Yelchin In Talks To Co-Star In Terminator 4 March 19, 2008
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: ST09 Cast, Sci-Fi , trackback
Anton Yelchin, who recently finished work playing Star Trek’s new Chekov, may be stepping in to another famous role in another sci-fi franchise. According to The Hollywood Reporter the 19 year-old actor is “in negotiations” to star as Kyle Reese alongside Christian Bale in the post-apocalyptic Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, the fourth film in the Terminator series.
Yelchin is slated to play a teen version of Reese, who (as depicted in the first Terminator film) grows up to travel back in time and hook up with Sarah Connor…creating John Connor…who grows up to save the world from the evil Skynet. Christian Bale has already been cast as John Conner. The film is set after the events of Terminator 3 and focuses on the post-apocalypse war between humanity and the AI-gone-power-mad Skynet. THR also offers some new plot info on the film:
Reese, one of the children who survived a machine-driven nuclear holocaust, befriends Marcus (Sam Worthington), an early edition of the Terminator cyborg played in previous films by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Production for the film which may get retitled is scheduled to start this May. Terminator 4 (or whatever it ends up being called) is set to be released May 22, 2009 (just two weeks after Star Trek). The new film is actually the first of a planned three film arc. It isn’t known when in the arc Kyle Reese gets naked and goes back in time, but Yelchin could see himself bouncing back and forth between Trek and Terminator films for years to come.
Kyle Reese was originally played by Michael Biehn in the 1984 film The Terminator. The role was actually recently ‘recast’ as well for the the FOX TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Jonathan Jackson played Kyle in the episode “Dungeons & Dragons.”
Biehn and Jackson…previous Kyle Reeses
More details at The Hollywood Reporter (also at Wikipedia and IMDB)
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In that position, would it be considered to ask for Linda Hamilton’s phone number in the hopes of performing some character research? :)
even though all these guys have options for sequels, they seem like they are landing lots of work . . if they get optioned wil they have to turn something down?
he’s far too cute for the role
#2; They’ve implied [I’m pretty sure I read it somewhere on this site recently - the Simon Pegg piece? Something about a nine-year deal] that the sequels are to be separated by three years apiece, so that probably gives a reasonable amount of wiggle-room for scheduling.
That should be a much bigger part for him. More lines, more screen time, etc. Good news. Hope he lands the part.
I Understand the need (especially in these times when technology is Advancing at such an Incredible rate) for a more creative Idea, But I just Finally want to see Skynet As the “Uber Eniac” Sized Main frame We all envisioned when We Watched The First Terminator movie. the “Matrix” movies Were no help either.
Nothing against Yelchin -I thought he was great in Alpha Dog- but I find it amazing and a little sad that with all of the great actors the film industry has access to there seems to be, at any given time, only a handful who get all of the roles.
I know its about some sort of ‘heat factor’ with an eye to box office and bottom line. And agents and management as well but, I dunno. I hope I don’t get tired you seeing this guy’s face before May ‘09
-don’t get tired OF seeing-
Mr Quinto was in Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for Voter Registration Rally yesterday
here’s his speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGxuUK6_nmE
bale would be good in this
anthony on ur poll i think st is best as a mix of tv and film
Man, for a mediocre movie with a questionable time-travel plot, this thang has gone on forever. It’s not my favorite franchise. With the series and now a fourth movie, it has the feel of stone soup. Aside from dazzling special effects, what are we gonna get out of this one? Do we care whether the Terminators are AC or DC? Do we need to know “what if…” Reese had almost not died?
Can’t Hollywood make stuff instead of constantly remaking stuff?
No offense to Yelchin, but he should have some faith in himself and steer clear of Hollywood rehash.
Yelchin is a really good actor, but he’s just not right for Kyle Reese. For that matter I’d really rather not see Reese at all in T4, but that’s an argument for another place.
How long before we get Terminator: The Next Generation?
Isn’t McG doing this? I enjoyed all 3 Terminator movies but I have to admit this 4th one may be one too many.
Thats awesome. Good for this fine young actor. Much success to you…
#6
Since this film follows in the continuity of the abysmal T3, it’s not likely you’ll be seeing that. T3 established Skynet as software without any kind of mainframe or central location.
#12
Seriously? The 1st & 2nd entries in the series are a FAR cry from mediocre. I agree that T3 was a major misstep & this film will be as well (McG’s involvement guarantees a dumbed-down plot with lots of explosions, Michael Bay-style), but the SCC is great television and tonally more in line with the original 2.
Besides, couldn’t a cynic use your same reasoning about his involvement in Trek XI?
