Why is There No Talk of a Terminator 3 UHD Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

[Kaskade1309]

I understand it's not a popular entry in the franchise, though it is my personal favorite of them all, but I can't seem to find ANY buzz from ANYONE on any site about a possible release of this on UHD Blu; I own the regular Blu-ray (which replaced an old full screen DVD edition I previously watched) and while it looks decent, I was just wondering why Warner Bros. never talked about releasing this on Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Any thoughts (besides "the film sucked, that's why!" rhetoric, LOL)?

 

[TonyD]

I’d buy it.

 

[Lord Dalek]

A: Its Terminator 3. Not a huge demand and it suffers from early digital intermediate-itis.

B: There's a 4k transfer of Terminator 1 lying around. Release that instead.

 

[Robert Crawford]

A: Its Terminator 3. Not a huge demand and it suffers from early digital intermediate-itis.

B: There's a 4k transfer of Terminator 1 lying around. Release that instead.

If available, I would buy both on 4K disc or digital. Sure, the first movie is superior, but I liked 3 a great deal too.

 

[Kaskade1309]

A: Its Terminator 3. Not a huge demand and it suffers from early digital intermediate-itis.

While the first statement may harbor some truth, I was really wondering why there's ZERO talk about it online -- not even casual queries, as I just made here about it.

With regard to your second statement, this seems interesting and may be more in line with why it hasn't seen the light of day -- can you elaborate regarding the "digital intermediate" issues? Are you referring to the whole 1080i debacle when the disc first came out on Blu-ray?

B: There's a 4k transfer of Terminator 1 lying around. Release that instead.

We all understand that the first one is in much higher demand (though I actually like it less than any of the sequels, save for perhaps Salvation); it's also a head-scratcher why it hasn't been released on UHD Blu...

 

[Kaskade1309]

If available, I would buy both on 4K disc or digital. Sure, the first movie is superior, but I liked 3 a great deal too.

I've always loved the third one for the quasi-mindless actioneer it isn't ashamed to be; I always thought Stahl was a good Connor, too...don't know what it was....there's a genuine desperation and emptiness about his portrayal that I just thought worked.

 

[JohnRice]

C’mon. T3 is a hoot. I’d get it in a second.

 

[Jake Lipson]

There's a 4k transfer of Terminator 1 lying around. Release that instead.

The first film is of course James Cameron's thing. We all know he won't allow his movies to be released on disc without his personal participation and approval. That's why we still haven't seen True Lies or The Abyss on Blu-ray yet. But he is also too busy in Pandora to actually take the time to approve those transfers or The Terminator either. So we wait.

The third one doesn't have the Cameron stumbling block. But as others have suggested, perhaps WB simply does not anticipate strong enough sales to make such a release viable for them. Sometimes the easiest answer is the correct one, and I think this is one of those cases.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I don’t have a problem with T3. Of course it’s not as good as the first two, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

If Cameron ever revisits the first film, I hope he includes the original audio track
(the gunshots in the revised audio mix aren’t as effective, in my opinion).

 

[Lord Dalek]

While the first statement may harbor some truth, I was really wondering why there's ZERO talk about it online -- not even casual queries, as I just made here about it.

With regard to your second statement, this seems interesting and may be more in line with why it hasn't seen the light of day -- can you elaborate regarding the "digital intermediate" issues? Are you referring to the whole 1080i debacle when the disc first came out on Blu-ray?

We all understand that the first one is in much higher demand (though I actually like it less than any of the sequels, save for perhaps Salvation); it's also a head-scratcher why it hasn't been released on UHD Blu...

To answer your first question, its a headcanon thing. There was no reason for any of the other Terminator sequels past 2 to be made other than cynical financial ones, so they don't exist.

As for the second one, T3 was an early Digital Intermediate film which wasn't fully scanned in. So any 4k would have to use a film out (which have been frequently panned on other UHDs like the ones by Lionsgate), or rescan everything from scratch since the existing DI portions are at 2k anyway. And there's no demand for the latter because...again, "has its fans" doesn't mean a hill o'beans, so there you go.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The first film is of course James Cameron's thing. We all know he won't allow his movies to be released on disc without his personal participation and approval. That's why we still haven't seen True Lies or The Abyss on Blu-ray yet. But he is also too busy in Pandora to actually take the time to approve those transfers or The Terminator either. So we wait.

