Vintage Magazine Collection: Starlog #89, December 1984


December of 1984 was a time when the The Terminator got the most press. Young James Cameron gives a lengthy interview in this #89 issue of the most excellent Starlog magazine. This interview is rather known, reposted online and reprinted in the James Cameron Interviews book. 

The interview begins with Jim's now-well known story about having a nightmare in Rome while working on Piranha II, which brought the image of the Terminator, which directly contradicts Gale Hurd's account of the film's origins in the previous issue (and the Press Kit)

He then talks about designing the movie around the budget, his road to director's chair, how the movie is actually a love story, or a "romantic nightmare" as he calls it, which I think is a fantastic way of describing it. Cameron also explains that every movie should center on characters, recalls meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger for the first time and reveals that he wrote a script for Alien II and the sequel to First Blood

It may be interesting to note that this issue of Starlog only refers to the film as Terminator, and still calls the title character an android.