The Terminator is an 80’s Sci-fi classic. T2 was a box-office smash, and a fun movie. T3 was abysmal, and I lost interest completely.. I haven’t watched the tv show, but my kids have it on a TiVo season pass, and they seem to enjoy it. I am sure I will have to take the boys to see T4…What the hell? It’s only a couple of hours of my time.
Actors of Bale and Yelchin’s cred should be looking to move up after Trek and Batman.Terminator 4 .Four? Is a step down in a tired old franchise.
Two quick comments.
1) Is it wise to do a movie series and a TV series concurrently? Always thought this was a major misstep for the TREK franchise and now, here is Fox doing the same thing. Why pay for something, you can get for free?
2) Isn’t time travel becoming just a little tiring? As a person who grew up reading science fiction, I have a problem with this. Can’t Hollywood come up with more science fiction approaches than this? And, this goes for ST: lX as well.
It’s all just so banal and lazy.
arrrrr….
ummm, didn’t they solve all thar SkyNet problems at tha end of T2 and then solved them all over again at tha end of T3?
It’s like Highlander… hey, no mate, that wasn’t THE quickening at tha first one’s end… nope… here it goes now in this movie… no, wait- forget that crust o’ crap- Here it REALLY is in this movie! No- wait- THIS movie is the real quickening… uhhh… isn’t thar a fifth one now?
‘course, Trek played with tha reset button too many times…That will make an unsatisfying end ta XI if tha whole movie “never happened”…
Listen ta me rot on like a whiny little badger!
I’m sorry but where is something new under tha sun? arrrr… I could write a more original movie with a banana… something about web bloggers who get a ‘puter virus in themselves which causes ‘em to go around naked all tha time and send large cheques ta British Naval Dude which he in turn spends on transdimensional hookers…
arrrrr
#20, I agree Hollywood needs to get more creative, but I’m not so quick to dismiss time travel plots. They’ve been done a million which ways, but people still love the concept because so many wish they could do it. I think there could still be some original ways to mine that vein - though I admit another Terminator movie wouldn’t be my first choice.
Who is starring in the Harlan Ellison yelling role when Anton steps through a Guardian to go back to 1984?
The problem with all time-travel stories is that if one attempt to change the past fails because of some just-in-time act of heroism, there is often much to suggest that repeated attempts are possible. If so, then there’s nothing to suggest that these attempts will not eventually be successful, on the predicate that if you try something often enough, one of those attempts is bound to succeed when the hero, for once, misses it by THAT much.
Thus, in a Trek context, during one of the potentially infinite number of times that Kirk was approached by Picard in the Nexus (in Generations), Kirk might have decided to stay home after all, leading to the failure Picard to stop Soran.
By the same token, what’s to stop Skynet from going back again and again to destroy John Connor — even to the point of killing George Washington to prevent America from even having existed?
we’ll see. I kind of lost interest after the third one. This sounds like a rental to me at best.
#20 and #22
Will T4 involve time travel at all? I think it will all take place in it’s own post-T3 world.
“which may get retitled”
I hope so because “The Future Begins” is just about the lamest title I can imagine.
#24—In the original, Skynet got off one attempt just before being destroyed. Of course, the problem was, that the events in the original never actually prevented Skynet from being built, they only assured that John Conner would be born and so would Skynet. The whole thing was a temporal paradox… the proverbial “chicken and the egg thing”.
In T2, the protagonists actually addressed the issue of Skynet being built or not built at all. When the only surviving chip was destroyed, that should have been the end of it.
Instead, we got the crap that is T3…
I still haven’t seen the series, so I cannot comment much. Is it a complete reboot, or does it acknowledge the events of the previous films?
21, Skynet wasn’t solved in T3. Judgment Day happened in T3. This will apparently take place after Judgment Day.
#28
It acknowledges the events of T1 & T2, not T3.
Of course, if you remember the end of T2, the T-101’s arm was left behind in the gears in the confrontation between it and the T-1000, so that Skynet could continue isn’t completely out of line with what the movies had established.
arrrr… but what if the events of T2 are thwarted as SkyNet goes back in time, grabs Conan tha Barbarian, and sends him to kill everyone even named Connor? They include McCloud from Highlander so the quickening never takes place at all thus relieving us of Highlander 2 forever… but … here be tha tricky part… Connor Trinneer gets whacked by Conan as well as thusly tha Enterprise never really “takes off” thus eliminating Kirk and Spock and Edith Keeler somehow gets going with Mussilini and thus everything goes ta pot when tha Italians take over and the only thing that remains the same is that The Sopranos still gets high ratings… but Conan’s thick head suddenly realizes how close his name be to Conner so he pleads to Crom ta go back to kill himslef as a lad…
Woke up this morning and got meself a paradox… arrrrr…
#28 TSCC is a great show. Someone else builds Skynet, a protege of the original scientist. You should check it out, episodes can be downloaded via xbox live.
