When Halcyon Pictures announced they’d be re-launching their Terminator franchise with Charlie’s Angels director McG at the helm, fan reactions were pretty much universal: Excited! Because if anyone could give Terminator a much-needed makeover for the late 1990’s, it was the guy who cut his teeth doing Korn videos. Oh sure, 2003’s T3 was fine and all — but it suffered from a distinct lack of tribal tattoos, septum piercings, energy drinks, mind-numbing jump-cuts, Hot Topic, Drowning Pool, GTA references and hip-hop. Also, its R rating assured an audience consisting mostly of adults — who expected crap like “character development” and “plot” in order to justify 2 hours of mind-numbing CGI robots and explosions. Is it any wonder that Terminator 3 took in a measly $433 million at the box office, shaming its star Arnold Schwarzenegger into pursuing a political career?

Such shall assuredly NOT be the case for McG’s Terminator entry. Oh sure, Christian Bale’s playing the lead, and he’s like a “serious” actor and all (boooring). But not only was it revealed just yesterday that the filmmakers would aim for the wider-demo-pleasing PG13 rating, but today they announced that the requisite rapper would be added to the cast, in the form of critically-acclaimed artist Common (most recently seen in the smash hit Street Kings).

Okay, so maybe a “progressive” hip-hopper like Common isn’t the ideal. I mean his decidedly conscientious lyrics, eclectic beats, left-wing activism, veganism and strong critiques of “gangsta” rap don’t sit as well with the mini-truck-driving, sideways-ballcap-wearing set who hang out in the Shop N Save parking lot all night smoking chronic and drinking extra-large Monsters – i.e. McG’s target audience – as say, Fiddy Cent. But he still adds some much needed “urban” cred to a film that is aimed squarely at the big four quadrants: Namely, suburban white kids, sci-fi nerds, wrestling fans, and retards.

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