12/15/2008

in

Oh, it'll be back . . . just without a main star.

Susie Kopecky

Just because you can't secure a film's title role, doesn't mean you can't make a sequel. *Terminator* is back . . . although its main draw, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, will not star in it, a fifth *Terminator* film's in the works. According to reports, the actioner may again star "Batman" star Christian Bale, and may be released as early as 2011, only two years after the planned release of *Salvation*.  
  
The fourth entry, *Terminator: Salvation*, has been handed a May release for next year. Though Schwarzenegger, aka the "Terminator" of the title, was not in the film, it did not stop filmmakers from going forward with the project. The same producers and directors behind the original films were not publicly involved with the most recent sequel.  
  
The "Terminator" films have a history of long waiting periods between sequels. The original *Terminator* was released in 1984. The first sequel did not arrive until seven years later, with 1991's *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*. In 2003, more than a decade later (12 years), the second sequel was released, titled *Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines*. The 2009 *Terminator Salvation* will actually mark the shortest period between two consecutive "Terminator" sequels, at only six years apart.