Here is a lengthy, fascinating article detailing the various script changes that occurred during the shoot of Terminator Salvation. I'm not going to rehash what's in there, but the biggest shocker is that the main culprit behind the narrative failure of the film may have been Christian Bale himself. I'm not alone in thinking he was miscast as John Conner and that the role of Conner was awfully thin, but it appears that McG originally wanted to cast him as Marcus and only have Conner appearing in a token cameo. Bale's insistence on playing John Conner allegedly forced massive rewrites to beef up the non-existent John Conner character. Frankly, if this is true, this puts Christian Bale in a far worse light than any onset temper tantrum. It's one thing to throw an emotional hissy fit in a fleeting moment. It's another to force an entire production to completely overhaul the screenplay to give the token character that you wanted to play an upgrade to starring role, completely unpending the intended narrative of the picture.I'd still love to know about the 40-minutes of missing footage, and I'll let you know if I dig anything up, but this is an interesting and unexpected scenario. I know full well that many big stars have their own staff of script doctors to tailor a screenplay to their liking, but I've never heard of a big star demanding to play a role intended as a cameo and then forcing said role to take center stage in the present plot line. It might very well be the case that the villain in this story is not the studio, but the star.
Scott Mendelson
