Alan Taylor will direct the new Terminator film

Until recently Taylor was most well-known for turning tv's "Game of Thrones" into something watchable, that was before he was hired to fill Kenneth Branagh's shoes and take on the "Thor" sequel, which is due to hit theaters this November and is looking good so far (if trailers can be any indication; which admittedly they not always are - cough - Prometheus - cough).

The news has taken some in Hollywood by surprise as they assumed Justin Lin would be helming "Terminator 5". That bit of assumption was always skating on thin ice, though, as Lin distanced himself from the project as much as 2 years ago and never gave any indication he was going to change his mind.

So Alan Taylor it is.

Production should begin early next year with a mid 2015 release date. About the only other thing known about the project is that The Impregnator will make an appearance of some sort and that Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis are writing the script. As far as what kind of film it will be it it seems pretty safe to assume that with Taylor on board we'll be seeing lots of big screen spectacle rather than the kind of tense, claustrophobic action that made the original such a thrill. But perhaps it'll all work swimmingly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

"And then the terminator rises up out of the explosion..."