Magazine Specials on Big Hits still exist to this day, but they're very different than what they used to be. Now they're just publications made to capitalize on the film's popularity, most often unofficial and unauthorized, collecting a bunch of old interviews and very basic articles on the movie, plus some trivia and photos. But back in the days, going back to the 1970's, every major production had an official Magazine release to come out when the movie does, and promote it. They were specifically made by or through the movie company, it was a companion to the film. And they worked as Making Of and Art Of books in one. They contained mass of never before seen photos from the set and behind the scenes, and specifically conducted interviews with director and the main cast.
Of course, the most expensive and biggest movie of all time at the time, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, had its own Official Movie Magazine as well. Released by Starlog in July 1991, this magazine is full of design sketches, storyboards, photos and interviews with cast and crew.
It's split into few sections: One for each interviewed individual, one for The Art of the movie, and one brief one for FX photos. It's also full of T2 related advertisement of course, like the pinball machine, first video games (Handheld and NES), masks, jackets, trading cards and more.
Each section devoted to the actors and Jim Cameron is written by Marc Shapiro, who wrote the first piece on T2 in Starlog magazine the same month and who will continue to write about the movie in many future Starlog issues. Each section is mostly in the words of the interviewed, but since it's written in an article style, Shapiro is credited. However, it's hard for me to tell if he uses his own interviews he did for Starlog or if he had access to the full footage from The Making Of Documentary from the same year, since many quotes come from there.
James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Eddie Furlong and Joe Morton are interviewed and each have a section dedicated to their characters in this nearly 70 page thick Magazine. Of special note are a few facts, like that Cameron actually gave the actor Joe Morton a real person to base the character of Miles Dyson on. Morton also praises the way Terminator 2: Judgment Day ends the story: "It was a wonderful way to end the Terminator story"
In a contrast to his words, Schwarzenegger is said to be the only one who is open for more installments: "Unlike anybody else connected to the first two Terminator films, the actor doesn't rule out the possibility of a Terminator 3"
The magazine is loaded, just loaded with photos that many are still hard to find online, and is full of beautiful, Cameron-styled design artwork for the movie by Steve Burg.
Another interesting thing worth mention is that the magazine gives the year the movie takes place in as "circa 1994", and it's also the first magazine to include a photo from the original ending which spells out that everything ended well
While closing the July 1991 section of Terminator library, it is interesting how the special effects of T2 were barely a mention or aren't even mentioned at all in all of the publications from this month. Even the Official T2 Magazine only mentions ILM in a sentence. That will completely change in August of 1991, when this aspect will rise to the main focus.
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