Terminator 5: how to reanimate the ailing sci-fi franchise
As Hollywood pursues plans for a reboot of the time-travelling cyborg tale, perhaps it's time for the powers that be to ditch Arnold Schwarzenegger and take a punt on some new talent

There's something you should know about the Hollywood types in charge of the Terminator franchise. They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until yet another sub-standard sequel to James Cameron's near-perfect brace of sci-fi movies clinks and clanks its way into cinemas.

The latest effort to bring the Terminator back to the big screen is being mounted by sibling super-producers Megan and David Ellison, respectively the figures behind Zero Dark Thirty and Star Trek into Darkness. This week they announced plans to partner with Paramount to put a fifth movie in the series into production for a 2015 release date. It is being billed as a reboot, and the start of a new, standalone trilogy. There's no word yet as to whether Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back as the T-800, though the former California governor said last month that he still expects to be called upon.

So if we accept for a moment that this movie is happening, whether the world at large likes it or not (and given the pointlessness of both 2003's Terminator 3 and 2009's Terminator Salvation, who could blame us?) how might the Ellisons successfully revive a series that long since went the same way it sent human civilisation? Here are a few ideas that might just help the Terminator franchise return to its glory days. I'm sure you'll have a few of your own to add in the comments section below.

Firstly, Terminator 5's makers should bite the bullet and make the brave decision not to bring back Arnie. The Terminator is not Batman or Superman, not Spider-Man and not even James Bond. It is much harder for audiences to accept a movie without Schwarzenegger's hulking frame and instantly-recognisable Teutonic twang than it is for any of these other film series, simply because nobody else has ever successfully inhabited the role. Arnie is the T-800 in the same way as Clint Eastwood is Dirty Harry or Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. Neither character would ever be quite the same with another actor involved.

Nevertheless, if the series is to revive its currency with audiences, it needs to move on. There is either a concept here that's intriguing and exciting enough to get people into the multiplexes with or without Arnie, or there isn't. Wheeling out a 65-year-old Schwarzenegger for a fourth film (five if you count Salvation's preposterous CGI resurrection) will only serve to remind filmgoers of past glories. Not to mention the fact that the screenwriters will have to come up with some pretty hefty contrivances to explain just why the latest Terminator looks really old and knackered. It's a hamstringing factor that the film-makers could do without, unless they can come up with something really clever along the lines of the "Spock Prime" storyline in 2009's Star Trek reboot.
TERMINATOR No going back … Maybe it's time to let Arnie go. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/MGM

Secondly, those in charge of the new film should bring back the time-travel element and do the reboot in the present day. Admittedly, the whole "send the Terminator back through time" schtick had rather lost its impact by the point Jonathan Mostow's Rise of the Machines reared its ugly head a decade ago. But the presence of relentless cyborg monsters from a terrifying future among in present-day society was what made the Terminator series great in the first place. The impact of the T-series machines bluntly and brutally working their way through a bewildered Los Angeles infused Cameron's films with a spiky levity that was completely missing from McG's Salvation. The sense of impending doom, and the contrast in behaviour between characters who know about the coming apocalypse (such as Linda Hamilton's brilliant Sarah Connor) and those who do not, were the factors that imbued Terminator 2 with all its magnetic intensity. The new film needs to return to this essential blueprint, or at least reflect it.

Finally, the Ellisons and Paramount must find a screenwriter and director with some original vision. Hollywood might have got away with appointing journeymen such as McG and Mostow while the series maintained its cultural cachet in the wake of Cameron's movies, but Terminator has been in serious decline for some time. It needs some genuinely passionate, original thinking, not hamfisted attempts to continue the story. It's time to take a punt on someone from the next generation.

Duncan Jones, Gareth Edwards or Neil Blomkamp all have experience with character-based science fiction and might just infuse the movie with the warmth and depth that has been missing from recent entries. I would have less confidence with a Justin Lin (reportedly attached at one point), who despite his sterling work in difficult circumstances with the Fast and Furious movies, does not strike me as a film-making visionary.

