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Fast and Furious director Justin Lin has had to sever his connections to the reboot of the Terminator franchise – at least for the moment.

According to Deadline.com, plans by rights owner Megan Ellison and star Arnold Schwarzenegger to get the first film into production by the fourth quarter of 2012 have meant that Lin has had to vacate because of his commitments to the Fast and Furious franchise. The website reports that Lin has been working with Ellison and Schwarzenegger to find a way to wrap up the storyline in two movies before the North American rights to the original movie revert to creator James Cameron in 2018, and if he can fulfil his obligations on Fast and Furious, he may return to the Terminator fold.

Lin has already had to drop out of one genre reboot – the new Highlander movie – because of his work on the super-cars franchise.