While Justin Lin directs the current batch of action stars in FAST SIX (or whatever it’ll be titled), another action icon will have to patiently wait for the time displacement equipment to be fully charged.
Deadline reports that the FAST schedule will prevent Lin from directing the sequel(s) to THE TERMINATOR and T2 that he’s been attached to for several months. But there’s a caveat: deep-pocketed producer Megan Ellison holds the rights (James Cameron gets them back in 2018 if no movie is made by then), and it will depend on if she’ll wait for Lin to finish FASTing.
Ellison wants a pair of movies on the SkyNet production line pronto, with the first starting next year, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to appear in some capacity (his involvement started before his own past secrets came knocking on his door like a homicidal cyborg). Lin and the Austrian Oak even reportedly brainstormed with his old chum and two-time TERMINATOR director James Cameron, but who knows what they’ll come up with (or how they’ll explain Arnie’s age — factory malfunction?). There isn’t a script or writer on it yet, but we can probably assume they’ll ignore the events of T3 and TERMINATOR SALVATION. (I’m trying to.)
Meanwhile, Lin has a whole bunch of other projects he’s developing at Universal, which is happy to be in the Justin Lin biz thanks to the massive success of the FAST series. So if Ellison finds someone else to put an exclamation point on the series Cameron started, at least Lin will have plenty to keep himself occupied for many years.