Caffeinated Clint
Very busy week here; managed to catch up with a crunched Justin Lin yesterday – he, of course, the driver on the last three “Fast and Furious” movies (the last of which, “Fast Five”, is one of the highest-grossing films of 2011) and he was kind enough (and welcomingly enthusiastic; in fact his love of the “Terminator” franchise in particular has increased my confidence in that particular project) to offer updates on “Fast Six”, which Universal recently announced is booked in for a bow, and “Terminator 5”, which he has developing for a couple of months (and, from all reports, with series star Arnold Schwarzenegger). Both aren’t sure-things by any means, says Lin, but if the scripts come out right he’ll gladly lend his lungs to a megaphone.
.. on “Fast Six”
Might Lucas Black (who starred in “Tokyo Drift”, the third film in the series) reprise his role for a future “Fast” sequel?
Justin Lin : I love his character; that’s a little bit tough [though] because of the time line [Tokyo Drift being set after the events of these last two Fast movies]. We’re always looking [for a way to include him]. And I think with the way this franchise is going too, is that it is going to expand in a big way if people are going to embrace Fast Six. So, a lot of these characters, they’re going to live. They live in this universe and I believe that the ones that people… I mean a lot of people have always said, “Where’s Lucas Black? Where’s Lucas Black?” And he’s still in this universe, you know. And I don’t think he’s [disappeared] by any means
.. on “Terminator 5”
And you’re doing the Terminator movie? Is that a sure thing or…
JL: Well, again, it’s gone through a change in ownership…I have a very clear idea because I’m a huge… There’s huge part of my life when I was a kid, I love that franchise and I have a very clear idea of what I want… If they’re going to do another one what that would be. And also, I think the other element that’s necessary is to really find the right group of people to execute that.
Yeah.
JL: So again, I have my criteria set and if it’s not right, I shouldn’t make it. I think a lot of the stuff has been very good, we’ll see how everything fleshes out on that end too.
Have you spoken to Arnold or anyone associated with the Terminator series?
Yeah. Megan [Ellison]’s been great and I sit down and talk to Arnold and stuff and we’ll have to see. I mean it’s very early on. There’s no script or anything like that.
No script? No.
But it’s actually really good to be able to kind of articulate, and someone like Arnold obviously such… He’s so integral to do the franchise, to be able to have that kind of this close with him also.
In some respect it was like, just seeing Arnold at the end of the last one, the last 5 seconds, even though he was a computer generated version of, people were excited the same way they saw Vin at the end of Tokyo Drift. It’s kind of a reminder, you know, this is the franchise king.
JL: Yeah, exactly. And I think that you know if the right version, if you go back to the thematic drives of the first one especially, I think that’s a way to be able to reengage with that franchise.
And there’s going to be a way to resurrect Sarah Connor. I’m missing Sarah Connor.
I mean, Sarah Connor is such a big part of the franchise, you know. Yeah, I mean I’ve always been surprised how in part 3 she was just like… It was like one line and she was gone.
She was dead, yeah, yeah. It was insulting, yeah.
Yeah, like leukemia and… But I think the great thing about this franchise is you have… You can actually have different canons because you have the element of time travel. So, there’s a way of kind of respecting all the works but also able to create a new time line.
That’s right. You can get back and right the wrongs.
Yes.
So there you have it, folks. Excited for “Terminator 5”? I am if they find a way to bring back John’s hot mama!
