The new Terminator trilogy is good to go.

And, in the tradition of “Judgment Day”, the next movie just might have the most religious-sounding title yet. Variety reports:

Warner Bros. has acquired North American distrib rights to “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,” triggering an early 2008 production start for a film that seeks to reinvent the cyborg saga with a storyline to be told over a three-pic span.

WB plans to distribute “Terminator Salvation” in summer 2009.

The Warner deal dashes MGM’s hopes of corralling distribution rights to the film. The Lion planned to pepper its slate with tentpoles such as “The Hobbit” and “Terminator,” but neither project has worked out for the distributor. . . .

The producers said that the new film will carry the size and scale of “Terminator 3,” and will have an event-sized budget. It will likely be less than the $200 million pricetag of “Terminator 3,” which was saddled with extravagant costs that included above the line payouts, rights payments and heavy fees incurred through a complex financial structure.

Warner Bros. is also producing a smallscreen “Terminator” adaptation, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” for Fox’s midseason sked. . . .

A screenplay has been completed by “Terminator 3” scribes John Brancato and Michael Ferris, and the financiers and studio are close to locking a director. While industry buzz has “Charlie’s Angels” director McG as the odds-on favorite for the assignment, the producers said no final decision had yet been made.

The first two “Terminator” films, directed by James Cameron, used contemporary settings to pit Sarah and John Connor against indestructible cyborgs. “T3” was also set in the present day and ended just as the machines initiated a nuclear apocalypse. “Terminator Salvation” was deliberately not given a number after its title, because Halcyon is eager to make it clear that the fourth film heads into an entirely different setting.

“This is set in the future, in a full-scale war between Skynet and humankind,” Anderson told Daily Variety.

Borman said: “The third film was really the conclusion of what happened in the ‘now.’ You will find the most-loved characters, but the intention here is to present a fresh new world and have this be the first of a trilogy.” . . .