Updates on Terminator Film

Just as Sarah Connor Chronicles was finishing up its brief run on Fox this week, new details were coming out about the next feature film in the Terminator franchise. The fourth film in the series, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, is now slated to be released May 22, 2009, and has been picked up for international distribution by Sony. Terminator Salvation is in fact expected to launch a new trilogy of films documenting the rise of the machines, with John Connor -- the one man identified by artificial intelligence Skynet as capable of stopping them -- played here by Christian Bale, cementing him as the world film industry hero of choice after taking over the Batman franchise. The new film is directed by McG, who's best known for slick action/adrenaline spectacles like Charlie's Angels but who has his hand in everything from Supernatural to The O.C. (both as executive producer). The film reunites writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris from Terminator 3.