Director Justin Lin has been a hot ticket in Hollywood ever since he resurrected the Fast/Furious series with Fast Five, easily the best of the bunch. After that success he was offered the director’s chair for both Terminator 5 and the Highlander reboot. He joined both productions and ending up dropping Highlander shortly after due to schedule restraints.
Now, The Film Stage is reporting that Lin has left Terminator 5 for the time being. Terminator 5 would mark the return of Hollywood action star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rights owner Megan Ellison was hoping to get the production going by the fourth quarter of 2012. The original plans were for two Terminator films to get squeezed in back to back, before the rights revert back to James Cameron in 2018, but with Lin currently busy with The Fast and the Furious Six, it doesn’t look like that will be an option for him.
The sixth installment of the Fast and the Furious series is scheduled for release on May 24th, 2013, which means Lin will be busy with post production stuff during the scheduled start up time for Terminator 5. There is still a possibility of Lin’s return, if Ellison and Schwarzenegger can wait just a little longer for him to finish his previous engagements.
I for one think he’s worth the wait. He managed to give us the best Fast/Furious movie to date and the Terminator series is in dire need of a fresh direction. McG kind of messed it up with Terminator Salvation and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was a rehash of the best bits from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. If they absolutely have to do another Terminator then they might as well get a talented director to helm it, otherwise leave it alone and let Cameron take back what was rightfully his.