E! Online is reporting that T3 has cast Norwegian model-actress Kristanna Loken to be the Terminatrix in Warner Bros.’ Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
With her skyscraper legs and blond locks, the relatively unknown 22-year-old will play T-X, the latest, most murderous design to come off the assembly line since the shape-shifting T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But unlike that liquid-metal villain, Loken’s cyborg will have powers that will make Schwarzenegger’s T-800 character seem ancient by comparison.
While Warners reps are tight-lipped about the plot, T3 is said to take place a decade after T2, with a twentysomething John Connor and his cyborg buddy battling the lethal Terminatrix to save the world from a takeover by the machines.
Schwarzenegger will be the only key player back from the franchise’s earlier flicks. Writer-director James Cameron is sitting this episode out (he’s replaced by U-571 director Jonathan Mostow), as are Linda Hamilton, who played the heroic Sarah Connor in the first two films, and Edward Furlong, who played Sarah’s teen son John in T2.
If you don’t recognize Loken’s name you might recognize her face. She modeled for several years before getting the acting bug. She appeared in episodes of Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman, Just Shoot Me and Star Trek: Voyager before landing full-time parts on Unhappily Ever After, Pensacola: Wings of Gold and Mortal Kombat: Conquest. She most recently costarred in the now-defunct D.C. and currently has a recurring role on ABC’s Philly. She also appeared in the film Panic.
The megabudgeted T3: Rise of the Machines (which will cost upwards of $180 million to make) starts shooting April 15 in Los Angeles and is slated to hit theaters in summer of 2003