Cinefantastique became one of James Cameron's first villains who tried to defame him and became his biggest "haters". In this issue from July of 1985 however, everything was still all well. This particular issue features a very lengthy and meaty article on making of The Terminator, featuring mixed in interviews with Jim Cameron and Gene Warren Jr from Fantasy II studios.
The actual part with Cameron takes less than a half of the entire feature, but it's still a lot considering its 5 page article and contains both interesting, and even to this day little known (or rather, remembered) facts, and even some still rare photos from the Fantasy II department.
I like how the magazine describes the film as "an entertaining, absorbing variation on the monster movie theme". In this article, Cameron reveals that it was HBO who suggested a bigger emphasis on the love between Reese and Sarah, a suggestion he liked and incorporated. He also mentions the absolutely stupid suggestions from unnamed individual that Reese should have a robot dog. How about that for obscure facts.
Jim also reveals origins of the Terminator title, which come from another story he was writing that took place on an orbiting space city, a lab habitat "signifying the terminator line dividing day from night". Quite interesting.
And also, did you know that the AT AT walkers inspired Cameron to create a humanoid look on that? Lots more. Cameron also talks Terminator II, and again mentions a possibility of choosing a director and producing, but only if the studio wouldn't wait for him to finish Alien II. He also says he has story worked out for it.
The rest of the article is about Fantasy II's miniature work and stop motion puppet work on the endoskeleton and lots of it isn't really told anywhere else, with some rare miniature set photos thrown in, as well as rare photos of the stop motion endo also never printed anywhere before or after.
This issue is one of the last of from the era of the film's original era, and looking back at all of them, it's a bit surprising that Stan Winston got very little recognition or even mention (aside from Cinefex), and all the articles showcasing the movie's special effects gave coverage to the miniature work only.
Unfortunately Cinefantastique later that year quietly went to a notorious suer Harlan Ellison feeding his ill will against Cameron to the readers denying Cameron a chance to defend himself (as he had a gag order and they knew it) For this, he since then refused to give Cinefantastique any interviews or exclusives, and Cinefantastique never really promoted his movies, and mostly included articles mocking or criticizing his films before they were even released, but that's in another story
As of this issue though, it was all yet to happen, and it features a great piece on the film
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