Kassar & Vajna Interview

As part of their Terminator 3 Week, GlobalArnold brings you a translated French interview with Terminator 3 producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, originally posted by DVDRama.com. It asks questions about Cameron, the violence (or lack of it, rather) in the movie, and a possible T4.

We at TerminatorFiles normally do not rip the entire text of of another site... but due to some formatting problems on GlobalArnold.com (the text strangely got cut off at the right side of the window) and some gramatical errors in the translation... we did. (sorry ;). It IS some cool news for all to read, so we re-included it here. All credits are to GlobalArnold.com and the original French article on DVDRama.com!

The Interview

After meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger during the release of Terminator 3, we met the two producers of the film, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. The first question that was burning our lips: Why did James Cameron have no part in the making of this film?

Mario Kassar:

I thought of Cameron of course, but it was too complicated. It's simple. 50% of the rights belonged to our old company Carolco and the other 50% belonged to the ex-wife of Cameron, Gale Anne Hard (co-producer of Aliens, The Abyss and Hulk), who had obtained them in their divorce procedures. So, we could not have all the rights. When Cameron worked at Fox on Titanic, he was also already in contact with Schwarzenegger to assemble T3. It would then not have been necessary for him to make much of an effort to come to Carolco to repurchase 50 of which he lacked. Weary of a blow, Andrew Vajna and myself took the financial risk and launched out in the adventure of purchasing all of the rights. I then called James Cameron who was in San Francisco at the time, "James, we have all of the rights, and you are welcome to have control of the film". But he declined the offer because he wanted to have A to Z control of the project.

Violence and censorship

Mario Kassar:

There is a special version for television. But I do not find the film particularly violent in comparison with the current productions. The film does not comprise real graphic violence, as opposed to what you can see everyday on television. Our system of ratings is very complicated and is a little bit ridiculous. The scene, for example, where the hand of the T-X impales the police officer and shoots blood everywhere was deemed worthy of an R-rated classification. If they had not been integrated in that scene, the film may have been rated as a PG-13. We had turned this famous scene of the hand in a way much less graphic which did not cause the same effect at the viewer. We preferred to preserve it in spite of the R-rating, which was inflicted to us and to which I do not find not justified.

Why does the movie not have a happy ending?

Andrew Vajna:

In a way, it is a happy ending. It was the only way, in our eyes of concluding the trilogy. I find it very interesting not to have a 'Hollywood' ending, where all's well that ends well. We therefore remained just with the spirit of the other two Terminator movies.

The film also goes against the current standards because of its relatively short duration.

Mario Kassar:

It is amusing, because if we had made the film 2h 45m long, the question would have been "why have you made such a long film". The film did not need more than measuring to tell its history.

Andrew Vajna:

You know that the film must be as long as the history you are trying to tell. We tried to avoid the scenaristic redundancies and went to other lengths to make the film more exciting.

Does the film approach more of the first Terminator?

Mario Kassar:

It was a mutual agreement between the director and us. After seeing Terminator 2, which marked a revolution in the field of the special effects, it was necessary to make a film that could exist by itself and not for its SFX.

Andrew Vajna:

We tried not to consider T3 as only a continuation of T2, and so we treated it like a new film and tried to confer a clean existence with it. I think thats the reason of its success... those who did not see T1 or T2 can view the film and still enjoy it.

Did shooting proceed without problems?

Andrew Vajna:

The risks were limited and calculated. All was planned carefully in advance. For example the scene of the crane; all had been repeated before with reduced models, different angles of cameras in order to be able to optimise it, whilst minimizing the risks during shooting. On the other hand there was an accident during the preparations with the crane, and it was flipped over 180 degrees.

Terminator 4?

Mario Kassar:

I believe that it is rather clear. The scenario of T4 is currently in consideration. It is not written yet, but will pick up where T3 ended. We will surely see John Connor leading the resistance in a world where the machines seized the power.

Other projects?

Mario Kassar:

Indeed, we have some other projects in progress. One at Columbia, which is called 'Evermere', and one that will be a combination of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings, made by Charles Russell.

Rambo 4?

Mario Kassar:

We do not have the rights to produce it, but intend to enquire about it.

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