A few months back, Screen Rant reported that Robert Patrick (the liquid metal T-1000 from Terminator 2) was being eyed by Terminator Salvation director McG for a possible role in the sequel to Salvation, which has already been green-lit.
Well now Robert Patrick has responded to the rumors, saying that he is ready and willing to jump back into the Terminator universe.
For those wondering just how a much-older Robert Patrick would fit into the new continuum being established by Terminator Salvation, here’s a quick recap of McG’s vision for his character:
“I like the idea in a prospective next picture that you meet Robert Patrick the way he looks today, and he’s a scientist that’s working on improving cell replication so we can stay healthier and we can cure juvenile diabetes and all these things that once again sound like good ideas — and once again live as an idealized expression of ourselves. So imagine seeing a sixty-year-old Robert Patrick and knowing, ‘Holy shit! That’s gonna be the T-1000 – who comes back perfect, lean and the whole thing.’ I haven’t concluded that, but Robert and I had dinner the other night and talked about it…”
That’s… actually a very clever way to handle it: well-intentioned scientist unintentionally creates the ultimate killing machine for Skynet. It works well on a variety of levels (man engineering his own destruction, etc.).
However, I’m not guy who has to be sold on the idea. So how does Robert Patrick feel about McG’s proposed storyline for the origin of his T-1000 character?
“Yeah, he talked to me about it,” said Patrick. “I’m interested. I was listening to him tell me about it. I had no idea that he thought about that. I love McG. He’s a great guy. I’ve worked with him before, had a great experience working with him both times… And I certainly can’t think of anybody to tackle T4 other than him right now. I think he’s got the energy for it and the passion for it. I know he’s a fan of the movies. I think he’ll do a fantastic job. I’m interested to see what Christian Bale does with John Connor. I’m interested to see the whole setting for that…
“…so we’ll see what happens. The sci-fi genre, and specifically that character, is something I’m very proud of. It’s what broke me out big to the world. And it’s a character that I’ve lived with ever since, and I kind of carry it with me everywhere I go, for good or bad. So it’s obviously something that’s very dear to me and real special to me. That was a real special time. That franchise means a lot to me. All of those people were great people to work with. I love ‘em all – Jim Cameron and Arnold and Linda and Eddie. It was a real, real special time in my life.”
Based on that quote we know that Robert Patrick still has a warm spot in his heart for the Terminator franchise, and that he is at least interested in the storyline that McG is pitching.
Man, I really hope this happens. The T-1000 is, to this day, one of my top five scariest villains of all time. I was only ten when my parents took me to see Terminator 2; the notion of a killing machine that was nearly indestructible and could morph into anyone, even your closest friend, was enough to make me paranoid for months and months after. I would love to feel that chill run down my spine again.
More to the point though: it’s been hinted that the Terminator Salvation franchise will chronicle the events that occurred after Judgment Day, leading up to the time-traveling plotlines of T1 and T2. The T-1000′s origin is certainly a part of that story, and if this franchise is going to be done right, there can be no loose ends left untied. It’s hard for me to see how they would tie those ends off without Robert Patrick at least making an appearance (after all, the T-1000 had to copy that face from somewhere!).
What do you think? Do you think that future installments of the Terminator Salvation franchise need to have Robert Patrick present in order to deal with the T-1000 origin? Or is it a corner you feel the filmmakers can get away with cutting?
Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 22, 2009.
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i think they do need or at least it would be great to see the origin of the t1000
Funny when the sequel to T2 couldn’t come up with a better villain than the T1000. If they would have just blown up the T1000, he would have just morphed back together. In fact, they did blow him up, like 3 times in T2, lol. Definitely one of the best villains of all time.
I think this is an April’s Fool joke!
Nice try, screenrant
ken j,
the villian for t3 was a joke
I like the idea and the way McG stated he was going to include him in the story seems cool and original. Hopefully this new Terminator:Salvation can blow the socks off people like I think it will and they will get the chance to do two sequels like I’ve heard they already plan to do. IDK about you guys, but Terminator:Salvation is number one on my most anticipated movies of this year list. It was top five until I saw the new trailer and that pushed it to number 1 and unless a more awesome trailer for something comes along I don’t see it budging now. CAN’T WAIT!
Isn’t that kind of what they did in the Alien series with Bishop? Ripley met the human creator in the fourth one?
Pretty sure in this day and age they could just CGI him so he looks all smooth and young.
He was a great villian too.
