The Oscar-nominated thesp is in negotiations to play a small, but pivotal role in Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the sci-fi/action franchise, per the Hollywood Reporter.

T4 stars Christian Bale as an adult John Connor leading humanity's rebellion against Skynet and its army of killer cyborgs. Sam Worthington costars as a time-hopping amnesiac who teams up with Bale's character. McG (Charlie's Angels) is directing.

No word exactly on the nature of Carter's part but, along with Bale, the Wings of the Dove star's casting brings a whiff of prestige to a series best known for launching the big-screen career of Arnold Schwarzenegger with robotic lines like "I'll be back" and "hasta la vista, Baby."

Carter is no stranger to summer blockbusters, with roles in the Harry Potter franchise and partner Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes redo.

Shooting began last month in New Mexico; Terminator Salvation is being targeted for a May 22, 2009 release.

In other casting news:

  • Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig and Zoe Bell have signed on to star opposite Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore in Whip It!, a roller-derby comedy that will also mark the E.T. star's feature-helming debut. Harden will play a bossy beauty queen who pressures her daughter (Page) to forego the ring for pageants, while Lewis will play the team's star, Dinah Might, SNL's Wiig plays a boisterous mentor, Malice in Wonderland, and Bell is a medical technician moonlighting as derby skater Bloody Holly. Shooting starts this summer.

  • Gone Baby Gone Oscar nominee Amy Ryan will be back for a multiepisode stint in NBC's The Office, reprising her role as a human resources rep (and potential Michael Scott love interest) Holly Flax.

  • Lost's Matthew Fox is in talks to headline Warner Bros.' movie adaptation of the forthcoming comic book Billy Smoke, about a contract killer who's eyeing to redeem himself after a bungled job by ridding the world of all of its hitmen.

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  • Jesse Plemons is putting aside the pigskin in NBC's Friday Nights Lights for a role opposite Kevin Spacey, Robin Williams and Saffron Burrows in the indie drama Shrink. Plemons will play a drug dealer who supplies pot to Spacey's character, a Hollywood psychiatrist who turns to mary-j due to his inability to deal with a personal tragedy and his own patients.

  • Erik Jensen, Jose Pablo Cantillio and Clea DuVall are set to topline a two-hour backdoor pilot for Fox called Virtuality, a sci-fi drama about a starship on a mission to explore a distant solar system. Jensen will play the ship's navigator, Cantillo a mathematician and DuVall the copilot and engineer.

  • Malik Yoba and Warren Kole are joining the ensemble of Fox's one-hour pilot, Inseparable, a sort of modern-day Jekyll and Hyde tale starring Lloyd Owen. Both will play detectives.