Trying to catch up on a bunch of stuff I've missed over the past week and a half, one item crept into view this afternoon that I'm glad I didn't miss like a lot of other stuff: Harry Knowles of AICN reported this afternoon that an anonymous source told him that Christian Bale has been cast, or is being considered/talked to for the role of John Connor in the fourth Terminator feature film.

This franchise is already on its third owner and is about as far removed from James Cameron as the Alien flicks are these days. I'm excited that Bale may be on board for this next installment, but also gravely concerned that he's walking into fourth-level trash that should be going straight-to-DVD. I imagine he'd have to be impressed with the script before agreeing and that's a good sign, on the other hand he may feel like he can bring existing crap up to a legitimate level with his own talent.

Honest intentions or not, we don't need that latter scenario. Nobody can make a bad script come to life on the screen regardless of how good they are, regardless of what their role is, be it acting or directing.

I didn't know that McG was up for directing this but I'm sticking by my theory that this franchise flopped without Cameron and will continue to do so unless somebody with real writing talent steps up to the plate and realizes that people vs. one terminator is not a story, much less one that is repeatable.

If this film has Bale playing Connor, then it has to be about Connor, and nothing else. Stories revolve around people, not machines and special effects. It has to be about his struggle to do X, not about the bad guys struggle to keep him down.

My prospects for this have gone up immeasurably because of this news, if it's true, but I want to know more about the story before giving it much more thought than this.

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