CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Screenwriter Hired To Pen TERMINATOR Requel

James Cameron doesn't really seem interested in giving us new movies as much as he's wanting to protect his own legacy (or, at least, explore new technology while continuing stories nobody really wants - hello, Avatar(s) II - IX). Case in point: the new Terminator trilogy he's shepherding with Deadpool director Tim Miller. 

Cameron and Miller have already promised that these new Terminator pictures are going to abandon the continuity of everything past Judgement Day. They're also already got Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton back on board. So, what else is there to do?

Oh, that's right: a screenwriter. While it could've been cool to see Cameron pop open his copy of Final Draft and pound out a new sequel, it looks like he's just going to be overseeing the storytelling from a very large (probably leather) producer's chair. Instead, they've hired Captain Phillips and Shattered Glass scribe Billy Ray to produce a draft for this latest go-round with the T-800 (and whatever newfangled killer robot it's going to be battling). 

Ray's hiring is actually pretty encouraging, as he delivers solid screenplays time and again (Breach and Flight are also both brilliant on the page), keeping this initial redux out of the franchise's already established writers' room, which includes David Goyer (yikes), Charles Eglee (Dark Angel), Josh Friedman (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Goyer collaborator, Justin Rhodes. They'll reportedly be working on future installments, as well as in-universe spin-offs. Sure. Whatever. 

Let's face it, almost anything is better than either Terminator: Salvation or Terminator: Genisys, so when this do-over (whatever it ends up being called) hits on July 26, 2019, the bar has already been set so low that anything above dogshit might be deemed acceptable by fans. Here's hoping it's, you know, actually good.