The third one doesn't have the Cameron stumbling block. But as others have suggested, perhaps WB simply does not anticipate strong enough sales to make such a release viable for them. Sometimes the easiest answer is the correct one, and I think this is one of those cases.

Does Cameron have any rights involved with the first "Terminator"?

Actually, I'm unsure what control he has over any of his older movies. Can he legitimately stop them from being released or do the studios want his approval just to avoid bad PR?

I forget if he had any involvement in the "T2" 4K...

 

[Lord Dalek]

Does Cameron have any rights involved with the first "Terminator"?

Actually, I'm unsure what control he has over any of his older movies. Can he legitimately stop them from being released or do the studios want his approval just to avoid bad PR?

I forget if he had any involvement in the "T2" 4K...

Depends on the terms of the negative pickup deal they made with Orion/Hemdale. Wouldn't be surprised if Gail actually owns the second largest share of the film after MGM.

Of course Jim has no control over Aliens whatsoever.

 

[Malcolm R]

I'd also pick this up if released. I always thought T3 was the last decent film in the franchise.

 

[JoshZ]

Does Cameron have any rights involved with the first "Terminator"?

Actually, I'm unsure what control he has over any of his older movies. Can he legitimately stop them from being released or do the studios want his approval just to avoid bad PR?

I forget if he had any involvement in the "T2" 4K...

The story I've always heard is that, at some point in his career, Cameron started having it written into his contracts that home video releases of his movies require his supervision and approval. This likely happened after the success of Aliens.

Although that wouldn't retroactively apply to the first Terminator, his stature in the industry is enough now that I'm sure MGM would defer to him anyway so as not to piss him off.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

MGM already did a 4K master for Terminator - it’s the basis for the remastered Blu-ray that came out a few years ago. It would just be a matter of slapping it onto a disc, and creating a new HDR timing if they wanted to do so. It’s already available to repertory theaters as a 4K DCP. In the past, this might have come direct from MGM via their studio releasing partner (which had been Fox), but with MGM now licensing out 4K to boutiques, this might come through Kino or someone similar one day. I don’t think Cameron has any sway over MGM on this, and since he’s fully committed to spending the rest of his career making Avatar films for Disney/Fox, MGM has no reason to cater to Cameron in the hopes that he might work for them one day.

 

[TravisR]

The story I've always heard is that, at some point in his career, Cameron started having it written into his contracts that home video releases of his movies require his supervision and approval. This likely happened after the success of Aliens.

Although that wouldn't retroactively apply to the first Terminator, his stature in the industry is enough now that I'm sure MGM would defer to him anyway so as not to piss him off.

That's basically my guess as well. However, it seems to me that Cameron gets involved when the movies are coming to disc hell or high water. They're doing an Alien box set- Cameron works on Aliens. The Terminator or T2 is getting released on DVD or Blu-ray because there's a new Terminator movie- Cameron works on his Terminators. Titanic is getting converted to 3-D for the theaters- he works on Titanic. Nothing happens with The Abyss or True Lies- there they sit.

 

[WillG]

I can understand not being tremendous interest for T3. Yet Howard the Duck is getting a UHDBD release, so I guess sometimes I get confused over how it’s decided what gets released. Does HtD have a worthwhile cult following I’m not aware of?

 

[Lord Dalek]

I can understand not being tremendous interest for T3. Yet Howard the Duck is getting a UHDBD release, so I guess sometimes I get confused over how it’s decided what gets released. Does HtD have a worthwhile cult following I’m not aware of?

Howard the Duck is actually easier to get into 4k than T3, being an entirely analogue production.

 

[TravisR]

I can understand not being tremendous interest for T3. Yet Howard the Duck is getting a UHDBD release, so I guess sometimes I get confused over how it’s decided what gets released. Does HtD have a worthwhile cult following I’m not aware of?

Howard The Duck is a bad 80's movie so it's definitely got a cult following but one large enough that makes it worth selling a UHD disc? That seems like a stretch to me unless they're hoping that they can get Marvel movie fans to pick it up. That also seems like a stretch to me.

 

[Kaskade1309]

Yeah, we've been talking about Howard the Duck versus T3 on another forum; I guess if there's news about a Grease 2 UHD Blu-ray release, we're really in trouble, especially if Warner doesn't visit Rise of the Machines...