Alan Taylor, who directed the upcoming Marvel Phase Two sequel Thor: The Dark World, is in early talks to take the helm of Terminator 5, which has Arnold Schwarzenegger attached to star in an unspecified role.

Ang Lee had been in early talks to direct, but a deal was never finalized. Alan Taylor reportedly beat out other contenders such as Rian Johnson and Denis Villeneuve. Reps for Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions and Annapurna Pictures refused to comment.

Annapurna acquired the rights to the franchise back in 2011, joining forced with Paramount and Skydance in June. Since then, they have been focused on finding the right filmmaker for this highly-anticipated sequel.

Alan Taylor is best known for his work on HBO's Game of Thrones, but insiders believe that the early buzz about how smoothly the Thor: The Dark World production was run, played a big factor in landing this gig.

We reported in January that Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis are writing the screenplay. We also reported in June that the movie will be the first of a stand-alone trilogy, which suggests that they will likely have to issue a new title for the film, at some point.

No story details have been confirmed, but an unconfirmed story from June revealed that the plot may center on Sarah Connor's parents, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a human assigned to protect them in the 1940s and 1950s. Since this human does such an exceptional job of protecting the parents, terminators were created in his likeness. That report also revealed that Dwayne Johnson has been approached to star, although that has not been confirmed either.

Megan Ellison and David Ellison are producing, with Paul Schwake and Dana Goldberg executive producing. Shooting is scheduled to begin in early 2014.