Author: Josh Wigler

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Terminator Salvation director McG spoke to E! Online about the upcoming installment in the franchise. During the interview, he mentioned how James Cameron imparted his blessing upon the new director’s vision for the series. Longtime fans had previously been squeamish about the former Charlie’s Angels helmer bringing his perspective to the beloved science fiction world that Cameron had so carefully crafted. But the combination of high profile casting, solid early footage and this news of Cameron’s approval stole many disheartened sighs from nervous fans and replaced them with hollers of anticipation.

If that was a deal breaker for you, then you might wanna sit down for this one. James Cameron himself is denying that he ever gave McG his seal of approval.

"It could be a big steaming pile or it could be brilliant," Cameron tells the National Post. "Sam Worthington is in the Avatar and the new Terminator and he likes the script, but I never saw it. There was no blessing involved."

Is Cameron’s blessing completely necessary? Maybe not. Plenty of folks get married without parental approval, and they end up being nice and cozy in their new life. Why should Terminator be any different?

The real worry here is that McG fibbed about Cameron’s seal of approval. Perhaps he confused earlier words from Cameron as a blessing. Maybe he felt he needed to lie to win over the skeptics. Either way, devoted Cameron stalwarts are bound to be troubled by this news.

God of War fans have been clamoring for a film adaptation of the hit video game for years now. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to see the God-hunting warmonger Kratos ripping off Medusa’s head on the big screen? If that’s something that might interest you, then get ready, because that movie is on the way.

UGO has the exclusive that Brett Ratner is set to direct God of War. That’s right, the Rush Hour guy. Same dude who drove X-Men: The Last Stand straight into the box office — or straight into the ground, depending on who you talk to.

Though Ratner did confirm his involvement to UGO, no official announcement has been made regarding the project. In their exclusive video, Ratner mentions his upcoming projects in stride.

"[I’m working on] a few movies, waiting for scripts and greenlights to come in," Ratner says. "A few good things… Playboy, Beverly Hills Cop, [and] God of War. Some really cool movies." Ratner’s had his name attached to most genre-related films and some oddities such as Guitar Hero. He’s said to be developing Valiant’s Harbinger as his first super-hero franchise to call his own.  Ratner is also attached as producer on numerous projects including the big screen adaptation of the animated series Hong Kong Phooey.

Fans of the franchise and Ratner’s detractors will likely be up in arms over this announcement. Still, the director knows how to shoot action sequences, which will be a lot more important to a God of War flick than yielding Oscar-worthy performances. Not to say that this film will be any good, but anything that distracts Ratner from working on Beverly Hills Cop is a-OK by us.

God of War focuses on Kratos, a Spartan warrior who pledges servitude to Ares, the God of War. In order to make him a better warrior, Ares deceives Kratos into slaughtering his own wife and child. Kratos is cursed to have the ashes of his wife and child stain his skin, making him look like a ghost warrior. Now, armed with the Blades of Chaos, Kratos vows to avenge his family by killing the God of War.

The fate of mankind hangs in the balance as the Fox network considers canceling Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Ratings for the show have been abysmal this year. A report from SyFy Portal pegs Sarah‘s lowest rating last season at 4.5/7. This season, it’s highest rating is 4.1/6 and is averaging a 3.7, resulting in 34% off its audience average from last year.

The numbers translate to 5.33 million viewers, down 480,000 from last week. Yeowch.

A source close to the situation tells SyFy that there’s some doom and gloom regarding the series’ future. "All I can say is that production will likely stop, and I would think that Fox might try to air some of the episodes already in the can," says the source.

"But I don’t know. They don’t want to lose Prison Break, so there could be some schedule shuffling in the future."

It’s a sad, sad world when a show about breaking in and out of jail over and over again can survive for four seasons, but a freaking Terminator show barely makes it one and a half. Unfortunately, the blame can’t rest squarely on Fox’s shoulders. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has not only gone down in ratings since the pilot episode, it’s also suffered in terms of quality. Despite some strong moments, this season has lacked story focus, devoting far too much time to characters and plots that are insignificant and/or boring.

The future is uncertain for Sarah Connor, but try and look on the bright side. If the show gets canceled, we’ll probably see Brian Austin Green back on 90210! C’mon folks, gotta look for the silver lining somewhere, am I right!?

HBO has announced the development of Americatown, a new drama series project from writer Bradford Winters and producers Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Americatown is "set 25-40 years into the future when the precipitous decline of the U.S. leads to a mass exodus of its citizens," says The Hollywood Reporter. The show focuses on newly arrived American immigrants in a large foreign city.

"By presenting Americans as immigrants in the near future, as both underdog and hero in the drama of global dislocation, we substitute a mirror for the rancor that informs much of the partisan debates on immigration," Winters said of the series.

The show focuses both on immigration and on potential financial meltdown, which is quite topical given current circumstances.

Says Winters of the irony: "What is happening right now is such a terrible disaster for so many people and, in some ways, I think makes it less hard to argue that the events in Americatown are impossible."

Winters has worked with Tom Fontana before on HBO’s prison drama, Oz. His two brothers, Scott William Winters and Dean Winters, were series regulars on the program as Cyril and Ryan O’Reily, both brothers and inmates within the titular prison facility. Though no casting announcements have been made, it’s likely that one or both actors will appear on the show in some capacity.

If you thought that The Dark Knight‘s IMAX footage was impressive, wait till you get a load of this one. Today, IMAX Corporation announced that Michael Bay will shoot certain key scenes of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with IMAX cameras. After all, if Christopher Nolan could do it for The Dark Knight  then so can Mr. Action Adventure.  Director Jon Favreau called TDK‘s scene a game changer and clearly he was right.

The sequel to the 2007 robot brawl flick had already been announced for an IMAX release, and speculators wondered whether the film would feature IMAX technology itself. According to the press release, Bay will integrate IMAX footage with CGI, yielding "an unprecedented look and feel for the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s box office hit." Optimus Prime in IMAX? Thank the Maker!
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If you’re the owner of PC manufacturer Dell, and you’re looking for a way to compete with the Apple owned online retail giant iTunes, who you gonna call? Venkman and the gang ain’t gonna cut it this round. You gotta go with the big gun: mother-frakkin Iron Man.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that Dell and Paramount Pictures are partnering up to offer a new front in digital distribution, with an eye to taking on the mega-sized iTunes. Their strategy? Offering customers the option to preload Iron Man into newly purchased computers for $20. Bonus footage will accompany the standard film content.

"The key here is to lead off our slow immersion into content as a major piece of the puzzle in terms of what consumers want from a PC," says Dell’s director of content, Rachna Basin.

So far, Paramount is the only studio to sign onto the plan, leaving Iron Man as Dell’s lone sentinel. As more companies partner up with Dell, consumers will likely have broader options as to which films can be installed onto their computers. Further, there are rumblings that Dell is looking to open an iTunes inspired online retail presence that would allow users to purchase films after they’ve bought their computers.

Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jon Favreau, is out on DVD today. Dell’s offering begins today as well. So if you’re in the market for both the DVD and a new computer, then maybe it’s time to start thinking about a Dell.