The pair frequently conferred with special-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to determine if their ideas for the extensive special effects were possible. A release date was set for the following year, leaving Cameron and Wisher seven weeks to write the script. In 1990 Schwarzenegger and Cameron persuaded Carolco Pictures to purchase the rights from The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and Hemdale, which was financially struggling, for US$15 million. The Terminator was considered a significant success, enhancing Schwarzenegger's and Cameron's careers, but work on a sequel stalled because of animosity between the pair and Hemdale Film Corporation, which partially owned the film's rights. The resistance sends back a less-advanced, reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity. In its plot, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a Terminator-a highly advanced killing machine-back in time to 1995 to kill the future leader of the human resistance John Connor when he is a child. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong, it is the sequel to The Terminator (1984) and is the second installment in the Terminator franchise. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 American science-fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher.