The fourth Terminator movie - Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins - will hit cinemas on 22 May 2009, the makers have announced.

Shooting on the McG-helmed film, which stars Christian Bale as rebel leader John Connor, will begin in May at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico. It's the first of a planned trilogy which promises to "reinvent the cyborg saga", as production company Halcyon put it.

Halcyon co-CEO Derek Anderson teased back in October: "This is set in the future, in a full-scale war between Skynet and humankind."

Of the location, McG said in a statement this week that New Mexico "represented an arid Western United States in a post-apocalyptic future", adding: "This is the story of a man's search for belief in himself and his fellow man. It's a long journey and the landscape plays a critical role." ®

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• Arnie pops up in Terminator Salvation (8 May 2009)
• Christian Bale signs for Terminator trilogy (21 May 2008)
• 'I'll be back' is most-quoted movie line (8 November 2007)
• Terminator will be back in 2009 (10 October 2007)
• Terminator 4 is go - with or without Arnie (10 April 2006)