Oct 08, 2007,  Dre Rivas
The rumor mill is rumbling and the word is McG and Vin Diesel may be teaming up for Terminator 4. I kind of liked Terminator 3. It didn't kill the franchise or anything. But this sounds like a recipe for disaster. I actually like Vin Diesel but he shouldn't be fooling around with a role like this. It just makes him look more like a lunkhead. He needs to take more roles where he gets to wear a hairpiece like Find Me Guilty. He was good in that thing.

As for McG ... uh, I don't know. A big part of me thinks he sucks. Since the big part of me is much larger than the small part of me, I have to give the big part of me respect and take its word. So there you have it, McG. You stink.

I got to wondering if they ("they" being the studio monkeys) had to make another Terminator movie, what director and actor match-ups would actually work? I came up with three probable teams:

Dakota Fanning directed by David Cronenberg:
We've seen the hulking Terminator. We've seen the average-looking guy Terminator. We've seen the hot chick terminator. I think America is ready for a scary little girl Terminator. Maybe it's just me, but there's something about this girl that shakes me to my core. She could pull this off. One moment she's the sweet little girl from I Am Sam. The next moment, she's ripping out your spine. This disturbing material might be right up Cronenberg's alley too.

The Keanu directed by The Wachowski Bros:
Keep telling yourself this wouldn't work. The Wachowski Siblings could make Keanu look cool doing anything. And have you noticed that Keanu's line delivery is pretty close to Ah-nuld's? Both actors have a clear and concise understanding on how to make a serious line sound unintentionally funny. I would kill to hear Keanu tell someone, "Hasta la vista, baby," or, "Come with me if you want to live." Or "Fifty! Stay above fifty!" Oh, wait... The point is, there are a ton of lines I can imagine him delivering in a Terminator movie I can't wait for him to oversell them.

Dwayne Johnson directed by James Cameron:
Come on, you knew this was inevitable. Cameron would be a welcomed return to the franchise and he'd have an even better actor (this isn't saying much) this time. I will say this: I would only want to see The Rock do this role if he was a good guy. He just released The Game Plan, which means he's in with the kids and family market for life. It's like a death sentence. Little kids like Dwayne and they don't want to see him terminate people unless they really deserve it. It's kind of what happened to Ah-nuld after Twins and Kindergarten Cop. No way was he going to reprise the villain role in the Terminator series after those movies. Kids wouldn't trust their parents ever again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dre writes three times a week for Film.com when he isn't busy terminating. E-mail him!