Doug Beswick’s career, like many creature makers, began with a love and practice of Stop Motion Animation. My understanding is that he met Rick Baker when they both worked at Cascade Studios (most famous for doing the claymation for the series Gumby & Pokey) and later had joined Rick’s crew as a mechanical, animatronics designer. I don’t know the details of how and why Doug decided to open his own shop, but his facility was in a small, industrial park, north east of the San Fernando Valley in Sunland. Prior to my arrival, Doug had gained some notoriety with a couple of projects. The first was Terminator in which, Beswick had built and animated the endoskeleton miniature for the few full body shots of the robot walking. The second was a Disney live action film entitled My Science Project. For that film, Rick and Doug had teamed up to build an impressive, miniature, mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex puppet. It is interesting to see how logical progressions occur (albeit rarely) in Hollywood. Doug had built a sophisticated, miniature, mechanical puppet that looked phenomenal on film, AND he had prior experience working for James Cameron. The result: Doug was hired to build the miniature mechanical puppets for Aliens. See how that worked?

While enduring the mild pain caused by Transformers: Dark of the Moon, I thought to myself, “Man, this Sam character is a real prick. What type of people actually like this person? This is the best savior we could get?” I then realized that I often find myself thinking this nowadays. We rarely get great, likable heroes or genuine badasses on film anymore. Most are either mopey, passive, or do morally questionable acts. I’m not referring to anti-heroes — although, I do include one on the list — but, rather, the unintentionally lame mainstream characters that aren’t the most compelling or charming. A few of these not-so-heroic characters aren’t due to bad acting. As you’ll notice, Leonardo DiCaprio made the list for Inception, where he gave a solid performance. While I wouldn’t say that most of the actors featured here impressed anyone, DiCaprio and a few others certainly did. Here are ten mainstream characters that exhibit very little heroics:

News came over the last couple of days that former visionary director/current enviro-geek James Cameron was going to, instead of directing a new film (wouldn’t want to accidentally make two in a decade), spend millions of dollars and millions of seconds painstakingly bringing 1997s short film Titanic back to the screens, this time in three dimensions. In case you weren’t alive between 1997 and 1999, where Titanic stayed in theaters for a full year, the story has something to do with a boat, a gem, and freezing to death. I’m sure that if you’re reading this site you’ve either seen Titanic or know enough about it to know that you didn’t want to watch it. I have seen it and have no desire to see it again. It’s not a bad film, but it is long as hell and a bit on the melodramatic side. Aside from being responsible for turning Leonardo DiCaprio into a household name and making all my ex-girlfriends put posters of him on their walls, what could be wrong with Titanic coming back to the big screen? Simply put, Titanic 3D is everything wrong with Hollywood in a tight 194 minute package.

According to Deadline Crystal Peak, Arnold Schwarzenegger has teamed up with Fast Five director Justin Lin to try to sell a new Terminator film with Schwarzenegger starring. The problems here are obvious. Why would the machines create a T-851 that looks like it’s made out of Metamucil and beaten down by years of steroid use? Can Arnold still carry an action film, and if so, how much airbrushing will it take? My guess is that the story will revolve around the machines sending a new T-model (Model T? I just got that) to a retirement community where John Connor’s great-grandmother (who gives him the piece of advice that, years later, gives him the courage and wisdom to lead the resistance) plays canasta every Wednesday. The cyborg is about to easily dispatch the old woman, but she wins him over by offering him a Werther’s Original. The staff mistakes him for a resident, and he begins puttering around the community, making friends and learning valuable life lessons. Sadly, he’s destroyed when the old folks realize he’s a machine, and they irrevocably damage him while trying to open an email attachment. I’d go see it. Thanks, Schwarzenegger and Lin! But seriously, isn’t Jeremy Renner available?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

It was the banner that no one understood at Comic Con 2010. Amidst the massive advertisements for Scott Pilgrim and RED was a building-sized image for Skyline – a movie that no one had ever heard of before. The reason for that lack of knowledge was simple. The film was an independent feature built under the radar and far under the normal budget of a film of its kind. Now with Universal distributing it, the press was on to make Skyline a household name. Greg and Colin Strause have directed an indie that doesn’t see a lot of people talking to each other about life and love in the middle class or how difficult it is to be a 20-something. They’ve made an alien invasion movie with over 1,000 effects shots, and they’ve done it without the help (or hindrance) of a studio. The Brothers Strause were gracious enough to speak with me about this new world of independent filmmaking, the problems with the studio system, and the need to shake things up.

