The "Terminator" film franchise is coming back.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Paramount announced Thursday that the first film in a new trilogy will be released on June 26, 2015. The upcoming Terminator film will be the fifth installment in the franchise.
The original film, "The Terminator," was released on Oct. 26, 1984 and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the title character. The film was written and directed by James Cameron and the release of the fifth film will be just four months shy of the original's 31st anniversary.
Cameron, famed for directing mega-blockbusters "Titanic" and "Avatar," also directed the sequel, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." However, the third and fourth films saw two different directors.
The franchise's latest installment, 2009's "Terminator Salvation" featured Christian Bale as a grown John Connor who must rise as a leader to fight back against the machines.
The Hollywood Reporter said Thursday that producer-financier Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures and her brother David's Skydance Pictures are teaming up with Paramount to produce the new trilogy. "Salvation" alone grossed $371 million dollars and all four films have combined to gross approximately $1.4 billion.
The Hollywood Reporter also said Schwarzenegger will have some sort of role in the film, but that it had not yet been defined. No casting or directorial decisions have been confirmed as of yet, but Laeta Kalogridis ("Shutter Island," "Avatar") and Patrick Lussier ("Drive Angry," "Dracula 2000") have been signed on to write the script.
The franchise has centered on John Connor, the man who holds the key to stopping the future uprising and destruction brought on by the terminator machines. In the first film, Schwarzenegger played a terminator sent to the past to kill Connor's mother, Sarah. In the second film, he played a terminator sent to the past to protect an adolescent Connor from another terminator.
The films' producers' willingness to change the franchise's main actor's character and role could mean they would be willing to change the actor who played Connor in the last film, Bale. However, no casting announcements have been made, but now that the film has been green-lit, those announcements are surely on the way.
