Terminator is back, it’s official. Variety reports that Warners has acquired the North American distribution rights to the fourth sequel, to be titled Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Yeah, that’s a pretty awful, unnecessarily long title. Note to Hollywood: save plot descriptions for the press notes. You don’t need to spill the entire plot summary in one sentence on the movie’s poster. Maybe I should stop complaining, at least they didn’t randomly tack the word “Requiem” on the end… at least not yet.

Production on the film, which I will continue to call T4 until they wise up and give it a more sensible title, is set to start in 2008. They want it released in 2009, so that probably means early 2008 before the worst of the annoyingly still possible strike in June. As for what it’s about, the only clue being offered is that it’s set in the future and it’s about the war between Skynet and mankind.

The film’s script was written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who also had in Terminator 3, but whether anyone else for T3 will show up on set remains to be seen. Director Jonathan Mostow has pretty much passed on it, and a bevy of names have been rumored for the director’s chair. McG seems to have the most rumor-mill buzz but there’s no one signed yet. Clair Danes, who co-starred in T3 has already said she wants nothing to do with it. So count her out. Arnie is busy being old and playing politician. Nick Stahl is rumored to be out of the running to reprise his role as John Connor.

So what we have here is a sequel with no one from the other movies involved in any capacity, except a couple of screenwriters. Maybe they’ll get Kristana Loken back. This thing is bound to be amazing. She’s done such great work with Uwe Boll. She can carry it.