A hearty welcome back to all of you faithful readers of Junkfood Cinema, confused as you may be by the day-late nature of this week’s entry. As you were told in last week’s most excellent entry by Mrs. Junkfood Cinema, Brian is taking some time off in the month of September, so a hand-picked group of Rejects will be keeping the lights on in one of our most prized columns with a series of guest entries. This week, it is my turn. Which meant two things: it gave me the opportunity to introduce our resident Schlocktologist Mr. Salisbury and his ever-bearded compatriot Luke Mullen to one of my own favorite instances of cinematic indigestion, and that the column would be a day late — because that’s how I roll. (In reality, the day late problem occurred due to the fact that I was moving this week and may or may not have misplaced my copy of Lady Terminator in the move.) Thankfully, I was able to extract my copy of Lady Terminator from the wreckage of my recent move and host a Friday evening that would ultimately be filled with vagina snakes, single-shot Uzis, Bronson Pinchot’s Indonesian doppleganger and the Malaysian Miley Cyrus in the first (and most apt) franchise reboot of James Cameron’s Terminator. This night was about a mostly nude lady on a rampage. First she mates, then she terminates. Either way, she’s going to steal your heart.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, Brian Salisbury joins us with his own theme music, and Robert Fure joins us with enough anger and rage to make you think you’re hearing music. We bash the idea of an animated Terminator film, sneak the word “taint” into almost every discussion, and then my guests go head-to-head in a huge action film trivia face-off. Who will emerge victorious? How many times will we mention Michael Dudikoff? You’ll have to listen to find out. Or at least skip ahead to the end where I announce the winner. Plus, we find time to review Scott Pilgrim vs The World and The Expendables.

The fine line between stupid and brilliant has been walked again, but it’s unclear which side Hannover House will fall on just yet. We reported late last week that the company would team with Red Bear Entertainment to deliver an animated, 3D, Pg-13 Terminator film that used characters from the original film. In short, a naked cartoon Arnold. That apparently didn’t set well with, you know, the people that own the rights to the franchise, and lawyers for Pacificor sent a cease and desist letter to Hannover House last Friday. Find out what exciting legal jargon has either stalled or ensured the film’s creation:

Out of all the things that Terminator fans might want, an animated addition to the continuing saga is probably not high up on the list. “The Sarah Conner Chronicles” being un-canceled, a second shot at Bale and company under a better director, and an Arnie-shaped toaster that covers the bread with a lava-like substance until it’s deliciously golden brown are all there, but the idea of turning it all into a cartoon is a little unnerving. Hannover House and Red Bear Entertainment are teaming to attempt making a $70 million 3D animated movie featuring the characters from the original film. With less violence. And a PG-13 rating. Of course it’s far, far too soon to judge the theoretical film, but the idea of this sounds absolutely atrocious. For one, animation from non-majors is usually a few years behind the curve in quality, and for two, animatedly nude Arnold sounds like they could re-name it The Stretch Armstrong Movie and no one would notice. Especially with a lack of explosions. Step one in getting people uninterested in your action movie: tell them there’s less action. [Coming Soon]

The rights to the Terminator franchise have been sold. And it happened with the least amount of fanfare possible. Aside from rumors that the head of Sony Pictures stormed out of yesterday’s auction, it was a relatively bland affair.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we avoid getting hit by a volcano. By. That. Much.

Joss Whedon certainly does like working with familiar faces. In fact, he likes it so much that he has made room for one of his favorites in his latest offering.

If you find your endoskeleton feeling a little rusty on your Terminator history, read this if you want to live… a life full of Terminator knowledge as you prepare for Terminator Salvation. Hasta la vista, babies!

Dollhouse tracker Michelle Graham takes a look at an odd little trend in the Fox Network Friday night line-up, going as far as to suggest that Dollhouse’s future might be similar to that of the now-canceled Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Sarah is in jail, facing FBI prosecution. John and Cameron are holed up in a seedy motel, waiting for things to blow over.

John discovers that Savannah Weaver is a target of a Terminator. John Henry detects the threat and tries to lead Savannah to safety. When the Garbage Terminator learns her daughter has been kidnapped, she enlists the help of both John Henry and Agent Ellison to track her down.

In order to keep John safe, Sarah calls on an old friend – former boyfriend Charley Dixon – to keep him in a safe house. Meanwhile, John Henry finds himself in peril when an unknown entity sends a message through the security measures and possibly trips his original programming.

Jessie is still having trouble dealing with the aftermath of killing Riley. She’s weighted down with guilt as we flash back to her time on the S.S. Jimmy Carter with a story that explains why she doesn’t trust the machines.

Now that Riley is finally dead, the Connors are all playing right into the hands of the BSG Sexpot, thinking that it was Cameron who killed her. Meanwhile, the BSG Sexpot flashes back (or rather flashes forward to the future) about a critical submarine missions with special orders from John Connor.