New show: 'Terminator' will be back in 'Sarah Connor Chronicles'
Posted: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 11:30 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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TV
As a fan of the "Terminator" movies and their creepy view of the future, I was unsure if Fox's "Sarah Connor Chronicles" would do that film franchise proud or stink up the screen. I'm happy to say that, at least the pilot lived up to its storied title.
"Chronicles" picks up at the end of "Terminator 2," with Sarah Connor and her young son, John, the world's eventual savior in the war against the machines, running for the lives. As in the films, there are both good and evil Terminators who come back into the past to try and aid or kill John and Sarah. The good Terminator is a young female this time around, a classmate of John's who is played to perfection by Summer Glau, a.k.a. River from "Firefly."
Don't look for the film to follow the events of "Terminator 3." Producer Josh Friedman says the series is, in essence, creating a new "T3" timeline. Glau said she naturally admired Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Terminator," but worked to make her character her own. Said Glau: " I think that the way that we're going to make my Terminator the most advanced model so far is in her human traits. She's going to be the most human Terminator so far, so that's what I'm striving for."
TIDBITS:
--If actress Lena Headey, who plays Sarah, were actually mom to Thomas Dekker, who plays her son, she would have given birth at age 14.
--Don't expect Headey to display the famously buff arms and bod of movie Sarah Linda Hamilton. Although she noted that she may end up working out as Sarah strives to stay tough and alive, she hasn't started any workout routine. "As you can see, I've done nothing," she said with a laugh.
--Glau said her Terminator shares some qualities, though not all, with "Firefly's" River. "In a way she's much like River in that she's isolated and she's different from the other characters in how she relates and how she communicates," Glau said. "But she's very strong, and she can't genuinely feel emotion. River -- that's what she was all about. She was just a jumble of emotions.
--The pilot is being reworked to eliminate a scene in which a Terminator enters John's school and precipitates a school shooting. Producer Josh Friedman, who wrote the scene, actually grew up not far from Columbine. "I certainly didn't write it for some sort of shock effect or anything like that," he said, explaining that he felt the one place Sarah Connor couldn't protect her son was at school.
--The show's title could still be changed to "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."
--Could Ah-nold ever appear on the series? Don't hold your cyber-breath. Said Friedman: "as governor, he's incredibly busy. As a star ... he's incredibly expensive." But at the moment, the show can't even use any images of Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.
--Dekker came to the John Connor role after playing Claire's high-school classmate, Zach, on "Heroes." There was some controversy over the idea that Zach's character was originally written as gay, and some say Dekker's managers requested that part be changed. Dekker himself was more vague, saying "I think it was something that definitely got blown out of proportion as far as what actually happened with the character, and the character was something from day one that we had set out to make in every possible way ambiguous." He also said his role on "Heroes" was never intended to be more than a guest-star appearance.
