McG Talks ‘20,000 Leagues’ and ‘Terminator 5′

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 8th, 2009

Leading up to Terminator Salvation, McG said just about anything to put people in the seats when it hit theaters.  The director of Charlie’s Angels showed up at Comic-Con in 2008 making promises (which weren’t kept), saying James Cameron had given his blessing (he hadn’t), and invoking the name of the late Stan Winston (not cool).  He even got into a penis measuring contest with Michael Bay.

When the movie ended up being a bit of a disappointment, I figured out it was probably best not to take the word of McG at face value anymore.  Which is why you should take his latest statements about his upcoming films with a grain of salt.

For his remake of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, McG previously wanted Will Smith as the lead.  One of Hollywood’s last remaining movie stars has more sense than that, so now the director is eying a hot new actor, according to an interview with IGN.  McG wants to fill the role of Nemo with Sam Worthington, the cyborg star of T4 and James Cameron’s Avatar.  No casting decisions have been made official, and this is likely more “wouldn’t it be neat” talk from the director.

Meanwhile McG is “pushing forward” with the production, scouting locations and waiting for a polished script.  In an interview with RadioFree, he said there will be more “meat on the bone” in regard to the “genesis” of Nemo’s character, a man at war with himself.  In other words, another origin story.

IGN also asked about the inevitable Terminator 5, which will star the already signed Christian Bale as John Connor.  The idea, from the mouth of McG, is to send Connor back in time again trying to stop Skynet from taking over the world.  Rumors have placed the hero in London circa 2011.

McG adds, “We’ll have a much more clearly defined antagonist in the new picture. It will be more of a chase movie with a new Terminator that is on your ass.”

It sounds like it will be a return to the plot lines in the original trilogy; a contemporary setting with deadly machinery chasing the hero.  As for the clearly defined antagonist, I’ll believe it when I see it.  He has also mentioned transporting multiple Terminators and futuristic vehicles back in time, so who knows what the final product will contain.  With his focus clearly on 20,000 Leagues, it might be a while until the details on T5 are (for lack of a better word) fleshed out.