Today's News: He'll be back, both on the movies and on TV

Posted this late last night on MS:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152233/terminator_komt_terug_op_tv

He'll be back. He keeps saying it far and beyond the point that it has become a oneliner cliché, but he keeps making good on his promise. Even more than we might like. I wish The Sarah Connor Chronicles would come back too, since it ended on quite a cliffhanger (which should be considered a crime against humanity!) and any series that stars both Summer Glau and Lena Headey (and killer cyborgs) is well worth watching. Unfortunately that's not gonna happen and we'll be treated to another Terminator TV-series as well as a new movie, which share the same narrative universe (unlike The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Terminator Salvation which both followed their own timelines). Ever since Marvel created such a successful multimedia empire where everything is connected to everything, even though you might forget it until the studio reminds you of that fact, all the other studios join in on the bandwagon to try their luck with a similar set-up. It comes as no surprise that the Terminator franchise follows this dominant pattern. Whether it will pay off remains to be seen. In fact, the same can be said for Marvel, since they have only debuted a single TV-show so far despite plans for many more, and it hasn't even run a full season yet so there hasn't been that much intertextuality other than the occasional cameo appearance and throwaway line referring to other characters and places from every conceivable corner of the Marvel Universe. The concept of forging interrelated TV and movies is largely new in the way it is done presently (i.e., letting a film franchise and a TV-series exist alongside one another simultaneously instead of one following the other) so even though Marvel seems to reap the benefits, it's really still too early to tell whether it actually works. But neither the Hollywood film industry nor the television networks are known for their patience.

And what could this seminal moment in the original 1984 Terminator movie from which this TV-series is intended to spring be? No specific hints have been dropped so it's all open to speculation. Personally I haven't got a clue. The sex scene maybe? Unlikely, as the new series isn't likely to be picked up by HBO. Maybe it's the scene where Kyle Reese gets killed, in which case he isn't this time around. You never know. Or maybe the Terminator succeeds in his mission and does manage to kill Sarah Connor, resulting in another alternate timeline. Doesn't sound so farfetched. Another thing: will Arnold Schwarzenegger be involved? He's said to join the cast of the new movie, but you'd think the TV medium is sort of "beneath" him (despite the changed social perceptions regarding quality television series). Either way, I hope he's not joining the fun. For some reason people can't separate the Austrian Oak from this franchise, even though The Sarah Connor Chronicles - and to a lesser extent, Terminator Salvation - revealed you can have compelling story telling in the Terminator universe (no matter which timeline) without the signature character that started it all. It's about time we were reminded of that fact again, since the Terminator franchise has so much more to offer than that guy going around chasing and killing people again. I'm okay with the Terminator being back, but let's stop dragging poor Arnold into this all the time.