James Cameron is one of the most renowned and celebrated directors in Hollywood who has presented fans with incredible masterpieces like ‘Titanic’, ‘Avatar’, and ‘Terminator’.
More than the strong visuals of his films, the interesting element lies in the origin or the idea that births his incredible masterpieces. One film is James Cameron’s ‘Terminator’– the idea that technology became a killing machine is rather interesting, but the original idea behind the film is even more enthralling.
Related: Did James Cameron Want ‘Terminator 3’ To Fail?
James Cameron’s Idea For ‘Terminator’ Is A Result Of His Nightmare
James Cameron revealed to GQ that the idea for ‘Terminator’ came to him in his dream. Before the success of ‘Terminator’, he was not a name everyone had heard of. After facing burnout from ‘Piranha 2’, Cameron fell sick and contracted a fever.
While discussing the origin of ‘Terminator‘, the director told GQ, “I was sick, I don’t know what with, some flu-like virus and had a bit of a fever and just had a dream. It was an image that I remembered when I woke up. An image of a chrome-like skeleton emerging from a fire.”
Cameron further added that he knew what the image in his dream meant and when he woke up, he instantly began working on the endoskeleton, saying, “The pieces fell into place around that seminal image.”
The futuristic endoskeleton then became a liquid-metal Terminator that would morph his hands into knives. Unfortunately due to low budget, it was initially scrapped but in ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ it was brought back and it was played by Robert Parick.
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James Cameron Convinced Arnold Schwarzenegger To Take Up The Lead Role In ‘Terminator’
‘Terminator‘ is one of the most popular films in the sci-fi genre, which popularized the director-actor duo. James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger created wonders on screen that laid the path for more installments of the film.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was not the first choice to be cast as the ‘Terminator,’ instead, he was supposed to play another character, Kyle Rees.
In an episode of ‘The Howard Stern Show’, Schwarzenegger revealed that he had no intention of playing Terminator. The actor said, “It was a total coincidence because I didn’t even try out for Terminator, I was trying to be Kyle Reese, and during the lunch when amid that James Cameron, the director right I kept talking all the time about the Terminator.”
However, Cameron was fixated on Schwarzenegger being the face of the film and convinced him to take up the role.
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