Fox have greenlit a 13 part series due to begin filming in March next year, I understand they've already shot the pilot.

I'm glad in a way, because I always wondered what happened to Sarah and John, both pretty fucked up characters, but I really can't see what the producers can do to make it interesting. Mario Kassar has indicated he wants a mix of the SF and the family drama, and who'd have thought that a similar thing would have worked for show about two ghost hunting brothers in a pretty car?

Looks interesting, any rate. But just who can fill Linda Hamilton's boots?

If it's not Linda Hamilton, it's not Sarah. Ten bucks says it tanks before it even airs.

The first thing I thought of was an on-the-road adventure thing like the old, clunky Starman show, with a new set of people to meet - or escape from - every week.

I first read about this a year ago, at the same time I heard about Kidnapped (which I love, by the way, even though they moved it to Saturday nights); I've been waiting for both of them a long time; weird how it takes that long to get something going.

Who was cast as Sarah?

I couldn't find any casting info - most articles like this one from Variety seem to be from last year, and IMDB shows no actors either. However, Linda Hamilton is said to not be involved.

I suppose there's one thing that the series can do to at least have a common thread: the aftermath of the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in T2. Instant chase story, combined with some angst...

Hasn't the post T2 timeline been filled by the comic series, at least two different book series, and T3? Well, I suppose I can pretend those didn't happen. Especially the movie. Not actually bad, but not at the same level of the first two.

Damnit, when is Cameron going to make another sci fi action movie?

Whenever he finally manages to get his plans to make a movie adaptation of Battle Angel Alita off the ground. Which, if he manages to pull it off, would be awesome.

Maybe they could get Linda Hamilton's twin sister. Then it could still be Sarah even though it's not Linda Hamilton.

Hamilton is too old now, though she does look fantastic. According to an article in SFX the pilot has already been shot. So they must have someone.

Why, why can't they leave well enough alone already? Though I did like the ballsy ending of Terminator 3. And it had Claire Danes (slumming) and Nick Stahl, who I both love. Though I hate actors being replaced and that aging make-up didn't work for the future-John-Connor scenes at all, so Nick Stahl being there instead of Furlong was kinda meh.

But what connection to the movies can this series have at all with none of the actors involved (or even able to be involved, in Arnold's case) ? Where's the incentive to watch ? Is anyone in control of the Terminator mythos, does anyone own the rights or is it purely studio-driven? Doesn't seem like there's anyone official to say, "this is canon, this isn't. The comics are 'maybe', the books not". Etc.

Would the series end with Sarah dying of cancer? Not sure I'd wanna see that.

Apparently T3 never happened in this mythos. Thank God. I'm sorry, I hated it and all the actors in it.

But it does mean that Sarah doesn't have to die of cancer. From what I understand, they realise it can't be all Terminator of the week, so they want to balance the SF aspects with family drama. T2 had lots of little mother/moments that I understand perfectly, as my own son is that age and while I'd like to see that, I'm not sure I'd watch 13 eps of that.

It sounds like they wanted to make another Supernatural, SF mixed with family. It's all going to depend on the characters.

If they are ignoring T3 (and to be honest they don't need to, at least not at first--who said this, though?) then yeah--the opening backstory has to be the Cyberdyne Systems aftermath. Way, way too obvious.

Google the ton of articles available and they've got a small write up in SFX.

this sounds awesome. this is one of my favorite scifi franchises. i can't wait until this happens. too bad FOX doesn't stick with scifi.

Sides are up at NowCasting if you're curious. It's 1998 and they've got a female hottie teen T-whatever protecting them.

1998, huh? Post-actual Judgment Day, from a canonical standpoint...okay, I can go with that. They can still work the Cyberdyne-aftermath angle--which probably becomes more important from a backstory point of view if they're ignoring T3.

But damn...a second female (by default) Terminator, and a teenage-appearing one at that? Obviously not our beloved T-800...are they taking cues from the comics, which had a few female Terminators kicking around at various points?

