"Terminator" Director Reboots Franchise

In "Terminator: Salvation," the highly anticipated new installment of the Terminator movie franchise, is set in post-apocalyptic 2018. Chrisitan Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of terminators.

The director of "Terminator: Salvation," McG, (aka Joseph McGinty Nichol) stopped by The Early Show Wednesday to talk about the challenges of reviving the franchise, as well as his impressive lead character.

As he spoke, the Terminator robot was at his side.

"We needed an incredible, talented actor and that list had one name, Christian Bale," McG said.

Bale steps into the role of John Connor, played previously by Edward Furlong and Nick Stahl. And he does the same voice he uses when he dons the black suit for the "Batman" movies, a monotone, guttural growl regardless of the dialogue.

John must find and protect his future father, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), while trying to determine whether to trust the mysterious Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) to help in this quest.

"Those (the previous 'Terminator') movies take place in present day and our movie takes place in the future, McG said. "So now, he's a little bit older, and has to lead the way."

Director McG, of the "Charlie's Angels" movies and "We Are Marshall," drops into this well-established lore and presents a post-apocalyptic world that is repetitively bleak and relentlessly loud.

McG went onto explain how tough it was to take a franchise and breathe new life into it, and why he was willing to take that risk.

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"Terminator Salvation" opens in theaters on May 21.