasked with helming Paramount and Annapurna Pictures' long-developing Terminator reboot.

Designed as the first in a brand new trilogy, details on the film are still under wraps although Arnold Schwarzenegger is confirmed to appear in some capacity. Whether that's as one of the indestructible robotic killers or a human protector is still unknown, but at least he won't be all CGI like in Terminator Salvation. This will be Taylor's first feature in more than a decade, and according to Variety he wasn't exactly the studio's first choice. We knew that Justin Lin had been attached some time ago, but the story says that Rian Johnson, Ang Lee, and  Denis Vileneuve (Prisoners) were all approached at various points.

Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier are penning Terminator for release on June 26th 2015.

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Next 'Terminator' Film To Reboot A New Trilogy Beginning In 2015

With four Terminator movies and a short-lived TV series already out there, each of varying quality and with mind-boggling amounts of time travel craziness, the next film would have had a lot to draw from. The challenge for producers was finding a way to deal with the different continuities and the general dislike of Terminator Salvation. It turns out the simplest answer is the one Paramount, Annapurna Pictures, and Skydance Productions have decided to go with, announcing today that the next film will be a complete franchise reboot, kicking off on July 26th 2015.

The press release refers to the film as simply Terminator, and also reveals that it will be the beginning of a brand new "stand alone trilogy", giving the impression that there will be absolutely no connection to the world James Cameron began in 1984. The rights revert to Cameron fully in 2019, which is why their under the gun to get these done now. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already confirmed he's coming back as the Terminator, and this reboot should make it more palatable to see him as the indestructible robot again. Or, maybe that rumored 1950s-set storyline involving Dwayne Johnson has some validity, after all? It certainly sounded like the plan for a complete starting over of the franchise rather than a continuation.

Add another blockbuster film to a jam-packed 2015 in which every major tentpole will be represented in some way. Probably not the best environment to try and launch a new franchise, but there's no time to sit around and wait. A director still needs to be locked in before the expected early 2014 start date.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger Confirms His 'Terminator 5' Role; Filming Begins in January

The Terminator always said he would be back, but nobody expected he would come back looking quite this old. Arnold Schwarzenegger has long said he would return for Terminator 5 when it happens, and largely due to his age, many expected that it would be as a human character, or voicing a CGI version of the killer robot. There's been a lot of movement on the film of late, and the latest info comes from Schwarzenegger himself, who has cleared up his role once and for all.

Schwarzenegger has revealed that not only will he playing the Terminator in the next film, but that shooting is scheduled to begin in January....

Schwarzenegger: "...I’m very happy that the studios want me to be in Terminator 5 and to star AS the Terminator, which we start shooting in January and I’m also going to do King Conan – to play that role and also to do another Twins movie. So I feel very proud of that. I feel very happy and I’m looking forward to doing those films."

While a director is still being sought, writers Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis came aboard earlier this year, to go along with Paramount Pictures who will be handling distribution. Justin Lin had been slated to direct but couldn't find time for that and Fast & Furious 6. But now that he's left that franchise perhaps he'll reconsider? It'll be interesting to see what approach is taken, and whether Terminator Salvation will be treated as if it never happened. [The Arnold Fans]

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Justin Lin forced to drop out of directing Terminator 5

Envy Justin Lin. The director has come so far since he first acclaimed film, Better Luck Tomorrow, a brilliant little indie(backed later by MTV) about a group of Asian-Americans caught up in the world of petty crime. Since then, Lin has moved on to much bigger and more lucrative projects, like basically being the driving force(along with Vin Diesel) behind the Fast and the Furious franchise. That has made him quite popular, and recently he was chosen to be the man to spearhead Arnold Schwarzenegger's return in Terminator 5.

Unfortunately, Deadline is now reporting that Lin's busy schedule prepping the sixth F&F film will prevent him from directing the next Terminator.  The plan being hatched by rights owner Megan Ellison and Schwarzenegger is to kick off two potential flicks starting in the fourth quarter of 2012. There are still a lot of roadblocks preventing that from happening, like the fact there's no script, no studio, and well...now no director. Lin had been very involved with getting the film underway, working with Schwarzenegger and getting input from James Cameron.

Deadline also notes that Ellison may be in a rush to get things underway, due to some potential rights issues that will crop up in the next few years. Mainly that some of the rights will revert back to James Cameron(whether he wants them or not) in 2018. It could take years to get two Terminator films made, so this could get sticky very soon. Lin suggests that he'd definitely come back if Ellison and Co. can push the production back until after he finishes Fast Six or whatever it'll be called. 

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New Terminator film with Schwarzenegger attached in the works; Justin Lin to direct

There isn't enough steel wool in the world to help scrub the images of Arnold Schwarzenegger's idiotic cartoon, The Governator, out of my brain. Fortunately, Arnie appears to finally be ready to help me remember why I used to like him to begin with. Deadline is reporting that a package is being shopped right now for a fifth film in the Terminator franchise, with Arnold attached to star in some way.  Justin Lin(Fast Five), who Universal had been pushing to direct any future Terminator flicks, is attached as well.

