SiM Classic Trailer: The Terminator (1984)

Future Titanic director introduces Schwarzenegger's most famous film persona

Director: James Cameron (Titanic)
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (T2: Judgement Day), Linda Hamilton (Beauty and the Beast), Michael Biehn (Aliens), Earl Beon (Mama's Family), Paul Winfield (Sounder), Lance Henriksen (Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
Distributor: Orion Pictures

Synopsis: Co-scripted and directed by Canadian-born filmmaker James Cameron (Aliens, The Abyss), The Terminator is a sci-fi action film that is set in 1984, but features a cyborg assassin from the future (2029), known as "The Terminator" (Schwarzenegger), who's mission is to kill Sarah Connor (Hamilton). Kyle Reese (Biehn) is part of the human race sent back to protect Connor, who's future son, John Connor, will become the leader of the resistance against the deadly computer-controlled machines. The $6.5 million film earned $78.3 million at the worldwide box office, a fraction of the $519.8 million made by its 1991 blockbuster sequel T2: Judgement Day, which reunited Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Hamilton. The series continued with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and the current Terminator Salvation (2009). In 2008 the United States National Film Registry selected The Terminator for preservation in the Library of Congress, deemed as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Conan the Barbarian for the New Generation

German director Marcus Nispel will take on the major update

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

The man behind the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Friday the 13th (2009) has signed on to direct yet another film reinvention, Conan the Barbarian. Marcus Nispel (pictured left), a German-born filmmaker who used to direct music videos and TV commercials, will helm the esteemed project, something he's dreamed about since his childhood.

Nu Image/Millennium Films, in association with Lionsgate, have announced that production will begin later this year in South Africa and Bulgaria, with a producing team that includes Avi Lerner (The Wicker Man), Joe Gatta (Labor Pains) and Fredrik Malmberg (Mutant Chronicles). The latter runs the Paradox company which owns the rights to Robert E. Howard's famed Conan character.

Thomas Dean Donnelly (Sahara) and Joshua Oppenheimer (A Sound of Thunder) have been attached to script the upcoming feature, a project that had been in the works for years now. Prior to Nispel signing on, directors like Robert Rodriguez, Brett Ratner, and Larry & Andy Wachowski had been approached to helm a motion picture redo, but nothing ever came of these inquiries.

The 1982 original film, Conan the Barbarian (pictured right), was directed by John Milius and famously starred relative newcomer Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as James Earl Jones. It led to a second film in 1984, Conan the Destroyer, which also starred Schwarzenegger, who was about to star in The Terminator as well.

Nispel got his start directing TV ads, working on hundreds of commercials for Pepsi, Coke, Nike, Visa, AT&T, Kodak, NBC, ABC, CBS, and dozens of others major corporations, before moving on to music videos for the biggest stars in the industry, including Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Billy Joel, Cher, Bryan Adams, Puff Daddy and the Spice Girls. He's also won multiple MTV Video Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards for his prolific resume.