Director Tim Miller only has two feature films under his belt—“Deadpool” and “Terminator: Dark Fate”—but he carries around a lot of confidence. This isn’t arrogance; it’s because Miller is actually a veteran of the film industry and has worked in the VFX business for years. It was David Fincher and James Cameron—both of whom had worked with him in the past on various projects (he worked on the title sequence for “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”)— that vouched for him and pushed 20th Century Fox to greenlight “Deadpool finally.”
Miller’s gone on to work with both of them these titan filmmakers in a major capacity since. Fincher executive produced the animated anthology show “Love, Death & Robots,” that Miller created for Netflix and Cameron, of course, recently produced “Terminator: Dark Fate” which Miller directed.
Cameron recently candidly discussed the creative battles he had on ‘Dark Fate’ with Miller. “I would say many [disagreements],” Cameron said about the fighting he and Miller had on the movie. “And the blood is still being scrubbed off the walls from those creative battles. This is a film that was forged in fire.”
Now, in a new interview with Miller, the filmmaker echoed Cameron’s sentiments, and it doesn’t help that the movie that was a box office flop that is expected to lose around $120 million despite positive reviews. “I’m sure we could write a book on why it didn’t work,” Miller said of ‘Dark Fate’ in an interview with Kim Masters on her excellent The Business podcast. “I’m still not sure, and I’m processing, but I’m very proud of the movie.”
READ MORE: The ‘Terminator’ Franchise Suffers A ‘Dark Fate’ With A Terrible Box Office Debut
Miller also admitted he wouldn’t work with Cameron again, but it didn’t sound like animosity; he simply wants to work on films where he has control (Cameron had final cut on the movie). “No,” Miller said when asked if he would work with the “Avatar” filmmaker again, “but it has nothing to do with whatever trauma I have from the experience, it’s more that I just don’t want to be in a situation again where I don’t have the control to do what I think is right.”
The director seemed frustrated by the box-office reaction given that critics generally liked the movie, most heralding it as the best “Terminator” movie since 1992’s “Judgement Day” from James Cameron (a fair assessment). “The things [audiences] seemed to hate the most about the movie, were things I can’t control. I can’t control you didn’t like ‘Genysis,’ or you felt betrayed by “Terminator 4.” I can’t help that,” said Miller.
Control, and lack thereof, is a recurring theme for Miller. The director—who revealed to us recently that he initially had plans to include Fantastic Four members in “Deadpool 2”—admitted that he left the “Deadpool” sequel he was initially scheduled to direct because the star wanted too much power. “It became clear that Ryan wanted to be in control of the franchise. You can work that way as a director, quite successfully, but I can’t,” Miller admitted (Reynolds has a writing credit on “Deadpool 2”).
While Miller said he received a congratulatory email from Cameron recently, and the two are still friends, creative control is just something he has to fight for and have on every movie he makes moving forward. And whatever the case may be with the flop of ‘Dark Fate,’ his Skydance producers have faith in his abilities.
Miller says Skydance’s David Ellison told to him at a recent dinner, “What are we going to do next together?” You can listen to the entire fascinating interview below.