Christian Bale recently told Entertainment Weekly he wasn’t sure when production would start on Terminator 4, a film that has apparently lost its Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins title. When Bale was asked if he knew when production would begin he said, “I got a sense of it, but, you know, it’s important to make sure that you start a movie when you’re ready, instead of just starting it on a date, regardless. And so we’ll start when we’re ready.” The article leads us to believe that some rewrites are underway and that seems to be the case as Paul Haggis’ name is now being batted around as potentially giving the script a once over, but production is still scheduled to start in early May. Someone tell Bale!
Who will be joining Bale and previously cast Sam Worthington in the McG directed reboot? Why none other than Pavel Chekov, better known as Anton Yelchin. Both Worthington and Yelchin are beefing up their sci-fi cred this year as Worthington also stars in James Cameron’s Avatar and Yelchin is aboard the Star Trek reboot for J.J. Abrams.
As for Terminator, Yelchin will play a teen version of Reese, the man who fathered world savior John Connor in the original “Terminator” film.
Christian Bale will play John Connor in the time-traveling third sequel to the 1984 sci-fi action film, produced by the Halcyon Co. and set for a Warner Bros. release in summer 2009.
Reese, one of the children who survived a machine-driven nuclear holocaust, befriends Marcus (Sam Worthington), an early edition of the Terminator cyborg played in previous films by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In “Salvation,” the character is a young version of the one played by Michael Biehn, who traveled back in time in the original to impregnate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and father the world’s future savior.
The film picks up with their son (Bale), now in his 30s, fighting desperately to save a decimated civilization against machines that have taken control. It’s unclear if the father and child reunion is only a cyborg motion away in the new film.
This is easily the most I have heard of the script (or at least cared enough to pay attention to) and it sounds as if it could be quite good. Personally I think we all love Bale as an actor, and I though Yelchin was one of the best things in Alpha Dog although I never did end up seeing Charlie Bartlett.
Production start date or not, Terminator 4 is currently slated for a May 22, 2009 release.
