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“Terminator Salvation” showed off some serious box-office muscle in its debut, with early estimates suggesting the Christian Bale-starer took in more than $3 million domestically in midnight Wednesday screenings alone. 

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie played in 3,450 theatres Thursday, though data on total Thursday earnings won’t be available until Friday.

The pic is projected to fetch $70 million or more over its first five days in theatres. The big haul is expected thanks in part to the long Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., which traditionally bodes well for the box office.

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A caped crusader and a mysterious island lead the pack of nominees for the 2009 Saturn Awards.

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror announced on Tuesdays its nominations for the annual awards, which recognize the year’s best in genre film making.

“The Dark Knight” received 11 nods to top the movie categories, including best film actor for Christian Bale and best action/adventure/thriller film. The Christopher Nolan-directed pic will compete in the latter category with “Changeling,” “Gran Torino,” “Quantum of Solace,” “Traitor” and “Valkyrie.”

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Christian Bale’s verbal attack on Shane Hurlbut, the director of cinematography for “Terminator Salvation,” has been viewed by thousands on the web.

When Hurlbut interrupted a scene the actor was shooting, Bale went on a three and a half minute rant where he said things like, “I want you off the set! You p—k! No, don’t just be sorry! Think for one f—ing second! What the f— are you doing? Are you professional or not?”

Bruce Franklin, associate producer and assistant director for “Terminator Salvation” told E! News, “If you are working in a very intense scene and someone takes you out of your groove … It was the most emotional scene in the movie and for him to get stopped in the middle of it … He is very intensely involved in his character. He didn’t walk around like that all day long. It was just a moment and it passed.”

Franklin said to E! News Bale is a “consummate professional”.

Christian Bale is a free man.

According to E! News, “The Dark Knight” star will not face any charges in regard to his highly-publicized arrest on suspicion of assaulting his mother and sister last month.

“We can today confirm that we have advised the Metropolitan Police Service that the actor Christian Bale should not face any charges,” the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. The CPS also said there was “insufficient evident to afford a realistic prospect of conviction” on the charges and that “the police have been advised that no further action should be taken against Mr. Bale.”

Bale has denied the allegations set against him. After the star was arrested and questioned, he was released by police on July 22.

Christian Bale had huge success at the box office this weekend – but his personal life may be falling apart.

The “Dark Knight” star is being sued for assault by his mother and sister, reports the UK Sun. Bale is said to have lashed out at his family members on Sunday at Park Lane’s Dorchester Hotel in London.

Bale faces questioning, but police are giving him the benefit of the doubt; they even held off their investigation to allow Bale to attend the huge premier of the new Batman flick.

A source told The Sun, “It was a very difficult situation but it would have been wrong to have wrecked the premiere over a complaint which we don’t yet know is founded in truth. But Mr Bale will be contacted at the earliest opportunity and be asked to provide an account of anything that happened.”

A Met Police spokesperson confirmed they had receive the allegations from Bale’s family.

After rumours that Christian Bale would play either John Connor or the Terminator in the fourth film of the franchise, CHUD.com is reporting that Bale will play a completely new character.

Due for release in June of 2009, no real casting has been set in stone. Warner Bros. will release the film, with McG directing. The running title is “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.”

According to IMDb, this will be the basic plotline: “After the drastic effects of Terminator 3, the story continues as John Connor and soon to be wife Kate Brewster realize they must create a resistance organization with Earth’s remaining survivors against the army of robots slowly being built up by Skynet. As they are building this resistance, one survivor happens to be a traitor in disguise, and has a secret that nobody would ever come to suspect.”

John Connor was played by Nick Stahl in the previous “Terminator” instalment.

Actor Christian Bale (”Batman Begins”) is set to star in a remake of “3:10 to Yuma,” the classic Western film from 1957.

Russell Crowe has already signed on to co-star in the James Mangold-directed project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The plot of the movie follows that of the original: rancher Dan Evans (Bale) captures a dangerous outlaw named Ben Wade (Crowe) and has to clandestinely transport him by train to Yuma for a court appearance.

Originally, the role of Evans was played by Van Heflin while Glenn Ford took on the part of the criminal.

The movie is slated to film this fall.

As Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine all sign on to a Batman Begins sequel, Katie Holmes’s name is noticeably missing.

Bale as Batman was the first to sign on, followed by Caine and Freeman. However, Holmes won’t reprise her role as district attorney Rachel Dawes – reportedly because Warner Bros. is angry that her engagement to Tom Cruise is getting more media attention than their summer blockbuster is.

A source told pagesix.com that “she won’t be in the sequel … the next romantic interest will be a much stronger actress. Warner is happy that people are now focusing on who’ll be playing the Joker rather than Katie and Tom.”

Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg, director of War of the Worlds, told Newsweek he thinks the media has blown the relationship out of proportion.

“Tom lost his cool because he was deliriously happy, and now he was being punished for his public display of happiness. What Tom did on Oprah was exactly what Tom did with me when he first told me about Katie Holmes. But the press didn’t like the way Tom bared his soul,” he says.

But now Spielberg seems to have changed his tune. The latest reports say he dropped out of today’s “War of the Worlds” junket at the Essex House.

Some reporters speculate Spielberg is tired of the ever looming shadow of TomKat over each War of the Worlds promotional event.

A representative for DreamWorks responded by saying, “he was never absolutely fixed to do the press conference. It still could happen.”