McG Talks Terminator 4

We caught up with McG at Comic Con who was nice enough to answer some burning questions we had about the upcoming Terminator 4. Unlike when we talked to Sam Worthington though McG actually had quite a bit to say. One common question that has come up on site is how this film will tie to the other films but on top of that how it will tie to the TV series that has been burning up the air waves. McG is friends with the creator of the show and has spoken with him but they are not going to be the same world and story. Its once again all about making the best movie possible while still being true to the franchise; 

I'm a buddy with Josh Friedman who runs the show. We had a meeting early on and we want to honor that at all times, but we can't… I know about episodic television, with The OC and Chuck and Supernatural, what it takes to generate stories hour in, hour out every week.

We just put most fairly, and Josh was the first to jump on and say so, we can't chase their story threads, you know? We honor it. We're all using the same language, but this is this and that is that, and I say that as a huge fan of the series. Where's Jean? Jean and I talk about it all the time, she watches every minute of it and comes back and we report on it and do the whole thing. But at some point you've got to create some freedom and tell the story that you regard as most compelling.

As far as the continuity and tieing this movie to the past ones there is no question McG is well verse in the Terminator films.

We’ve done the best we can to honor the timelines that have been put into place and I think it ultimately feels very satisfying. If we've done our job properly, then this will be regarded as the statement of the time and the place and the where and the when and the why and the how. And it comes from a place of doing a lot of research with, you know, futurists, with scientists who talk about how long it would take the atmosphere to clear itself out so you could actually go back outside and do your thing.

We're trying to just sort of amalgamate the three pictures and amalgamate the intention, and then answer that to the best of our ability. Again, there are certain things that are in stone. The T800 comes in 2029, you know. We're building towards that place. Therefore, if hardware should show up in 2018 that was supposed to be around in 2029, that's a problem for John Connor.

As far as the rating goes as we already told you its going to be getting an R rating which is an absolute blessing. McG has no concerns about the rating from the stand point of pleasing the studio but the benefits of an R rating over a PG 13 rating is he is free to make a movie without restrictions.

I have no problem with a PG13 picture. I just saw The Dark Knight and I thought it was a work of art. I thought it was immaculate. I thought it was made compromise-free. I don't think Chris had to go, “Ah, damn it, if I could just do what I want to do, and get that R that I want, the picture would be better.” So I am saying I'm not afraid of a PG13 rating at all, but we are not rooting for anything, and I'm not going to let the fan base down trying to target a rating.

The only people that would give us a hard time about that would indeed be the studios, which you have to respect because they put a lot of money behind the making of the film. And like I said, Jeff Blake, I'll literally grab him, and Rubinoff, who was sitting in the front row, they don't care. So if they say, “Deliver an R-rated picture,” I mean that's really freeing. It allows us to do what we want to do with the film, so the film will rule the day, we'll all be looking at rough cuts together and we'll make those decisions.

And if it just comes down to, whoops, there's too much blood on the head of the Marcus character, and that's what pops you into an R, I don't think that makes the film infinitely more valuable. So I get back to a PG13. If they want to get rid of, “Oops, you can't have T600s carrying mini-guns,” well then no, it's an R, because there are certain things that are part of the iconographic nature of the film. You know, we talked about all this when we were on the set together. Like I said, we just are really making the film in a vacuum, so we're just doing what we think is right creatively, day in and day out.

Stay tuned for more Terminator Salvation Updates in the near future!