#31—A “Bada Bing” on every corner!
#32—My kids actually save the episodes on TiVo, so I’ll probably end up watching them sooner or later.
Dr. Who occassionally addresses the time travelling Mulligan question by having him angrily say he “can’t” interfere with a timeline once it’s started. The audience is never sure whether he can’t or won’t. Time travel Mulligans and predestination were also addressed in the 2002 Guy Pearce ‘Time Machine.’ The scientist develops his machine to save the life of his true love. On attempt number one, she dies differently. Attempt number two: dies again. By the fourth attempt, the audience was in stitches watchin’ the lass bite the big one. I don’t think that was the director’s intention.
Time travel will have a new life, when someone creative takes it on instead of someone who lazily grabs it to plug holes in a lousy script.
#33 Make sure you watch em in order, or you’ll be completely lost.
#9
Gee, encouraging young people to vote……I wonder who he’s rooting for?
looks like this cast of star trek are having no problems in finding roles in other big budget genre films…new Chechov as Reese in T4…new Uhura is the lead in James Camerons Avatar….Pegg and Urban are already fairly well known movie wise (LOTR, Riddick, Doom….Spaced, Shaun, Hot Fuzz etc)….Quinto has Heroes…new Sulu is Harold or Kumar….
the only one that might get type cast is Pine….but then again IS there even such a thing a typecasting these days?
as for T4 - well at least they are finally giving fans what they wanted to see in T3 - the future war….although spread over 3 films…McG is a very ominous choice but Bale as Conner is reasurring….
hopefully the Charlies Angles films will be seen as McGs Phirana II…after all the guy must have something for them to pick him and for Bale to go for it…and he was attached to Superman for a good while too b4 singer - and at least he wanted to shoot the thing in New York - not Australia - which led to him being replaced over $ rate….i mean surely Superman should have been shot in the USA like the 1st one was!
I think time travel is an effective storytelling tool only when it is not an unlimited option. Unfortunately, if all you have to do is slingshot around the Sun at the proper velocity and breaking speed, it loses its value because there is much less drama about the final outcome (and one begins to wonder why it is not utilized as a solution more often).
The storytellers then have to create a set of circumstances (such as a lack of “time” or resources) which prevent that party from trying again if they fail to complete their task initially, otherwise, the plot loses credibility with an even slightly intelligent audience. In Star Trek, for instance, I fear that TT has become too easy and far too common.
As excited as I am to see a return to TOS-era ST, I must admit that the time travel element spoiler did invoke a giant sigh…However, I’ll watch it and give it the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the writers are taking a fresh approach to the time travel plot device.
As for T4, I can’t get too excited about it now. Star Trek is on another level for me. I’m sure I’ll watch it (T4), but maybe not at the theater.
Wasn’t the one in the Sarah Connor Chronicals Kyle’s brother?
I’ve liked what I’ve seen on Sarah Connor Chronicles so far. It solves the T3=crap problem very neatly. I’d tell you but it’s a big spoiler.
I too am wondering why they’re planning movies that follow a different continuity than their current TV show.
The good news is T:SCC has been renewed - after Firefly and Space:AAB who would have thought Fox would give a good SF a second season?
Wasn’t the one in the Sarah Connor Chronicals Kyle’s brother?
And his own daughter! Time travel is really confusing.
28, et al. — good discussion about various issues with time travel. It’s been discussed over and over again in various forums how time travel stories could actually work, but the upshot appears to be that the most credible scenario is that if there do exist multiple universes (the Copenhagen interpretation), then there is no real paradox (in the sense of an insoluble chicken-and-egg problem) because whenever something is done in the past in any one universe that affects its future, then whatever is changed is simply deemed a different universe. This solves-the killing-your-own-ancestor-before-you-are-conceived problem, because in the act of such murder, the time traveler does not erase himself from existence but merely the version of him in the timeline that he has thereby created. Because his original timeline (i.e., the one from which he departed when he traveled backward in time) is entirely separate, his own existence is independent and therefore unaffected. The problem with this view is primarily dramatic: This kind of time travel doesn’t really allow the high stakes implied in movies such as Star Trek: First Contact, in which “The Federation” will cease to exist if the Borg succeed. (Contra, however, see also the endorsement of the many-universes theory in the multiple-universe portrayal seen in “Parallels” (TNG). See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation )
Things are dramatically at stake in STFC because if our gallant crew doesn’t save Cochrane’s Phoenix from destruction, the entire Earth would suffer the fate of Borgification. But we know from “Parallels” that this would be only one timeline, anyway… so what’s the big deal?
