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Creating the Terminator
“They could have fired me on the spot. But you know, they’re idiots”
That’s a quote from James Cameron about the reaction of gathered
executives to the first screening of The Terminator, which according to
the director, really didn’t go all that well. However, largely due to
Cameron’s background working on cheesy B-Movies, there was nobody else
in Hollywood the studio could bring in to finish the movie. In fact, the
success of Terminator and by extension the career of James Cameron owes
a lot to the director’s B-movie chops, connections and experience. Oh,
and a vicious bout of food poisoning that left him delirious and on the
verge of shitting himself for like 5 whole days.
On this, there is a long-standing industry legend that the genesis of
The Terminator was a nightmare Cameron had whilst working on the
cinematic turd that is, Piranha II: The Spawning, a film about
genetically engineered flying piranha that is largely only noteworthy
for being the directorial debut of Cameron, outside of a little film he
made funded by his dentist. The legend posits that Cameron had to take a
break from tossing rubber piranha at his actors when he came down with
food poisoning. Whilst recovering in a cheap Italian hotel, Cameron is
said to have had a nightmare about a chrome skeleton attempting to stab
him with a kitchen knife and that that image was so terrifying he was
convinced it could be a great hook for a film. Cameron then immediately
sketched out the basic design of what would become the Terminator.
Which is a great story, but it’s not the whole story and there are
several details James Cameron himself has dismissed or clarified over
the years.
Author: Karl Smallwood
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
Host: Simon Whistler
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Cloud10
4.9
13701,370 ratings
“They could have fired me on the spot. But you know, they’re idiots”
That’s a quote from James Cameron about the reaction of gathered
executives to the first screening of The Terminator, which according to
the director, really didn’t go all that well. However, largely due to
Cameron’s background working on cheesy B-Movies, there was nobody else
in Hollywood the studio could bring in to finish the movie. In fact, the
success of Terminator and by extension the career of James Cameron owes
a lot to the director’s B-movie chops, connections and experience. Oh,
and a vicious bout of food poisoning that left him delirious and on the
verge of shitting himself for like 5 whole days.
On this, there is a long-standing industry legend that the genesis of
The Terminator was a nightmare Cameron had whilst working on the
cinematic turd that is, Piranha II: The Spawning, a film about
genetically engineered flying piranha that is largely only noteworthy
for being the directorial debut of Cameron, outside of a little film he
made funded by his dentist. The legend posits that Cameron had to take a
break from tossing rubber piranha at his actors when he came down with
food poisoning. Whilst recovering in a cheap Italian hotel, Cameron is
said to have had a nightmare about a chrome skeleton attempting to stab
him with a kitchen knife and that that image was so terrifying he was
convinced it could be a great hook for a film. Cameron then immediately
sketched out the basic design of what would become the Terminator.
Which is a great story, but it’s not the whole story and there are
several details James Cameron himself has dismissed or clarified over
the years.
Author: Karl Smallwood
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
Host: Simon Whistler
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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