Christian Bale will play John Connor in the fourth Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, rumoured to be the first of a new Terminator trilogy that will take the franchise in a new direction. Rather than following directly on from the previous Terminator movies however, reports suggest that a new character will take centre stage with John Connor playing a secondary role.

This shift in attention and direction makes sense given that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was not as successful as the previous two Terminator movies. Which is not to say that it wasn't highly profitable; all three movies combined have made over US$1 billion since the first release in 1984.

Even in a smaller role, Christian Bale is a welcome addition. He played a major part in reinventing the Batman franchise with a staring role in Batman Begins in 2005. He also stars in the follow up, The Dark Knight, to be released in 2008.

McG, whose directing credits include Supernatural, We are Marshall, and Chuck, has been hired to direct T4. The screenplay is by John Brancato (The Net) and Michael Ferris (Primeval). Luckily it was completed before the recent Hollywood writer's strike. The same writers also wrote the screenplay for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Let's hope they've done a better job this time around.

Plot details are hard to come by: multiple reports suggest that the story will focus on John Connor leading the remainder of the human race in a rapidly deteriorating battle against the machines, but this is vague to say the least, and contradicts the rumour that the new film will take the franchise in a new direction. What were the other three films about if not John Connor battling against the machines?

So really, apart from knowing who the writers and Director are, and some of the cast, we don’t know much.

The Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with Nick Stahl and Edward Furlong, who played John Connor in previous movies, will not be returning.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins is being produced by Halcyon along with former Intermedia CEO Moritz Borma. Warner Bros. is distributing the film in North America and most likely Sony will distribute the film internationally.

The movie is scheduled to start production in Budapest in April next year and will be released at the end of 2009.

Before the new movie makes its way into theatres, look out for the new television show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, to be broadcast in 2008. Set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the TV show follows Sarah and John Connor as they try to stop the birth of Skynet while being pursued by Terminators from the future, and an FBI agent, James Ellison, who believes Sarah is deranged.

If you're a fan of the Terminator films, there's a lot to look forward to!

Terminator 4 in the works