I think it was about this time last year tat I was talked into getting the dvd of T2 by the people on here. It was very good advice!
steve the git,
that was the alien 3
I don’t think this is an April Fools joke because they reported on this before…
Plus it’s not controversial enough. Now maybe if they reported that James Cameron will be directing Terminator 5, people like myself would go crazy…
Oh yeah, the one on the prison planet.
Thanks
Mm, did they not delete the scene in T3 regarding the ‘origin’ of Arnie’s model? I’d imagine the same thing would happen here and for the same reason.
I’m all for giving Patrick some work, but the idea that Mcg has for him to be a research scientist curing diabetes sounds ridicules. That must be the “Charlies Angels Full Throttle” part of his brain/CPU talking?
With “The Unit” fresh in mind, it would make more sense to have Patrick’s character play a captured resistance solider.
^
Its not the trailers for Terminator Salvation that (completely) worry me, its the ideas this clown keeps coming up with.
At this point I’m looking forward to Terminator 4 for a good laugh. I have very little interest in what I’ve read so far.
Marcus thinks he’s human? Maybe a Cylon but not a T-800.
All of Mcg’s ideas sound really dumb. If he’s a Terminator fan, his lack of creativity is stunning…
mmm im not sure this is a good idea if it goes ahead, i think it would be better if he was just one of the resistance caught by the machines and they just used his body to copy! but he doesnt look anything at all like he did in T2, looks now like a totally different guy.
How long before McG attempts to sign the actor that played Dr Silberman ???
Connor can get in his face and yell, “see I told you my mom was right!”
It’s funny, 790, I always did kind of wish to have a cameo in T4 by Earl Bowen; of all the folks to survive a nuke…Dr. Silberman! Note that if Silberman did live, he’d back up John Connor, or perhaps spawn a doomsday cult.
Kristianna Loken in part 6!
and then a cameo by Summer Glau just to mess with people’s minds!
Okay, I’m kidding about that last one.
I hope you’re kidding about Loken as well…. No, she won’t be back…
robert patrick is welcome back. i like the way he played it.
I love that in contrast to Jonathan Mostow MCG uses his brain and actually is die-hard passionate about the franchis. He’s the fuel of this revival and he so far only has presented good ideas to me.
As for what you said about loose ends in the new franchise. Are we sure that T4 will go as far within timeline as to the T1000′s creation? It seems to be the case that it will happen in T5. That’s probably what will happen in T5. The terminator being focused on in this upcoming movie probably is the T800 knowing they’ve resurrected Schwarzengger year 84 for it digitally.
The idea of Robert Patrick being a scientist who eventually leads to the creation of the T-1000 works just fine for me. I just don’t see how the juvenile diabetes thing would crossover into a liquid metal-man. Make him a government scientist in an underground facility and that’d work a little better…
But hey, I’m not the writer or anything, I guess time will tell with this one. Still a long ways off anyways.
WOOOTTT, speaking of Robert Patrick and T1000, I just saw that they did in fact release a new version of T2 on Blu-Ray. They call it Skynet Edition, lol. I can’t see the details on it since I’m at work and amazon is blocked, I just see it on imdb.com (which isn’t blocked) as a new release Blu-Ray… Wooooooooootttt.
Yah, when I read the reviews on the previous, only, edition of T2 on blu-ray, people said it had no special features, no deleted scenes, it was just the theatrical release and was of the same quality as a DVD, so they didn’t even retransfer from the original film, they simply transferred from the DVD… How lame…
This time I’m hoping they transferred from the original film stock and put in all of the special features and deleted scenes… I’m buying it, lol.
It’s not that original an idea (no that much is anymore). A similar plot device was used to get Lance Henriksen into Alien 3. He shows up as a the scientist who designed the android, Bishop in Aliens.
That aside, there is just no reason for Robert Patrick to make an appearance, let alone any other Terminator alum. It forces the writer(s) to ask and answer the question, “How can we get him in the movie?” or to put a finer point on it, “What stupid, contrived plot point can we create to get him in the movie.”
Writing the movie around the desire to see Robert Patrick in a Terminator movie again is the wrong way to go.
after the fallout from Terminator Salvation I wouldn’t be surprised if MCG and all his ideas are scrapped…
Wouldnt be a bad idea to have Robert Patrick in a role where he would be somekind of a scientist. Not sure about him studying stem cells though. Someone trying to find a way to make people stay young is post judgement-day years where theres a limited amount of everything you could think of would be lame. MCG should have his role be somthing like him being a scientist and being held captive by SKYNET to not only build T-800′s on a large scale but also forcing him to build somthing that would surpass the T-800 series. Which we all know would be the prototype of the T-1000. Somthing like that MCG should write in the script, not that stem cell research idea.