James Cameron revealed that he has started writing a new Terminator movie

Avatar: The Way of Water is now available to rent and own on digital and while James Cameron has stated that he’s deep into the sequels, having already wrapped filming on the third film, the sci-fi auteur has also been dropping hints that he may try to squeeze in other projects in-between. Back in December, Cameron would talk about mourning the films he wouldn’t get to make as he’s committed to the Na’vi franchise. He’s also mentioned that he’s interested in pursuing a pet project about the story of the Hiroshima bombing before filming Avatar 4.

This past week, Cameron appeared as a guest speaker at the 2023 Dell Technologies World Conference. During his panel, he revealed to the audience that he had started writing a script for a new Terminator movie three months ago, according to a tweet from Roderick Mercado, a marketer for Microsoft at Dell Technologies. Mercado’s tweet would state, “So James Cameron just told the #DellTechWorld crowd that he started writing a new Terminator movie 3 months ago but wants to see how #AI shakes out before he goes any further.”

The timing is also interesting, considering that a couple of weeks ago, the Writers’ Guild went on strike, and there is a real fear in the film community that studios could very well turn to using AI to churn out ideas and scripts for movies and TV projects as opposed to hiring writers. The Peacock original, Mrs. Davis is already utilizing a method of having AI outline story ideas while the writers piggyback off of what is generated.

This also comes not long after an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, where the action star addresses that after Terminator: Dark Fate, he has decided to step down from the franchise, although he thinks it will continue.  “The franchise is not done. I’m done. I got the message loud and clear that the world wants to move on with a different theme when it comes to The Terminator. Someone has to come up with a great idea. The Terminator was largely responsible for my success, so I always would look at it very fondly. The first three movies were great. Number four [Salvation] I was not in because I was governor. Then five [Genisys] and six [Dark Fate] didn’t close the deal as far as I’m concerned. We knew that ahead of time because they were just not well written.”