And so on and so forth.
I think this is the point at which someone has to say, “It’s only a movie.”
43, good point.
One thing I want to add, though: The STFC, and the T1 and T2 movies, all worked out dramatically, and here’s why: The conceit is that there is, after all, a “proper” timeline, and that this just happens to be the timeline we’re used to as viewers. In other words, when we see the Earth Borgified in the “proper” timeline, we know that the Borg have succeeded at least once, and this we cannot allow.
Rationally speaking, if the multiple-universes theorem is true, there may be no particular reason to bemoan the loss of the Earth to the Borg, since there are an infinite number of parallel universes in which the Earth remains un-Borgified. But dramatically these stories work because we identify with the one timeline with which we are familiar. And also because we want to know that there is at least one timeline in which the good guys win.
Doesn’t make the overall picture any more discouraging, though, since the Borg do prevail in any number of infinite timelines, despite the fact that they’re not the “preferred” or “proper” timeline we seem to favor.
Hat Rick — you used the word conceit. Yes. A good writer will have us early on. We’ll forget that it’s preposterous for apes to develop the power of speech in just two-thousand years. We’ll ignore that there’s no fog in the desert while we listen to Rick give Ilsa a heartbreaking good-bye speech. We’ll let the castaways stay stuck and never once yell at the screen “Throw Gilligan to the Sharks!”
OK, that last one was a stretch. Point is, I leave real theories on time travel to the Einsteins. I pay my ten bucks to the good writers/directors/actors/etc who can make my happily suspend my disbelief.
STFC did that. T1 and T2 did it. T3 did not. Mostly, I can happily be befuzzled by good characters and interesting problem solving.
I hope JJ knows that. I think he does.
#39: We saw both Kyle and Kyle’s brother. Kyle’s brother is the one actually hanging out at the house, but we saw Kyle himself played by two different actors (child and adult) in flashback … er, flash-forwar … er flashforwardbacks. And then we saw Kyle in real-time again as a small child (and his brother likewise).
Flashbackfowards? Forwardbackflashes?
Right on, 45, right on. Identification with a proper timeline is part of the key.
The other part is to insert some kind of demonstrated supposition that it’s not possible to “uncorrect” what’s been corrected. The factor that prevented the uncorrection in T2 has already been noted above by another poster. In similar fashion, there should be in the upcoming Trek movie a similar way to prevent the restoration of disfavored events, or else on a technical level all the activity that would go on in the movie to “undo what they have done” would be kind of pointless.
If nothing else, the insertion of a built-in backstop against reversion to the altered timeline would prevent ceaseless discussion such as these from taking away from the integrity of the Trek universal timeilne that we all know and love.
(And yes, I do know that the “proper timeline” in Trek has probably been screwed around with so much, between various trips to the Griffith Observatory look-alike in that Henry Starling episode of VOY, Kirk’s various temporal research / incursions (as humorously mentioned by the Temporal Police in a famous DS9 episode (”Not a temporal paradox! We hate those.” or similar; “Trials and Tribbleations”, was it?), STFC, STTVH, etc., ad infinitum, that there probably is no such thing as a pristine proper timeline in Trek any more. Which explains, it is sometimes said, why Khan never arose in precisely the way supposed… or maybe he did and it’s a secret…. And don’t even get started on the Temporal Cold War….)
Geoffrey Thomas exploring how time works
The great scientific thinker and hero of the scientific world Albert Einstein said clocks slow down when we approach the maximum speed of light. We all read about this in any science manual on Albert Einstien’s theory of reality. But the theoryn of reality says only from that point of view. Some of us believe comes to a stop as we hitt the maximum speed of light..
We’d think the horrific G-forces of extreme velocity like that would be an ideal force and energy for use in distorting space and time catalysis for time traveling.
However, if it’s only a point of view thing, as time stops at light speed from our point of view, then what does the environment’s point of view see us as?
I’ve been exploring in my blog all this called, (http://) time travel and parallel universe theorie (.blogspot.com/) how we observe the environment’s time pass not only from our point of view when we’re at maximum speed of light but also from the environment’s point of view of us at that velocity.
When we think of it, we observe the hour and minute hands of clocks frozen in time at any given moment just as we wouold expect to see clock arms stoped in time if we were at the maximum speed of light.