The Terminator rights have been scattered to a number of holders over the last couple of years, which I really don't want to get into right now. What you have now is a situation where studios are going to have to shell out some big time loot, somewhere around $25M and up, just to pick up the rights and make the movie. Deadline says that Sony, Universal, and Lionsgate are very interested, although it should be noted that the price tag had them all backing away last year. The last Terminator flick, Terminator Salvation, was hardly as much of a success as it's $371M gross would have you think. Supposedly there are no writers attached to the new film, but a number of scripts are floating out there.

So while the idea of another Terminator movie with Schwarzenegger is enough to keep me up all night with the potential awesomeness of it, there is a lot of work left to do and questions to be answered. Will the new film follow the Terminator Salvation story, or start fresh? Will a studio risk such a big chunk of cash for a franchise that has seen better days? Only time will tell.

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Universal wants Justin Lin to direct next Terminator film?

Justin Lin is finding himself in the driver's seat lately, thanks to his highly profitable work crafting the last three Fast and the Furious flicks for Universal Pictures.  In fact, his success could possibly force him to cross paths with a certain ex-California governor looking to make his way back into acting.  According to Deadline, Lin is Universal's choice to head up the next flick in the much loved Terminator franchise. 


Ever since the disappointing results from 2009's Terminator Salvation, most of the activity surrounding the franchise has been behind the scenes. You might recall all the bankruptcy stuff from last year(covered only very briefly here because me and numbers don't mix), but the end result was that the Terminator rights ended up in the hands of Pacificor.  With that outcome, the connection to the last film(distributed by Columbia Pictures and Warner Brothers), the first part of a proposed trilogy directed by McG, was essentially severed. So what could the Lin-helmed flick possibly be about? 

Well, the answer to that question remains unclear.  The biggest thing is that whatever shape it takes, there's a serious clamoring to get Arnold Schwarzenegger back in leather jackets and metal exo-skeletons. With the Governator stating his desire to jump back into acting, his participation in any Terminator film is a no brainer. Universal would want to pair Lin up with his Furious screenwriter, Chris Morgan(who also wrote Wanted), but Lin might be tied up with the Highlander relaunch. Pacifico hasn't struck a deal with Universal or anybody else for distribution rights, so who knows how this will play out.  And even if this does come together, would they just ignore Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation? 

Well let's hope not. Afterall, there are still the treatments for possible fifth and sixth Terminator movies, written by Terminator co-creator William Wisher. Those have been floating around for well over a year now, and would continue with the Terminator Salvation world.  Thanks to Deadline for the reminder about those, and a refresher on exactly what they entail....

His version continued the post-apocalyptic battleground scenario from Terminator Salvation, but added in the element of time travel. There was a reunion for Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese beyond their brief encounter in the original, and a role for Schwarzenegger in the finale. There were also plenty of hi-tech killers, including a swarm of “Night Crawlers,” 4 1/2-foot tall border sentries that are set like mines to spring up out of the ground and ambush rebel fighters with 10 MM pistols built into their wrists, and fingers and feet that are razor sharp. Also fresh off the Skynet assembly line in Wisher’s version are new shape-shifting cyborgs that can morph together in Transformers-like mode, and are more lethal than anything seen in previous Terminator installments. The blueprint also set out a resolution in mankind’s struggle with Skynet.

Hard to believe anybody would want to abandon a franchise that could potentially see Christian Bale duking it out with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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X-men vs. Terminator fan made trailer

Fan made trailers are always fun. Some are downright awful, but others are far more creative than anything the studios crank out. Plus we typically get crap we'll never ever get a chance to see, such as this one featuring everybody's favorite mutants against all our favorite Terminators....and Kristanna Loken. Starts off a little slow, and the music sounds like it was ripped from an 8-bit cartridge of Kid Nikki, but it picks up steam and comes to a nice, exciting finale. 

Check it out and let us know what you think. Thanks to ShadesatKnight for the video!

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Animated Terminator? Hold your horses...

Ok, so that story about the Terminator animated flick from a couple of days ago? It might not be happening. Turns out that Hanover House, the production company looking to make the $70M feature doesn't have the rights to do so. I think we all kinda suspected that, but assumed a deal had been in place already. Apparently not, as Pacificor LLC, the actual Terminator rights holders, shot off a cease and decist letter demanding any production be shuttered.

Sounds like Hanover House got a little bit ahead of itself. They're only hope now is to come to some sort of accord with Pacifico. So expect to hear more details about this in the next week or two.  Any deal would have to include a pretty hefty licensing fee for Pacifico, which Hanover House already seems willing to provide.

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The next Terminator film might not be what you think

Hey, I know a good way to erase the bitter taste from Terminator Salvation out of everybody's mouths! Make the next Terminator film a PG-13 rated animated flick! Huh??  As lousy as that potentially sounds, it could happen if Hanover House has all their ducks in a row.

The production company released a press statement stating that their next project would be Terminator 3000, a $70M CGI animated feature set in the world we've seen in the multiple Terminator flicks.

There's scant few details other than that. No writer, no director, no talent, no nothin'. If done right I can see this being pretty good, or it could end up like that horrible Clone Wars movie from a couple years ago. That's where the PG-13 scares me, because one thing I don't want out of Terminator is a lot of shying away from violence. We'll see how this pans out, but color me skeptical right now.

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