Gale Anne Hurd on Terminator's O.J. & Anniversary Reunion!

TheArnoldFans caught up with Terminator producer, Gale Anne Hurd, while she was out promoting her new season of "The Walking Dead." T he last time we spoke with Gale, she admitted to us that Terminators would win in the fight against zombies, even though her zombies are powerful enough to be in the number one television series.  This month marks the 30th anniversary of The Terminator so prepare for "Gunner Gale" as she fires off a couple responses to our questions. 

TheArnoldFans:  What did you think of the original Terminator casting when O.J. Simpson and Lance Henriksen were to play the T:800? Were you pushing f or Arnold to play the cyborg or were you hoping O.J. or another landed the role instead?

Gale Anne Hurd: Jim and I never considered O..J for a second. He was brought up by one of the financiers (Mike Medavoy at Orion). I’m so glad that Lance was in the film and that I’ve been able to work with him so often throughout my (and his) career.

TheArnoldFans: About the 30th anniversary screening of The Terminator at the Egyptian...Will it be screening in any other theaters around the country?

Gale Anne Hurd: I wish! There will be video online through Fox, though there is no date on it quite yet!

That's great news to have the Terminator producer tell TheArnoldFans that WE ALL can watch this 30th anniversary reunion event! Even though TAFs usual staff were unable to attend the screening on the 16th, we had a couple fans who snagged tickets offer to give us the scoop on it, and they came through! Here is a combined account of the evening by fans Klasodeth and Duvien Ho, who is putting together the upcoming Carl Weathers Predator Q&A at the Egyptian Theatre:

I made sure to show up a couple hours early, but it didn't take long for lines to start building up. I had already picked up my ticket a few weeks ago, so I was able to go straight to the line waiting to go into the theatre. It was a packed house. While waiting for the movie to start, a picture of a Terminator from T2 shrouded by fire was projected onto the screen.

Unfortunately, Arnold Schwarzenegger was unable to attend, as he was sick with the flu. Arnold did record a message apologizing about his absence, which was played on the theater screen prior to the movie.

It was him looking sick with a really floral pattern pillow behind his head. What I recall: Hi to the audience, he just got back from Europe where he got the flu so he felt best thing to do was to stay away from people. He has utmost respect for James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd and how we're still talking about the movie 30 years later and that part 5 is coming out in July of next year. And of course, he said I'll be back!

After that, a contest was held to see who could do the best Terminator impression. While there were some good showings from audience members, a certain battle-damaged Terminator stole the show not only with his appearance, but also with his impression of Arnold. After the contest, some old 35mm previews were screened from some of Arnold's earlier movies: Conan, Red Heat, Predator, and Commando.

After the previews, the movie started. The movie was displayed in 16:9 format, and as far as I could tell they were playing it at 4K resolution, as I was having a lot of trouble making out individual pixels, especially compared to watching the movie on a 1080p monitor taking up a similar field of view. The color timing and clean picture suggest they were essentially playing the recently remastered version of The Terminator used in the most recent Blu-ray release. The audio was the stereo remix, rather than the original mono. When it came to gunshots, explosions, and heavy impacts, there was a lot of bass that I'm not used to hearing when watching the movie at home. Some of the controversial pistol sound effects sounded much better with the presence of heavy bass to punch up the sound. The speaker setup in the theater really made the stereo mix stand out, with sound effects clearly coming from different locations on the sound stage.

The movie itself got a lot of audience reaction. Significant members of the cast and crew received applause when their names appeared, and of course the more notable lines from The Terminator received an enthusiastic response from the audience. The end of the movie also drew a great deal of applause.

After the movie, James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd were introduced to a standing ovation. During the moderated Q&A, James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd spoke about their time on Terminator. Most of their anecdotes were familiar to die-hard Terminator fans, but hearing the retelling was entertaining nonetheless. They're hoping to reschedule Arnold for T2. Some passing comments about Arnold: Cameron met him hoping to not like him, thought he was great, very enthusiastic about the script, Cameron AND the attending producer forgot their wallets so Arnold paid and Cameron joked that's why he got the role. Cameron said he talked to Arnold earlier and jokingly thought he was faking being sick. Unfortunately, the audience was not allowed an opportunity to ask any questions. 

All in all, it was a great experience, and being able to watch a pristine version of The Terminator in a theater for the first time was simply amazing. I can't wait for Terminator 2 to get a similar treatment!

Thanks to both of you guys for the awesome reporting, pictures, and audio (stay tuned to the next Arnold Radio News to hear that!).