I’m not sure what has unleashed such a torrent of Terminator interest in the past year. The Sarah Conner Chronicles is surviving better than most sci-fi shows on the Fox network, and the fourth Terminator movie (and the start of a new trilogy) is drawing a decent cast with Christian Bale attached.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins is seeing interest from more than just franchise and Christian Bale fans. Variety reports the international distribution rights of the unfilmed sequel have already been picked up by Sony Pictures Worldwide. The company has acquired rights for all international markets except for Korea and a few select Mideast markets. Warner Brothers had already picked up domestic rights for the project.

It always entertains me when studios manage to sell distribution rights before a movie has been made. What if something catastrophic happens and this becomes far too expensive a film? It’ll be too late to recoup some of those funds in distribution deals when they’ve already been made. At the same time, it would be easy for the distributors to get scewed over if the movie winds up not being very good. It’s really a gamble on both sides, especially with nothing laid down on film yet - Terminator Salvation isn’t slated to begin filming until some point this spring.

Update! It looks like in addition to finding distribution, Terminator 4 now has a release date. Expect it in theaters on May 22, 2009.