Justin Lin forced to drop out of directing Terminator 5

Envy Justin Lin. The director has come so far since he first acclaimed film, Better Luck Tomorrow, a brilliant little indie(backed later by MTV) about a group of Asian-Americans caught up in the world of petty crime. Since then, Lin has moved on to much bigger and more lucrative projects, like basically being the driving force(along with Vin Diesel) behind the Fast and the Furious franchise. That has made him quite popular, and recently he was chosen to be the man to spearhead Arnold Schwarzenegger's return in Terminator 5.

Unfortunately, Deadline is now reporting that Lin's busy schedule prepping the sixth F&F film will prevent him from directing the next Terminator.  The plan being hatched by rights owner Megan Ellison and Schwarzenegger is to kick off two potential flicks starting in the fourth quarter of 2012. There are still a lot of roadblocks preventing that from happening, like the fact there's no script, no studio, and well...now no director. Lin had been very involved with getting the film underway, working with Schwarzenegger and getting input from James Cameron.

Deadline also notes that Ellison may be in a rush to get things underway, due to some potential rights issues that will crop up in the next few years. Mainly that some of the rights will revert back to James Cameron(whether he wants them or not) in 2018. It could take years to get two Terminator films made, so this could get sticky very soon. Lin suggests that he'd definitely come back if Ellison and Co. can push the production back until after he finishes Fast Six or whatever it'll be called.