Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a box office hit that is to this day considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made – so why didn’t James Cameron return to direct Terminator 3? Following the release of Judgment Day in 1991, more than a decade passed before Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines finally arrived in theaters, and Jonathan Mostow (U-571) was in the director’s chair instead of Cameron for the long-awaited sequel.
James Cameron did in fact start developing his own ideas for Terminator 3 soon after the second movie was released, and the reason why it never manifested comes down to one word: rights.
While the movie was in the development phase the production company that owned 50% of the rights, Carolco Pictures, filed for bankruptcy and its assets – including the Terminator sequel rights – were sold off. What followed was a period during which the rights were in limbo, and Cameron’s plans to make Terminator 3 with 20th Century Fox ultimately fell apart when those plans hit a surprise speed bump. Cameron never revealed what his original plans were for the Terminator 3 story. He did begin working on a third film with Fox, but whatever ideas he had never made it past the early scripting stage. From bidding wars to broken friendships, here’s the story of why James Cameron’s Terminator 3 never happened.
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A lesser-known fact about the Terminator franchise is that Cameron actually made a mini-sequel to Terminator 2. This came in the form of a Universal Studios attraction called T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, which was produced in 1995 and filmed its debut at Universal Studios Florida in 1996. The short film featured in the attraction, co-written and directed by Cameron, reunites Terminator 2: Judgment Day actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick. The 12-minute film, shot from multiple angles using special 3D cameras, cost a staggering $24 million to produce.
T2-3D: “Battle in Time” reignited the cast’s enthusiasm for “Terminator 3” after it had been dampened by the grueling experience of making “Terminator 2.” According to an article in People magazine at the time, Cameron had actually begun writing the script for The Terminator. 3 after creating T2-3D. Schwarzenegger said of his fellow cast members: “The scars have healed and now they all say, ‘I love working with Cameron.’ It looks like fans were very close to getting a Terminator 3 that would reunite Schwarzenegger and Hamilton, Furlong and Patrick on the big screen, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
20th Century Fox & James Cameron’s Plans For Terminator 3
Carolco Pictures filed for bankruptcy in 1995, and a bidding war for its assets followed between French television company Canal Plus and 20th Century Fox. Canal Plus came in with an early offer of $47 million, Fox countered with $50 million, and Canal Plus came back with a bid of $58 million for all of Carolco’s existing films (though not the sequel rights). Fox withdrew its overall bid with plans to purchase the Terminator sequel rights individually in bankruptcy court at a later date, and began laying the groundwork for the sequel with Cameron so that he could get started right away once Fox obtained the rights.One of 20th Century Fox’s biggest concerns was the budget for Terminator 3. The studio wanted to make
a sequel matching Terminator 2’s production costs of just under $100 million. This would have been impossible given the combined costs of bringing back Schwarzenegger (whose star had reached its peak in Hollywood) and purchasing Carolco’s rights at a bankruptcy auction, plus the other half of the rights from producer Gale Anne Hurd. Fox chairman Bill Mechanic sought to avoid costly upfront costs by striking a deal with Schwarzenegger and Heard for a larger share of the eventual profits. However, his efforts turned out to be fruitless when the rights to Terminator 3 were bought by the founders of the very studio that was forced to sell them.
Why James Cameron Didn’t Direct Terminator 3
Film producers Mario Cassar and Andy Vaina founded Carolco Pictures in 1976 and first achieved success with the films First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II. Eager to build on that success with more action films, Carolco acquired the rights to a Terminator sequel and brought back Cameron as director and Schwarzenegger as the lead. By this point, Vaina had sold his Carolco shares to Cassar and parted ways with the company due to disagreements over its management. However, after Carolco went bankrupt in 1995, the two old partners reunited to found a new film company, C2 Pictures, and launch it with a new film: Terminator 3.
As Fox and Cameron completed months of planning for Terminator 3, Cassar and Vajna made a $7.5 million bid for the rights, which they later raised to $8 million. They had a close relationship with Cameron and actually learned that the rights to Terminator were still available after he treated them to an early screening of Titanic. When he learned that his old friends had bought Terminator 3 from him, Cameron was “shocked and angry,” according to the LA Times, and his rage “permanently damaged their once close relationship.” Vaina, for his part, could not understand what the problem was and argued: “What difference does it make to Jim who finances the film, the studio or us?”
In late 1997, deep into post-production on Titanic and still angry about Vajna and Kassar buying the Terminator 3 rights, Cameron finally decided that he wanted nothing more to do with the movie. Fox was still willing to buy the rights, whether by outbidding Vajna and Kassar or buying the rights from them, but Cameron losing interest was the final nail in the coffin for Fox’s Terminator 3. Quoted in a Variety article at the time, Mechanic said, “Right now Jim (Cameron) has decided not to make this movie, and we have always said we will only make it with Jim.” Cameron did give his blessing for Schwarzenegger to work on a sequel without him, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was eventually released in summer 2003.