Director Ridley Scott said he declined a $20 million offer to direct “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” after asking to be paid the same as Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Although producers agreed to his request, he decided not to move forward because the project “wasn’t his thing,” he told The Guardian. The 2003 sequel was eventually directed by Jonathan Mostow and grossed $433 million worldwide, Box Office Mojo reported.
While the film earned strong box office returns, it failed to match the acclaim of James Cameron‘s “The Terminator” (1984) and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991). The series later continued under different directors with “Terminator Salvation” (2009), “Terminator Genisys” (2015) and “Terminator: Dark Fate” (2019).
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Scott Walked Away From The Terminator
Scott, whose credits include “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator,” recalled being surprised when his pay demand was accepted.
“I’m proud about this,” Scott told The Guardian. “I turned down a $20 million fee. See, I can’t be bought, dude. Someone said, ‘Ask what Arnie gets.’ I thought, ‘I’ll try it out.’ I said, ‘I want what Arnie gets.’ When they said yes, I thought, ‘F*** me.’ But I couldn’t do it.”
He added that his approach to storytelling did not suit the Terminator franchise. “It’s like doing a Bond movie. The essence of a Bond movie is fun and camp. Terminator is pure comic strip. I would try to make it real. That’s why they’ve never asked me to do a Bond movie, because I could f*** it up.”
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Meanwhile, Scott was already looking ahead to other work. He told Dazed Digital this month, “I’ve got three films written and ready to go: a Bee Gees biopic, a western called ‘Freewalkers,’ and a First World War film called ‘Covenant with Death’ based on the novel by John Harris.” He added, “We’ll go for ‘Gladiator III.'”
Alien Universe Still In Motion
At the same time, Scott remains connected to the “Alien” franchise. He told The Guardian he could return if the right concept emerges: “Another ‘Alien’ prequel — yeah, if I get an idea, for sure.”
More recently, Fede Álvarez, director of “Alien: Romulus,” told celebrity news site TooFab that he has “just finished the script actually for a sequel for “Romulus”” but will “pass the torch” as director.
Instead, he explained, he will produce the film with Scott, and together they are “right now trying to find a new filmmaker to come in.” While Álvarez and his co-writer want to continue the story, he added that he will now also focus on an original film.
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