Perhaps the show writers have been watching anime of the "robot girl" subgenre? I guess we'll know that's the case if John Connor/She-Terminator becomes the canon 'ship of the show. Or the show writers may just want to have a place for a young, attractive actress in hopes of drawing male viewers. (Hell, even I have to admit that "total hottie that kicks ass like the Terminator" is pretty much my type as female characters go.)

Whether it's taking cues from the comic or not, it make sense to me that there'd be a broad variety of Terminators, including female models. They're infiltrators, and if they all looked like Arnold then the humans would just start shooting Arnold on sight. And if Skynet managed to scan any psychology textbooks, then it would know that people will more readily trust someone they're attracted to. An attractive female Terminator could probably get further into a human complex before being detected, and one that looks like a kid would make people hesitant to shoot at it.

Honestly, I didn't think I'd be interested in this, but the sides are kind of cool.

I just don't know if I can accept someone but Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor.

What's the problem with teenage-girl terminator? Can you think of a better model to take out a teenage boy?

It sounds like she is there to protect him. I think she is the kind of T who has feelings or whatever and is attracted to young John.

I have to say, considering it's the John Connor of the future (I think) that chooses who to send back, I'm not at all surprised that he'd send back someone hot to his younger self. I'd certainly do the same for me. At the risk of generalisation, I think that many people would.

Well, it would certainly ensure that teenaged John would want to keep the Terminator around....

That's for sure. And yesterday on the bus, I had an idea that I found funny. What if John were too moral to take advantage of her? At first he's all, "Thanks, future self!" Then he says, "Damn, no, I can't. I want it with someone who wants me."

THen we slowly see an erosion of morals. At one point, he gets drunk and decides to go for it. Except he's so drunk he can't get it up.

Eventually, he does do it with Terminator babe. Afterwards, she mentions something about it's good that he's fast and efficient.

All of this has to be ballanced with him doing really cool stuff, so he doesn't seem like a complete loser.

Lena Headey has been cast as Sarah Connor, according to Coming Soon.

i can live with that.

*squee* Very excited by that. Headey is a great actress, who can definately bring the tough and kick ass ... not to mention the pretty.

I'm very excited as well. If anyone could make me buy someone other than Linda Hamilton in the role it's Headey.

When this was announced I thought it was going to be crap, but the more I hear, the more I like.

Have you not seen Lena Headey's English stuff? It sucks.

I'll watch it and hope she surprises me. It could have been worse. It could have been Kate Beckinsdale.

I haven't seen all of her work, by any means, but I have enjoyed her in the movies I have seen.

I'm just glad they got someone with some actual presence, and a chance of pulling off the hard ass attitude required, rather than some celebrity bimbo.

I just rewatched my Terminator II DVD and I for one am giddy with anticipation. Well, as giddy as a cynical old broad can get but giddy none the less.


What did you see because although she may not be your bag of chips the girl's got chops.
Aberdeen a Scotish Indy film I think is riveting. Headey's performance was raw and painful and powerful and impossible to turn away from. She was the best part of The Brothers Grimm a movie I had looked forward to and then was sadly disappointed with. Have you seen any of the clips from a new flick 300? She can bring the Sarah Connor.
Man I hope TWoP recaps because that will make my day.
Oh and Imagine Me And You has Lena as a lesbian florist and who doesn't love a lesbian florist.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one sabi.

I think she sucks, you don't. I'll agree that it's good the role hasn't gone to the usual bimbos that get foisted upon us, she does look like a real tough cookie.

But SCC is going to have a hard climb to begin with. I'm excited for the series, but mostly how it's going to make the concept work.

Like I say, I'll watch and see how the show, and Headey do.

Any news on who won the teen John role?

I can't find anything on who will play John but David Nutter will direct the pilot and something like the last twelve pilots he's directed have been picked up. Too bad it's on Fox but who knows.

