UPDATE: Teaser online now above (and over at Yahoo!). Whaddya think?

Cinematical has been informed that the first teaser trailer for Terminator Salvation will most likely arrive tonight, around 9pm EST. Where? We do not know yet. Cinematical reader RossBond alerted us to the fact that Warner Bros. has sent out satellite coordinates for the worldwide trailer debut, and the time given for said coordinates is tonight between 9pm and 9:15pm EST. Additionally, there's also a 15-minute time slot tomorrow morning at 6am EST. However, if I were a betting man, I'd say the trailer will hit tonight. Fun stuff!

Here's the film's synopsis: In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

We're on it, and we'll let you know when we hear more ...

With a brand-new Terminator trilogy in the works, the producers really needed to find a guy to play the heroic John Connor -- so they went to Gotham City. Yep, according to BBC News, fan favorite Christian Bale has signed on to play John Connor in not only Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, but also its two follow-ups. Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, and Common are already on board the next Terminator, which was written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. The director: McG.

Here's what producer Victor Kubicek told the BBC: "Christian was our first choice and he's a big fan of The Terminator, so we're very lucky ... But with Batman he's already done the whole franchise thing, so we weren't sure he'd respond." Still no word on whether the original Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course) will be making an appearance, but with Christian Bale on board ... I already have a much better feeling about Terminator Parts 4, 5 and 6. Check out the full BBC report right here. You can even leave a question for the Terminator producers if you feel like it.

But seriously: From Edward Furlong (T2) to Nick Stahl (T3) to Christian Bale (T4)? Now that's an upgrade.

Thanks to IGN Movies for the tip.

I just can't decide.

On one hand, it seems to make perfect sense that Christian Bale is playing John Connor. Who else can save mankind? He's Batman, for crying out loud.

And yet ... it is the fourth Terminator movie. Directed by McG, who's saving grace seems to be that he's not Brett Ratner. While it fits with Bale, Ruler of Fanboys, it doesn't fit with Bale, Ruler of Critics. Bale doesn't really do sequels, let alone fourquels, especially of a character he didn't originate.

It is either going to be brilliant fun, or something that leaves us wondering what kind of dirt McG blackmailed him with. Either way, we'll find out on May 22nd, 2009. Warner Bros has announced it as the release date for Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Fans of the franchise have been waiting forever to see Connor fight the war against the machines, and now they can start crossing off the days on the calender.

Devin from CHUD has been doing some digging, and he claims to have come up with a bunch of different plot points, character descriptions -- what have you -- with regards to the highly-anticipated McG flick, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (aka Terminator 4). Some of his notes, however, don't exactly match up with what the film's producers told Entertainment Weekly recently. According to CHUD, they say John Connor (played by Christian Bale) is "barely in the movie." Whereas the producers told EW that Connor "is an ongoing, very central character throughout the next trilogy. He's leading the fight for salvation of humanity against the machines. So he's very important." CHUD says Connor's role is "apparently bigger in the sequel," but that the real central character is a dude named Marcus.

Here's how CHUD describes the involvement of both Marcus and Connor: "Marcus was put 'out of commission' before the nuclear holocaust on Judgment Day and he wakes up about 15 years before the future we see in the original Terminator films, which puts the movie at about 2015 or so. Marcus is a bad ass - think along the lines of Riddick - and what he finds is a blasted world filled with horror. Radiation poisoning, starvation, rampant jaywalking - all the things you expect post-apocalypse. There's also John Connor, who is trying to build a utopian society while running the human resistance." The site goes on to describe the action sequences as "HUGE" and claims there are some battles with the T-600s. You can read more about the flick -- including some spoilers -- over at CHUD, and lets hope Devin is right when he says this film "could be epic." I'm not so sure the name McG and the word 'epic' belong in the same sentence, but you never know ...

