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Terminator Rights Sell To ...

By: Erik Davis on February 9, 2010 at 2:56PM Comments (2)

… a hedge fund? Wait, what? Let's back up a bit: Remember how the last private company who owned the Terminator rights (and were responsible for Terminator Salvation) went bankrupt, forcing an auction of the rights…right? Well, all of us were under the assumption that a studio would swoop in and rescue the rights from limbo in order to possibly reboot the entire franchise down the line. In fact, up until yesterday, word had it that both Sony and Lionsgate were aggressively pursuing those rights at auction.

Terminator

Well, things change. Deadline Hollywood reports that the rights have sold for $29.5 million to – wait for it – the Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor which forced the previous rights holders, The Halycon Corp., into bankruptcy in the first place. This came after both Sony (who distributed Terminator Salvation internationally) and Lionsgate were both aggressively bidding, though they each saw that Pacificor was going to pay any amount for the Terminator rights.
 
Pacificor, meanwhile, was accused by The Halycon Corp. of – among other things – extortion, bribery and fraud during their heated head-to-head which eventually forced Halycon into bankruptcy. Did Pacificor buy the rights just to spite the folks who they originally loaned the money to in the first place? Who the hell knows – fact of the matter is there's such a legal mess wrapped around the Terminator rights now that I'd be surprised if we see a new film within the next five years. Plus, with such a sour taste in their mouths, I can't see either Sony or Lionsgate helping to distribute, and after the somewhat unsuccessful fourth installment, who knows if Warner Bros. would even want to go near the property again.
 
What do you think? Interested in a new Terminator franchise?

 

Tags: Terminator

Comments (2)Leave a Comment

  • Feb 9th 2010 4:13PM

    Mackeyser  said...

    Well, yes, the story broke down on MULTIPLE levels. The more I think about it, while I liked several aspects of the movie, I realize that if I were to write a review of the movie, I'd have to talk about the story... and each subsequent rewrite would be harsher and more critical. Which stinks because Christian Bale did a fantastic job as John Connor. McG only solidified in my mind that he wouldn't know a GOOD story with salient development if it punched him in the face. The holes in the story are nearly legion. What gets me is that the franchise is still immensely compelling (even though both the 3rd and 4th movie stunk and both need to be redone) Worked for Batman. What stinks is that any revisit is likely to be without Bale.

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  • Feb 9th 2010 9:08PM

    movie_guy  said...

    Is this what Hollywood has become? A group fighting over a title to blow a lot of things up and make a quick 30 million? I didn't mention a script, because i guess that's either very hard to come by or chosen over a game of pin the tail on the donkey. Personally i would of taken that 29.5 million, left the Terminator franchise alone, and used that money to bring in people who have some radical creativity of there own. Get a solid script together, cast, crew, directors, producers, and start a franchise of my own. Why was Terminator so successful in the first place? It raised the bar in to many areas of industry to cover with only 96 characters remaining. Think about it.

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