Chrysler To Be Back with Terminator IV Sponsorship

DETROIT (Reuters) – Just as Chrysler LLC announced a sequel to its ownership saga, the struggling automaker also unveiled plans to help underwrite the fourth installment of the “Terminator” movie series.

Chrysler, which has received $4 billion in emergency aid from the U.S. government, has a deal to place its vehicles in cameo roles in “Terminator Salvation,” scheduled for release later this year and starring Christian Bale, executives said on Tuesday.

Financial terms of the sponsorship deal were not disclosed.

“This spring, Terminator 4 comes out and we will be one of the sponsors,” Chrysler director of media Susan Thomson said in a presentation at the Automotive News World Congress. “We have a following with the Terminator movies and we are going to continue with that.”

First released in 1984, “The Terminator” starred now-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg sent from the future to kill a woman whose son would lead a resistance to a worldwide takeover by machines.

The film led to two sequels and a television series.

Under private ownership, Chrysler has cut 36 percent of its employees, taking its combined blue-collar and white-collar staffing to the lowest level since 1934.

Under the terms of its federal bailout, the automaker must submit a restructuring plan next month and demonstrate it can be made viable by the end of March. It has said it will seek another $3 billion in U.S. government loans.

(Reporting by David Bailey, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)