LOS ANGELES -- Snicker-worthy name or not, McG could sell scrap metal to a terminator.
Consider: for today's round of interviews at a Beverly Hills hotel, the director of Charlie's Angels is nattily attired, engaging, affable and on message -- the filmmaker as tireless pitchman. No surprise, really. Of everyone connected to this week's Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the blue-chip science-fiction series, it is the 38-year-old McG -- who was born Joseph McGinty Nichol -- with the most to prove. Or lose.
To cineastes and fan boys, from filmmaking blogs to message boards, his moniker -- a nickname he's had since he was a kid -- is synonymous with scorn. When he tried to make a Superman movie a few years ago, the faithful were apoplectic. Imagine their reaction, then, when it was announced he would be taking the reins of a new Terminator movie -- the first not to star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"They weren't excited about the prospect of the Charlie's Angels guy making a Terminator movie and, respectfully, why would they be? What have I done that would suggest I'm the right guy?" McG admits, well aware that a little self-deprecation goes a long way. "So, you take a step back, you work that much more diligently, and you let the film do the talking."
And you surround yourself with people who already possess oodles of geek cred. Thus he brought in creature maestro Stan Winston, architect of the original T-800, to perform similar duties this time out. (Winston died during production last summer.) He also sought the blessings of franchise creator James Cameron and Schwarzenegger. And, most significantly, he courted Christian Bale to star. "I wanted (Bale) to play Marcus," McG says, referring to Sam Worthington's enigmatic newcomer, "but he was more interested in playing (John) Connor, so we went about the business of working on the script."
This, of course, was all before an audio clip of Bale tearing into cinematographer Shane Hurlbut -- for wandering into the actor's sightline -- became a viral sensation and comedic manna for late-night talk show hosts and celebrity bloggers.
McG, though, isn't expressing any buyer's remorse -- a good thing, presumably, since both men will be back for the inevitable sequel.
"He's so passionate about acting and about his craft. He has no entourage. He's got no assistant standing out in the hall. He drove here in a beat-up pick-up truck. He is about the work. That's who he is. And to work with an actor who's that focused and that intense, is to all of our benefit."
As for McG's own reputation, it's obvious he hopes Terminator Salvation will set him on the path to greater credibility.
"Who would ever guess that a guy that was on 21 Jump Street, with a ridiculous name like Johnny Depp, would go on to be one of the great entertainers of our time? You've got to earn your stripes and pay your dues, and I'm certainly willing to earn mine ... You just take the good with the bad and you take your lumps along the way."
He points out, after all, that Cameron himself was once in a similar position when he replaced Ridley Scott for 1986's Aliens. "People said, 'What does this guy who made Piranha 2 think he's doing following Ridley Scott?' I think we're all glad Aliens got made."
As for the prospect of screening Salvation, which opened Wednesday, for Cameron, McG insists he's not nervous. "I look forward to showing it to him ... He says he reserves the right to like or not like the movie. I said I reserve the right to like or not like Avatar. And we both sort of giggled and went on our way."
Things blow up 'real' good on set
In some ways, Terminator Salvation is yesterday's model.
That's because director McG decided early on to minimize computerized imagery in favour of the real thing. Appropriate, when you think about it, for a film about a war between humans and a malevolent A.I. named Skynet.
So rather than explosions and landscapes generated on a hard-drive, the movie's action sequences consist largely of real props, locations, puppets and pyrotechnics -- albeit with some digital enhancements.
"I think the public has an intimate understanding of physics and I think filmmakers underestimate that," says McG.
Set in the post-Judgment Day world of 2018, the sequel expands Skynet's army of murderous robots to include Moto-Terminators (basically robotic motorcycles), the snaking, aquatic Hydrobots and the gigantic people-snatching Harvesters.
"I don't like trying to get a performance out of actors when I'm saying, 'Hey Christian, see that tennis ball? That's a seven-foot robot trying to kill you and that green screen is ultimately going to be a post-apocalyptic downtown Los Angeles,' " McG adds. "I think that's a cop out. You can't reach your highest level of performance in the absence of a tactile environment."
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001U0HBPG/almosthuman
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