I've never heard of Lena Headey, but I think this show has disaster written all over it. They can't possibly expect to match the action and special effects of the movies.

This show sounds expensive. And the fact that it is on Fox isn't particularly promising.

The problem I have with this show, much like Lost and others, is that there is a lack of surprise and I don't see much opportunity for long term plot resolution. On Lost, you know they will never get off the island until maybe the final season. On this show, since it's wedged in between Terminator 2 and Terminator 3, you can show them running all around the place, but I imagine the season will end with Sarah and John defeating whatever is sent to hunt them. And if it made it to a second season, something else comes to hunt them.

In the long run, we know that John survives, because he is in Terminator 3. And we know that Sarah dies of leukemia sometime between T2 and T3. Knowing that John survives and that Sarah does not die at the hands of the terminator kind of takes some of the suspense and fun out of watching this series.

I had a thought the other day. Max Pirkis as John Connor. He plays Octavian on Rome, and is the most intense young actor I've ever seen. Sure he's English, but I expect he can fake an American accent.

It's my understanding that they're not considering T3 to be canon. So Sarah Connor could still die of something other than leukemia.

Besides: time travel. Just because you know how things had originally turned out doesn't mean the outcome can't be changed. ;-)

There was a T3? It doesn't seem to exist in my world. Of course neither does Alien Resurection or Buffy's Seventh Season.
I had to watch the first Terminator again last night. I forget that it was made 22 years ago. I loved that Sarah was a big hair 80's girly girl and turned out to be tough as hell. I think showing how she evolved into a buff fighting machine herself to protect her son, the world's savior, like a Super Mary could be interesting. So if John is 14 it will be set around 2000? I hope they go back to when they were in Mexico too.

Is there a pilot script available? i heard someone talking about it..

I hope it doesn't turn out to be an inadvertant comedy.

You know, hot Terminator gets into comical hijinks and the others have to bail her out. In the end, the hot Terminator gets a valauble lesson learned.

That could be interesting, if she got in trouble for excessive violence. You know, "You can't just go around terminating everybody, or even just kneecapping them or breaking their arms."

And they bail her out with, "She's from a small part of Norway that doesn't know the Viking age ended a thousand years ago. Besides, they started it."

There are sides available from the pilot episode. I can summarise if people want?

Teen Titan please do.

Are they on Nowcasting or SidesExpress?

I am unenthused about this show, but in fairness it's more to do with the mediocrity of T3 than anything else. With Mario Vassar apparently pressing ahead with T4, I fear that he is going to suck the life out of the franchise in the same manner as the Alien movies.

If only T3 had been written with this show in mind. The fact that T3 is apparently being disregarded as canon is pretty telling and is frankly sticking a middle finger up at that film (which I happen to agree with - if it couldn't be done to standard, it shouldn't have been done).

For the record, I remember hearing a while back that T3 was going to largely be about the human Arnold that Skynet eventually models one of the Terminators on. Surely there was something in that concept.

But anyway, I will reserve judgement. The first two films and the general concept are all too good to not give this idea a chance.

There's stuff in the extras of one of the Terminator games on that.

NowCasting.

The ones I have are from nowcasting. I thought this show was going to be terrible until I read them.

There are six roles being cast.

Sarah, the one that went to Lena Headey, Cameron, John, Van Meter and Cromartie.

OK, so I'll try to summarise:

The show seems to open as though we're racing down a highway, with sarah's voice carrying over it. She talks about how we'll all die eventually, and it's only what we do in the here and now that matters.

It's 1998.

Sarah is still having nightmares about the coming holocaust and Terminator robots. She wakes up from one and we find out she's recently engaged to a guy named Burke. She loves the guy, John likes him, and he likes John, but she seems sad and shaken by the dream.

And then she goes and watches John sleep. He wakes up and say it freaks him out when she does that, and there's some nice banter between the two. Then Sarah gets hard core, and tells John to pack his stuff, they're leaving. They've been in the same place for too long (a year).

