NEW YORK -- Anton Yelchin is in negotiations to star as post-apocalyptic warrior Kyle Reese in director McG's "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins."

With production scheduled to start in early May, Paul Haggis also has been in talks about coming on board to work on the sequel's script.

Yelchin will play a teen version of Reese, the man who fathered world savior John Connor in the original "Terminator" film.

Christian Bale will play John Connor in the time-traveling third sequel to the 1984 sci-fi action film, produced by the Halcyon Co. and set for a Warner Bros. release in summer 2009.

Reese, one of the children who survived a machine-driven nuclear holocaust, befriends Marcus (Sam Worthington), an early edition of the Terminator cyborg played in previous films by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In "Salvation," the character is a young version of the one played by Michael Biehn, who traveled back in time in the original to impregnate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and father the world's future savior.

The film picks up with their son (Bale), now in his 30s, fighting desperately to save a decimated civilization against machines that have taken control. It's unclear if the father and child reunion is only a cyborg motion away in the new film.

Halcyon's Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson are producing with Moritz Borman. David Campbell Wilson, John Brancato and Michael Ferris wrote the screenplay. Principal photography is set to begin in early May.

Yelchin ("Charlie Bartlett") will next be seen as Chekov in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" for Paramount. He is repped by CAA and attorney David Weber.

Yelchin in talks for Terminator role

Haggis may work on sequel script

By Gregg Goldstein

March 19, 2008,