Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines - Production

Production

James Cameron announced T3 many times during the 1990s, but without coming out with any finished script. Tedi Sarafian wrote an early draft, and eventually earned a shared "story by" credit with screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who wrote the screenplay.

The studios had long wanted to make a sequel to the Terminator films. However, they were unsure whether Arnold Schwarzenegger would appear in it. Schwarzenegger initially refused to star in Terminator 3 because Cameron, who created the character and helmed the first two films, would not be directing the third installment. Schwarzenegger tried to persuade Cameron to produce the third film. Cameron declined, however, as he felt that he had already finished telling the story upon the conclusion of T2. But feeling that the Terminator character was as much Schwarzenegger's as it was his own, he advised Schwarzenegger to just do the third film and ask for "nothing less than $30 million." Schwarzenegger received a salary of $29.25 million, plus 20 percent of the profits, for his role in the film.

The film's production budget was initially set at $170 million, making it the most expensive film ever to be greenlit at the time, and with final production costs possibly as high as $200 million. Other estimates put the initial budget at $169.3 million and the final cost of the film at $187.3 million. Schwarzenegger agreed to defer part of his salary in order to prevent the relocation of the set to Vancouver, British Columbia, from Los Angeles. Many pundits saw this as preparation to his campaign for California governor, in which he emphasized giving incentives to have movie productions stay in California, rather than film in less-expensive places elsewhere. Filming began on April 12, 2002.