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The Terminator script was sold for $1.Did you Know ?
Between his voyages to the bottom of the sea and dominating the highest-grossing films of all time, it’s easy to forget that self-proclaimed King of the World James Cameron used to be a struggling filmmaker trying to find that special project that would break him through to Hollywood success.
But a few short decades ago, a young James Cameron was so determined to direct the first Terminator film that he sold his original screenplay to producer Gale Anne Hurd for one single dollar.
When James Cameron wrote the Terminator screenplay, things were rough. He was living out of his car and struggling to get by.
Prior to directing and co-writing The Terminator, Cameron directed Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. Cameron's directorial debut wasn't well received; critics panned the film and commented on the aesthetic of the film, effects, and one called it "abject". Currently, it holds a mere 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. Therefore, even though The Terminator was a good idea, one that he shared with his then-partner, Gale Ann Hurd (The Walking Dead), Cameron was not considered trustworthy as a director. Nobody wanted him to direct the film because of Piranha II's failure and because he was an unknown and too new to take on something that was so ambitious.
Cameron received many offers for the script from studios that weren't interested in hiring him as an unknown to direct it; therefore, even though some of the offers were attached to large amounts of money, he turned them all down. The idea for the script, according to Cameron, came to him in a dream, and he was very attached to it.
Giving the reins to an unproven director would have been a tough sale in the best of circumstances, but James Cameron was willing to put his money where his mouth was.
In exchange for the directing gig, James Cameron sold The Terminator script to Gale Anne Hurd for one dollar. Hurd had suggested edits to Cameron's original script, and therefore got a co-writer credit on the film. Four quarters for a movie that went on to bring in around $80 million worldwide and which launched Cameron’s career into the stratosphere.
It’s a stark lesson in something you’ll hear a lot from successful creative types: if you truly want to make your dreams happen, you make them happen.
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Prateek Parashar