Of course, Joss Whedon has also expressed an interest in the past, though I imagine The Avengers director might be rather tied up with his Marvel ventures for the foreseeable future. It really is a pity we can't harness Kyle Reese's time-travelling machine and head back to the early 80s, where a young and innovative film-maker has just wrapped Piranha 2: The Spawning …

Celebrate freedom from Skynet on Fourth of July weekend as Paramount Pictures has set the new Terminator film for Wednesday, July 1, 2015. While it sounds look a surefire hit, the weekend is a bit crowded.

Paramount also officially announced on Monday the rumored title for Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction, which bows June 27, 2014, Variety reports.

The Terminator film will bow two days ahead of two other studio tentpoles — Sony’s Independence Day 2 and an untitled toon from Universal and Illumination Entertainment.

Summer 2015 has been shaping up to be one of the most competitive summers ever at the box office, with major franchise installments, including Disney-Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Sony’s Smurfs 3, Uni’s Jurassic World and the Batman-Superman mash-up from Warner Bros.

The studio has selected Emilia Clarke to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator reboot, re-teaming with director Alan Taylor, who has worked with Clarke in the HBO series “Game Of Thrones,” says Deadline.

Clarke joins Jason Clarke, who is in negotiations to play her son John Connor in a storyline they’ve heard involved a trip into the future. Arnold Schwarzenegger is also back in his signature cyborg role.

Paramount will release the film in July 2015.

Paramount's 'Terminator: Genesis' begins shooting next month with Jai Courtney ('A Good Day to Die Hard') and the gorgeous Emilia Clarke ('Game of Thrones') lined up for leading roles. Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be back as he promised, and shared some thoughts about his appearance. "The last time when they did the Terminator, it was when I was Governor and so I couldn't be in that movie but now I'm back again and they are very excited about having me in the film...The script is fantastic so I'm really looking forward to this film." In addition to the comments MovieHole have unveiled some potential plot details as well. 'Thor: The Dark World' director Alan Taylor is set to helm the project. Head below and be warned of spoilers.

"Firstly we will indeed be revisiting the events of the original 1984 film again. The 'Terminator' from the future will arrive on earth, attack some punks (keen to see who they get to play ‘Bill Paxton’), and then slaughter his way through a bunch of Sarah Connors’ – until he finds the correct target. And all the characters that appeared in the Cameron original, like Detective Hal Vukovich (played by Lance Henriksen in the original), Lieutenant Ed Traxler (played by Paul Winfield way back when), Sarah’s roomie Ginger (Bess Motta in the ’84 film) and, yep, even Pugsley the Iguana, return. So, yep, we’ll likely get to see Schwarzenegger back in the leather jacket and cool sunglasses he wore in the original. And, of course, Kyle Reese (Courtney) volunteers to go back to 1984 and save Sarah – just as he did first time around. But don’t expect everything to work out like it did in the original.. something is going to play out different."

'Terminator: Genesis' is set to hit theatres on 1 July 2015.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is definitely heading back to the 1990′s.

Wednesday afternoon Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions announced that principal photography is officially under way in New Orleans on the Terminator reboot, directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World, “Game of Thrones”).

What’s interesting is that their press release makes no mention of “Genesis,” which leads us to believe the title of the sequel/reboot is Terminator (dropping “The” from the title is all the rage).

In addition, a new shot of Schwarzenegger was shared from set, again confirming the duel timeline/universe string theory plot. What you’ll see is the T-800 wearing his leather biker suit from T2. He’s back!

The new film is written by Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry).

Terminator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”), Jai Courtney (Divergent), J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man, “OZ”), Dayo Okeniyi (The Hunger Games), and Byung-Hun Lee (Red 2).

The Terminator franchise launched in 1984 with Schwarzenegger as the title character and spanned three subsequent films, which have earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

Paramount will distribute the film worldwide on July 1, 2015.