Thursday, October 09, 2014

Jai Courtney & J.K. Simmons Talk "Terminator: Genisys"

With production behind them, two cast members are now chatting up the sequel reboot Terminator: Genisys.


Jai Courtney has won the role of Kyle Reese. The Good Day to Die Hard star beat out Boyd Holbrook his nearest competitor who is to have tested twice--while Sam Reid, Wilson Bethel, and newcomer, Thomas Cocquerel were also contenders for the role of Reese. All 5 actors tested for the role last month. Seemingly, both Nicholas Hoult and Garrett Hedlund were studio favorites but have declined to enter negotiations for the role.

The film will apparently "end the story of Skynet's battle with the resistance".

Australian actor Jason Clarke ("Zero Dark Thirty," "White House Down") is set to play the role of John Connor in the upcoming reboot. Hedlund Tom Hardy and ironically Holbrook ("The Host") were said to be up for John as well. Emilia Clarke is set to play a young Sarah Connor in the film. She beat out Brie Larson for the role. Former "Spider-Man" scene stealer J.K. Simmons will play a weary and alcoholic detective who has followed a bizarre case involving Sarah Connor and robots for more than three decades starting in 1984 and the events depicted in The Terminator. Dayo Okeniyi (The Hunger Games) has signed on to play the part of  Danny Dyson--the son of Miles Dyson, played by Joe Morton in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" who designed the neural-net processor that would lead to the creation of Skynet.

The final major piece of casting--Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith's role is said to have a strong connection to John Connor, and will grow in the second and third films.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will return while cohorts Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn have been rumored to be involved as well.

 Byung-hun Lee, Michael Gladis and Sandrine Holt co-star. Lee's role, "promises to be a doozy." Bodybuilder and actor Aaron V. Williamson has reportedly signed on to play a younger T-800 

Chatting with The Huffington Post Courtney says that the new movie will re-visit the events of James Cameron’s original and then start to go in different directions:

"What I can say is that we start in a place we're familiar with from the early films and then, you know, circumstances change. It somewhat shifts the course of events from that point," he says. "It's not necessarily a sequel or a reboot. I don't even know how you brand it correctly. We're not remaking one of the early Terminator movies. And it doesn't necessarily carry on from the point where we left off."

Later he was asked by, The Arnold Fans to comment on the pic's potential rating. It looks like it's gonna be a more viewer friendly:

"I would love to see it be rated R, but I don't think it will. I think in this day & age, it's much more likely to be PG-13. There were no f-bombs. But there'll be a healthy amount of movie violence."

Asked about the notion of sequels, Courtney seemed to confirm reports that the next two films will be shot back to back.

Co-star Simmons has described  "Genisys" to Coming Soon as - "a love story". He says that the film is more dimensional and well-rounded than you might be expecting:

"I thought, 'Well, obviously it's a gigantic movie and on that level, it's something most actors would want to be a part of, but is it just going to be the formulaic yadda-yadda-yadda then cut to the stuff blowing up?' But I found the script to be really much more intelligent and fun and funny and well-rounded and heartfelt. It's a love story. It's a really interesting script. They got great actors. I wrapped that in August, so that was another movie that ended up being really satisfying on all levels."

Simmons also took time to discuss his co-stars:

"Most of my stuff was with Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke and Arnold was very involved or rather I was involved in a fair amount of stuff with Arnold. … I felt I could give too much away by saying that I get to work with all those actors, but people know the characters that they're playing."

Drew McWeeney at Hitfix discusses the time travel component of the new film and revealed that this new Terminator overlaps with events in the original 1984 classic ala "Back to the Future". In one scene we see Arnie's older "Terminator" walking into one of the iconic early scenes from the first film after his younger counterpart has left.

No other story details have been offered but we do know that the new pic is the chapter of a stand alone trilogy. Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier wrote the script from which "Thor: The Dark World" director Alan Taylor called action. Clarke has experience working with Taylor on the cable drama "Game of Thrones". She also has a six degrees connection to the franchise: Clarke's Thrones co-star Lena Headey played Sarah Connor in the TV series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles".

David Ellison's going to produce the film that is set to hit theaters on July 1, 2015.

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