Despite “us” seeing the environment frozen in time at the maximum speed of light “from the environment’s point of view” would probably see us speeded up in tiime.
Something tells us despite the fact the hour and minute hands appear to be frozen in time at any given moment they’re not. It appears we observe the hands are moving though time stopped in time at the same time.
Yours The explorer of time
Geoffrey Thomas
Lord. Terminator is one of my favorite movie franchises, but they really should have stopped at two. Three was pushing it, and four PLUS the TV show is DEFINITELY going too far.
Also, Chekov as Kyle Reese? That just makes my brain hurt. But who knows?
Geoffrey, the classic discussion of this is what happens when a traveler nears the event horizon of a black hole. From our point of view at an arbitrary distance away, we would never quite see the traveler cross that imaginary threshold where the forces of gravity are so extreme that even light (and therefore time) is frozen. It appears that what we would see is the fading of the traveler from view, as if someone had turned on a cosmic fader. His photons would be redshifted beyond perceptible light and eventually he would be invisible.
But where is he, exactly?
Black holes were once called “frozen stars” because it was believed that time stopped, since light and information were prevented from escape. But it appears that regardless of the near-infinite curvature of space time represented by black holes, the experience or manifestations of time would not freeze at the black hole itself. The forementioned traveler — assuming he somehow survived the descent — would see a great flash of gamma radiation as the entire future of the universe took place nearly instantaneously. From that point on, the physics are unknown and we get into discussions of whether the traveler emerges somewhere, somewhen in some universe (whether or not that universe is this one).
Kip Thorne and others have written books about this, as well as doing the hard mathematics surrounding this theory. And let’s not forget Stephen Hawking’s famous work on these subjects. (I wonder how that work he’s doing on the warp engine is going?)
#46 Forwardbackflashes
#51 Flashforwardbacks? Forwardflashbacks? Backflashforwards?
Hey, “Lost” is on tomorrow. Wonder what coulda made me think of that? :-)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
Re: #19. Jon C
“Actors of Bale and Yelchin’s cred should be looking to move up after Trek and Batman.Terminator 4 .Four? Is a step down in a tired old franchise.”
Maybe he feels that at this early stage in his career he can’t be too discriminating. After all, he’s still fairly young and, it’s a paycheque and, who knows - - maybe someone who sees him in T4 may cast him in something else huge and it could help his career. Or kill it. You never know.
It may be wise to do a ton of stuff so he doesn’t get typecast as “Chekov”.
kg
Re: #52 The Vulcanista
“Flashforwardbacks? Forwardflashbacks? Backflashforwards?”
Talk about “Back to the Future”… It’s getting confusing.
kg
Re: #31. Britsh Naval Dude
You’re not helping my headache!!
:-)
Goodnight, ‘Dude.
kg
#17
Duh !! I Know that “Skynet” was a program in the lame T3 (except Kristana Loken) but most non canonical Lore like The awesome Dark Horse comic series “Terminator: The Burning Earth” it was depicted as a huge main frame complex.
Oh hey what’s up Katie G.? long time no type, headache diminished?
Re: #57. The Last Maquis
Headache’s gone (whew). Every once-in-a-while I get one so bad I can hardly see (like while I was posting here at 2 a.m.) but took some ibuprofen and stretched my neck and fell asleep, thanks.
Came up at 3 p.m. today to check you guys out and actually made first post on the new article. (Was tempted to type “first” but thought I’d spare you all.)
Whenever I click on the links in the article or the postings, it takes forever and either I give up or my computer freezes so I miss out on a lot of the stuff. Especially the ST:OGAM. I’m dying to see it. If I go to an internet cafe, will I be able to view it? Are they equipped with the fast set up? Anyone know? (I’m in Toronto.)
Personally, I can’t see Yelchin in “Terminator” but he may fool me like Leonardo DiCaprio did. The more I saw Leo in, the more impressed I was. Yelchin doesn’t strike me as a ‘Michael Biehn’ type, but I guess that’s why they call it “acting”.
kg
#56
Right. I’m just saying that since this follows T3’s continuity, you won’t be seeing that. Since the SCC ignores T3, maybe we’ll eventually see something like that on there. Although, I do understand why they went with Skynet being software/AI by the time T3 rolled around (even though I didn’t like it).
I just found a Website that might be part of a viral promotional campaign related to the Terminator franchise. Here’s a link to its blog page:
http://enitechlabs.com/blog/
According to AICN, the Website is for a company that is working on technology that takes pictures of the future. Since no such technology plausibly exists, the company appears to be fake for that reason.
Note the reference to the “resistance” in one of the “blog entries.”