The Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival is turning out to be quite an exciting event for fans of classic sci-fi. Earlier today, we brought you news of Sigourney Weaver’s comments that she “could imagine” returning to the Alien franchise for a fifth installment in the future, and now we have news that James Cameron is interested in revisiting one of his classics too – albeit in a slightly less exciting way. If comments he made to an inquisitive audience member are to be believed, a 3D release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a definite possibility.
After all, Cameron previously converted his gargantuan disaster romance Titanic to 3D, a move which paid off in spades for the acclaimed director. When asked about the possibility of seeing 3D conversions for The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron said there weren’t any plans, but then added the following:
“Terminator 1 I don’t think so because you could upgrade it to 3D but it’s still pretty gritty, available light photography, low budget filmmaking. We’d spend more converting it to 3D than we spent on the movie. That feels a little imbalanced to me.
But Terminator 2 is a more polished film and, I think, it has a kind of timeless appeal. If there was someone who was interested in doing that, and we could make a good case for the business model like, perhaps let’s say, it’s never been on screens in China which in the next few years is about to become the biggest market for films worldwide. That alone might justify the cost of a conversion which might be 6 or 7 million dollars. And then a 3D re-release might attract some eyeballs in North American and Europe and then the Chinese release, which would be the first release on the big screen, might pay for it.
I’m just using that as an example. I’m just saying we’re not ruling it out. We’re looking at it.”
That’s a pretty well-thought answer, considering that Cameron claims there are no plans for a conversion at the moment. Fans of the iconic sequel should keep in mind though that 2016 will be its 25th anniversary. Could Cameron be holding back on us? It’s entirely possible. It would be thrilling to see a 3D version of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the director certainly doesn’t seem opposed.
We’ll keep you posted, but don’t be surprised if you see an official announcement closer to 2016.