Batman Takes a Second Job: Bale Joining Terminator 4?

Christian Bale rescued himself in Rescue Dawn–now can he rescue the Terminator series?

Rumors are flying that Christian Bale is in talks to join the cast of the McG-directed Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins Today.

SlashFilm and AintItCoolNews are saying that he would be playing (if said rumors are true) John Connor in the fourth installment of the Terminator Saga. CHUD, though, is hearing two different things–first they heard from their insiders that he would be playing the Terminator, not Connor. Now they hear he might be playing a completely new character. Whatever. Just as long as it’s Christian Bale, who cares who he’s playing?

I noticed that some commenters on the SlashFilm story weren’t buying this rumor because they thought Bale was out of the blockbuster, popcorn movie business after he finishes up his Batman commitments, especially with all the serious actor performances he’s turned in this year (Rescue Dawn, 3:10 to Yuma, I’m Not There).

Two reasons why I don’t buy their reasoning: one is that CHUD reports that Bale actually isn’t getting paid big movie star money for the Batman movies (I’ve heard this before too) and if you want to keep on making small, serious actor movies, you need to pick up some big paydays along the way to finance those choices. Lots of other actors have run their careers that way and no one’s the worse for it. Second, in case you haven’t noticed, Bale seems to have a yen for punishing, physically demanding roles. A big actioner like the Terminator would seem to appeal to him.

So let’s see what happens. If this turns out to be true, maybe this will be the most interesting Terminator yet.