It seems as though Terminator 5 is in purgatory. While some people peg director Justin Lin (Fast Five, the upcoming Fast Six) as being attached, he’s apparently not actively involved anymore and is biding his time with the Fast And The Furious franchise while things get sorted out. The reason for the delay? Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the script to be better than Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (which by default would make it better than Terminator: Salvation) and that hasn’t happened yet.

But what’s the gist of the shelved take? According to Moviehole, “there was a great concept that linked up to T1 that involved time travel to alternate dimensions. The concept “would’ve centered on an alternate timeline in which Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese lived” (as far as I could gather, that interchanging timeline storyline, that would mean the cast of the original film – Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn could reprise their roles.) “But there’s no movie at the moment, thus no locked-in script.”, we’re reminded again. But that concept does fit with what director Justin Lin told Moviehole shortly after securing the director’s job on “T5″- that he would like to somehow resurrect Sarah Connor.”

Said Lin, “I mean, Sarah Connor is such a big part of the franchise, you know. Yeah, I mean I’ve always been surprised how in part 3 she was just like… It was like one line and she was gone….Yeah, like leukemia and… But I think the great thing about this franchise is you have… You can actually have different canons because you have the element of time travel. So, there’s a way of kind of respecting all the works but also able to create a new time line.”

Sounds like something that would be good in theory and likely horrible in execution. Looper is an excellent time travel movie that is currently in theaters. T5, if it ever arrives, will likely have the dead black heart of the Total Recall remake pumpkins its blood.