At last, the radio silence from the new Terminator film has ended! After several days of filming happening in downtown San Fransisco, with crowds gathered to watch, Arnold himself broke the news that filming has wrapped (at least his part). He posted the following image and message to his Twitter and Instagram accounts, which give us a tease of his look AND.... finally an official title.
Hasta la vista, baby. I want to thank the cast and crew of @TerminatorGenisys for a fantastic shoot. It was challenging, it was fun, and it was rewarding. From our director to the producers, from the camera team to catering, from visual effects to hair and makeup - we couldn't have done it without you. I can't wait to see our finished project and I know we'll remind the fans why they fell in love with the Terminator. On July 1, 2015, I'll be back.
See, we were right when we told you that the title would not be Genesis... heh heh. Anyway, it's great that the film's social promotion can now kick into gear. I'm sure it will be heavy on teasing for the next several months, but if the marketing team is good, they could have some fun things planned that slowly reveal different elements of the movie's plot/characters without spoiling the big secrets. The first thing we can debate about now is what the heck is up with the spelling of Genisys? The cynical point of view that has already been espoused by some critics on Twitter and the like is that it is just a goofy spelling in an attempt to be hip and vaguely tech-y, and screw proper spelling! Personally, I do not think this is the case. The obvious homage the spelling could be making is to is the beloved tech company that brings about all this machines-taking-over-the-world mess, Cyberdyne SYStems. But my guess is that it's more than that-- there have been photos of the name Genisys (without "Terminator") on a street banner on one of the shoots in San Fransisco, and it's not typical of a production to blantantly advertise what they are filming, so this seems to be part of the set decoration. Therefore, the name "Genisys" must be an integral part of the movie. Maybe it's a Cyberdyne competitor, making their own neural net powered robots, starting an arms race of AI? Or, a company that's partnering with Cyberdyne in order to help make the "living tissue" part that's over the metal endoskeletons. OR maybe it's a brand thought up by a PR company in the movie to lull the public into accepting the whole SkyNet plan (kind of like the brilliant "commercial" for Cyberdyne you see in the T2:3D pre-show area). Being one of the first things released about the film, I'm sure more puzzle pieces about it will fall into place as the marketing continues. But seeing Arnold in silhouette with the leather jacket is just the perfect thing to build excitement at this early stage and get people talking.
UPDATE-- We have a photo of the official Terminator Genisys wrap cake!
Meanwhile, we're back in our second episode of Arnold Radio News!! We don't discuss the Genisys name as this was recorded before that news, but there's still lots of good stuff, including our own Randy Jenning's article in the Daily Mail and an interview with Michael Papajohn!
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