Ain't It Cool News reports that Batman himself Christian Bale is to become a part of the Terminator franchise next year.

The site indicates that Bale has been cast as John Connor in the upcoming fourth feature film "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins" for Warner Bros. Pictures.

McG is helming the project which begins shooting early 2008 and hopes to kick off a new trilogy of future-set films covering the war between humanity and the robots of Skynet.

The project is on target for a Summer 2009 release.