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.

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?