Film first major step in producers' plans

With the opening of "Terminator Salvation" today, millions of moviegoers will flock to theaters to see the latest take on a science-fiction epic that started with James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger way back in 1984.

Imagine those millions of fans, old and new, of a beloved movie franchise — all silently judging your work. Your baby. Some, not so silently.

Sure, being a Hollywood movie producer is high up on the list of anybody's dream jobs. For two brothers from Steubenville, Ohio — Derek Anderson and Mic Rogers of the Halcyon Company — it's certainly a dream come true. But that doesn't mean there isn't some pressure and stress involved.

"You can't help but be excited — when this is something you've committed to and has taken a great part of your life," says Anderson, 41, co-CEO of Halcyon, speaking from his office in Los Angeles last week. "We'll see what happens on Memorial Day domestically; then the rest of the world gets it."

In Hollywood jargon, this is a "tent-pole" picture — it's supposed to make enough money to hold up the rest of the business.

Halcyon has even more riding on it — this is the first part of a planned trilogy set entirely in the post-apocalyptic future, with star Christian Bale leading the last remnants of humanity in a rebellion against the machines. There is also a video game, produced by Halcyon spin-off Halcyon Games.

"We were deeply involved in the film production," says Rogers, 31, production executive for Halcyon Games. "The video game is a third-person action shooter — more like a war game, you're moving from cover to cover, like 'Call of Duty' or 'Gears of War.' We worked in conjunction with them and what they were doing, to really match the tone, look and feel of this fresh 'Terminator.'"

"That's a really unusual thing," Anderson says. "Studios often create a truncated timeline in which it's hard to create a good game. There's usually not that type of creative collaboration between producers of the film and producers of the game. A lot of the look of the film came from Mic and the guys who worked on the game. That kind of collaboration is uncommon."

If the speed at which they have become big-time Hollywood players bewilders the brothers, they don't really let on. Anderson started Halcyon with partner Victor Kubicek in 2006 with very little film experience. His background was in marketing and advertising, having run his own company in New York City. Anderson met Kubicek at a birthday party in Los Angeles, where they bonded over the ouvre of Jean Cocteau and decided on the spot that they would someday make a movie together.

The opportunity came much faster than they expected, and they put together a small mockumentary called "Cook-Off," about the funny subculture around an annual cooking contest. It was a total do-it-yourself project, from casting to gathering the financing. They were hooked.

At the same time, Rogers, an event-planner in New York City, followed his wife to L.A. Jobless, he started hanging out on the set with his brother, doing odd jobs.

"When it was Victor and I and one employee, it became obvious that (Rogers') event-production experience applied a lot to what we do, and really helped us," Anderson says. "Also, he was my brother, and being somebody we could fully and totally trust — in a place that's not necessarily filled with people you can trust. And when we went into video games, Mic knew more than any of us."

After the mild success of "Cook-Off," they made an offer on "Terminator." To their surprise, they got it.

"Obviously, it has a rich history as a franchise," Rogers says. "Along with that, there's great responsibility. ... It's one of those cornerstones of pop culture and film that I grew up with. I first saw 'Terminator' when I was 7 or 8 years old. Come to think of it, I probably shouldn't have seen it when I did — I probably snuck a VHS copy into the VCR."

The "Terminator" trilogy and its attendant games should keep Halcyon busy, but that's only the start for the company. The company has secured a first-look deal with the estate of visionary science-fiction author Phillip K. Dick, whose novels have inspired well-regarded science-fiction movies such as "Blade Runner" and "Minority Report."

"We just announced our first major project with (the Dick estate) — it's called 'Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said,'" Anderson says. "It's been tied up with different rights issues for 10 years. Lots of people, including Oliver Stone, have been trying to make it forever, so we feel very lucky. In the next month or so, we will announce the writer and director."

Halcyon also is interested in doing smaller films, like a remake of the Danish-language "After the Wedding."

First, however, the madness of a premiere week has to sink in. That includes the Los Angeles premiere, a screening and dinner in New York City, a flight to Cannes for a press conference, the European premiere in Paris, another screening in London, then a flight to Tokyo for another massive premiere. Halcyon even helped put together a "Terminator" museum in Tokyo, which has been a big hit.

Anderson and Rogers' mother — Sherran Call of Imperial — will join them for the Paris premiere.

All of this is a little stressful, but the really hard part is over.

Like the infamous incident with Christian Bale, for example. During the shoot, the star of "Terminator Salvation" exploded when a director of photography accidentally ruined a scene by walking past on the set. A recording of Bale's expletive-laden tirade ended up on all the celebrity gossip shows and Web sites.

"I think anything without context is difficult to understand," Anderson explains. "The problem was he was doing the most difficult scene in the movie, after the longest day, in the middle of the night. He and Shane Hurlbut, who was his (director of photography) — they have a great relationship. If you take it out of context, it seems pretty harsh and terrible. The reaction was bigger than the incident. Immediately afterwards, there were apologies all around, and we went back to work. It seemed much bigger and worse than it really was."

"Christian's a really, really talented actor. He became like a collaborative partner on the project. ... I've never actually seen an actor add that much to the creative process, outside of showing up and delivering a good performance, which he did. We signed him up for the whole trilogy."