At one point she gets in John's face and lectures him about how no-one is ever safe.

Much later Cameron, a pretty girl, and John meet at school (presumably his new school, on his first day). John's attracted to her, even hacking into the school's computers for her class schedule, and she seems to like him as well. She tries to make a date with him, but has to say no. After school he has to do things with Sarah.

Cameron takes this as a rejection, and John is pissed. 'Being a fugitive sucks'.

Later on John is at home where Sarah is doing something with paint and dry wall (maybe a fake wall?) and John is unenthusiastic. Sarah grills him about school, and whether anything was suspicious, and John, frustrated, walks off on her.

Later again, Sarah goes to John's room. He's listening to a walkman, and there's a nice touch where he doesn't take off his headphones when Sarah walks in. And the Sarah shoots him a look and he whips them off!

They have a talk about school and the situation, and then John accidentally mentions computers and Sarah goes off on him about hacking and the dangers of them.

Sarah, trying to be a good Mom, asks him if he met any pretty girls and John lies and says no.

I'm not sure where this next scene fits, but it seems logical it would be here:

Burke, Sarah's fiancee, goes to the cops after she leaves. He thinks something happened to her. Van Meter, an FBI agent, find him at the police station and confronts him with the truth about Sarah. Her aliases etc.

He shows him a news clipping about Miles Dyson, and it turns out they think Sarah is responsible for his death and everything that happened at Cyberdyne (from T2).

He then starts to grill Burke about information on Sarah.

Later again Sarah has a run in with Cromartie, a Terminator, somewhere in the woods. He's been sent back in time to kill John. His face is described as being 'mangled', half smashed from a collision.

At first Sarah seems to think Cromartie has taken John, that's why she was out there looking for him, but once he disarms her it becomes obvious that he doesn't know where John is either, and that he escaped.

Sarah is thrilled about this, laughing crazily, and then tries to shoot herself, but Cromartie stops her. They both realise the Terminator's best bet at getting to John is to keep her alive.

With Sarah pinned to a tree he takes the chip from her mobile phone, shoves it in his thigh and then a dial tone comes from his mouth. Cromartie and John then talk, and make a deal: If John turns himself over the Terminator will let Sarah go. Sarah's pissed, and John knows it's a trap.

Much later: Cameron, who seems to be the young, female, Terminator, has been shot, and sits half naked in a truck repairing her skin. Sarah tells her to put her boobs away. They're planning to cross into Canda.

Cameron is from 2027 and she had been looking for Sarah and John for 73 days. Sarah grills her on the future, and loses it a bit when she finds out it turns out basically the same, with some slight difference. This time it isn't Miles Dyson who builds Skynet, it's someone else, but in the future they don't know who.

Skynet, and the apocalypse, occurs on April 19th 2011.

Cameron has been sent back in time to protect John from assassination.

It seems like Cromartie attacked at a coffee shop Sarah was working at, and that Sarah screwed up by not changing her and John's aliases right away. It seems like she's been using Reese's name.

Van Meter is investigating the shooting, and he's scared this is going to be his last lead case, since all the witnessess say the same thing: A man with a robot leg was the shooter.

Cromartie is in a house somewhere, having come off the worse for wear in a battle with Cameron and sarah (presumably at the rendezvous with John). His skin is torn up in several places, metal showing through.

To repair himself he gets naked, cuts his skin down his chest, and peels it off! Then uses bits of the skin to start repairing his face.

As he works we pan away to find a photo of a happy couple, the owners of the house, and then their corpses on the floor.

There's a quick scene of Sarah laying down beside John in a hotel room and hugging him, and he doesn't pull away from her. It seems like a nice, word free, moment.

Later John and Cameron talk about how she was programmed to get close to him at school. There seems to be some mystery regarding what sort of model Cameron is, and she eats.

Of course it's all in the execution, but that doesn't sound bad. Halfway original and making a lot more use of the Terminator concepts than T3 did.

It's a shame this show is about ten years too late.