The future is about to begin shooting this March in either Australia or Budapest, and Entertainment Weekly sat down with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins producers Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Moritz Borman to pick their brains and find out exactly what our new, older John Connor (recently announced as Christian Bale) will be up to. Probably the biggest question on everyone's mind -- once and for all -- is Arnold Schwarzenegger going to make a cameo? According to Kubicek: "He may make a cameo," and according to Anderson: "It still hasn't been determined, but if he does, it would be a very small cameo." A bunch of rumors were also squashed during the interview; one of which alluded to the fact that John Connor wouldn't play a pivotal role in the film. However, Anderson admits, "John Connor is an ongoing, very central character throughout the next trilogy. He's leading the fight for salvation of humanity against the machines. So he's very important."

So if Ahnold won't be showing up TO kick ass, what kind of characters should we expect to play opposite Christian Bale? Anderson says there will be "another major co-star with kind of equal presence in this installment." When pressed to answer whether or not that character will be a Terminator, Anderson adds: "Yes.... Well, it's hard to say. It is a new character introduced in the mythology that's not replacing Arnold [Schwarzenegger]. It's not like he's stepping into Arnold's shoes. It's a completely new character." Again, they asked, is this character a Terminator? "No, not really. That's one of the big twists that if we told you --" Head on over to EW to read the entire interview, which goes on to address the whole "why the f*ck is McG directing this?" issue. You definitely don't want to miss it.

Okay, it's only in rumor form right now, but AICN is reporting that Christian Bale has signed on to play an adult John Connor in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (aka Terminator 4), which will most likely be directed by McG. Harry himself shelled out the news, which he claims comes from an "extremely trusted source who has never been wrong before." Bale signing on to play Connor means the character will indeed be significantly older in the next film; unlike the teenage version who showed up in the form of Edward Furlong (Terminator 2) and Nick Stahl (Terminator 3) in previous films. It also means Bale will jump from one high-profile franchise (Christopher Nolan's Batman flicks) to another that, according to reports, will contain at least three films. Will Bale star in all three?

Here's the film's plot synopsis from IMDb (though we're not sure if it's entirely correct): "After the drastic effects of Terminator 3, the story continues as John Connor and soon to be wife Kate Brewster realize they must create a resistance organization with Earth's remaining survivors against the army of robots slowly being built up by Skynet. As they are building this resistance, one survivor happens to be a traitor in disguise, and has a secret that nobody would ever come to suspect." Though I'm not crazy about McG taking over the franchise, I absolutely love Christian Bale ... especially in this role as a rogue warrior up against an army of machines. Who will take over for Claire Danes and play Connor's wife (if this synopsis is correct)? Any suggestions? We'll let you know more as soon as information is available.

As much as you might cringe about more Terminator sequels (or yay if you're a huge fan), it was pretty much inevitable. The series made the phrase "I'll be back" epic, it's all about machines coming back from a future war and apocalypse (which leaves lots of territory to be covered), and movie companies love their sequels, especially when the franchise has a few huge flicks under its belt. So, of course, besides Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, we're getting Terminator 4. This isn't the first bit of news on the production. There's been models, lawsuits, and even one juicy rumor about Rachel Weisz and Chloe Sevigny. Now IGN has got some more scoop from the television series' consulting producer, James Middleton.

We already know that T3 writers Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato wrote the script, and now it seems the flick is in the pre-summer '08 push, even though the film still doesn't have a director (although Middleton says they're close). Halcyon aims to have the flick in pre-production next month, and release the sci-fi extravaganza in 2009. Why so long? Well, we are talking about the franchise finally dealing with the machine war, which means lots of special effects. The plan is to make this a trilogy, covering the future we've been waiting a few decades to see. That's cool, so long as it doesn't completely fizzle like The Matrix Trilogy did.

While John and Kate are in the script, there is no word on whether Nick Stahl or Claire Danes will return, and they're not the focus anyway, which may make or break this endeavor. The movie features a new heroic main character. Unless it's a cybertronic Joe Morton, coming back to fix his technological mistakes, I'm not so sure about this. Middleton, however, is talking it up: "Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ, but it was his story. Much in that way, this character will be influenced by John Connor." Do you want to see the war with the machines on the big screen, and is this the way they should go about doing it?