The last time Deadpool director Tim Miller was here at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, he was promoting his R-rated revival of the Terminator series, Terminator: Dark Fate.
There was a lot of hope around the film, and Miller was set to right the wrongs of previous installments. Per James Cameron’s suggestion, he returned the sequel to a hardcore rating. Not only did he make sure Arnold Schwarzenegger was back, but Linda Hamilton, too; the last time she starred in the action series was Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
However, the pic tanked at the box office with $62M domestic, $261M WW; the second lowest grossing sequel in the franchise after the original installment.
At today’s Collider panel Directors on Directing, editor Steve Weintraub asked Miller, “Do you think there’s a future in another Terminator movie, almost a Jason Blum version?”
Miller quipped, “I don’t like your question, Steve.”
“Terminator’s an interesting movie to explore, but maybe we’ve explored it enough,” Miller said.
Miller said, “I went in with the rock hard nerd belief that if I made a good movie that I wanted to see, it would do well. And I was wrong. It was one of those f**king Eureka moments in a bad way because the movie tanked.”
“It didn’t tank,” said Weintraub, “It made $300 million.”
“Then why aren’t people returning my phone calls?” responded Miller.
Then showing optimism, “I think if you make a lower cost Terminator movie, a good director and movie star could make it great. It could be made with sock puppets and it could be awesome,” Miller continued.
“I’d like to do a Terminator CG.”
The original Terminator movie in 1984 was a cash cow, made for under a reported $7M and grossing over $78M WW.