McG is the director of the next Terminator film, like it or not, and he's been talking about the film and maybe giving us more mis-information about Terminator 4.

He talks about his ideal casting for Terminator and hints who he would like to play the role, and he says that John Connor will play a major part in the film - didn't the producers already say he didn't?

So I am confused because since July of last year the producers have been talking about the plot and saying that John Connor is not the focus of the film, in fact there's going to be a new hero.

Even recently when the plot was revealed in December, the talk was of the new main character being Marcus, a man who wakes up some fifteen years before the future we saw in the original Terminator, he joins John Connor's resistance and starts the good fight.

So now, in an interview over at 213 through AITH, he says:

"John Connor's a major player in it - Christian Bale's playing that part."

I am confused. No matter, let's move on to something more interesting, the fact that maybe McG could bring something interesting to the Terminator franchise.

"It was important to me to honor James Cameron's pictures and I spoke to him for a long time, he's down in New Zealand doing Avatar, and he was very encouraging saying "Look, I was in the same spot following Ridley Scott on the second Aliens picture - it's like, what are you doing, it's Ridley!" And he said, "I wanted to be respectful of the film by Ridley, but I wanna go in a direction where hopefully I can satisfy the hard core fans, but also build upon what's put before us." And I would never be so bold as to say that we're going to be successful, but we're certainly going to do our best and I think we're greatly protected by Christian Bale."

I don't think banking on Christian Bale being in the film is the best bet, but from his retelling of his talk with James Cameron it does sound like he's trying to keep on the right track and that he's really thinking of franchise and doing right by it.

In a way Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins to Terminator is comparable to the move from Alien to Aliens. The scope of the plot is opened way up, it's no longer a single enemy in our world but a whole raft of enemies with the good guys outnumbered in their world, perhaps he's got his head into this after all.

The question still remains as to whether he really can create a strong Terminator film, and if it won't just become a big action film with loads of fantastical set pieces.

On the subject of his perfect Terminator he compares the move from the huge physical presence of Arnie to someone like Robert Patrick, and eventually he says:

"...there's guys out there like Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, bring a good physicality, they do what they do, but I don't know if they're exactly right at the end of the day. (Smiles) Josh Brolin is a very exciting actor - we'll see."

Josh Brolin? After No Country for Old Men (Filmstalker Review)? I'm not so sure, I really do think that is his dream casting for the role, but if they could get Christian Bale on board, perhaps they could just surprise us all.