Whoa… I did not see this one coming.
Out of all the bidders looking to “make the fate” of the Terminator series and win the franchise rights from the Halycon Company, it wasn’t Sony Pictures nor Lionsgate that walked away with the keys to Cyberdyne. It was…
..the Pacificor hedge fund?
Nikki Finke just broke the news, and the story of the five-hour-long auction’s as intense as the future war itself (I’m sure HBO will do a cable-only movie about it in ten years). Halcyon and Pacificor seem about as bitterly opposed as John Connor and Skynet. Pacificor was the creditor that pushed Halcyon into bankruptcy and Halcyon later demanded $30 million in damages in a suit, crying “extortion, bribery and fraud.” So, it doesn’t seem like too great a coincidence that the franchise rights sold for $29.5 million, just half-a-mil shy of those damages fees.
There’s really no precedent to judge Pacificor by. It isn’t a studio with prior credits to assess, nor statements to evaluate like the one an anonymous Lionsgate employee made to Finke.
"We're going to fight one hell of a fight [for the rights.] [Lionsgate plans for] a complete re-boot, back to basics, with real emotional stories, and effects that will be secondary.”
Truth be told, the prospect of rebooting the franchise and bringing it back to basics doesn't sound that appealing to me, either. I'd rather see another chapter in the future war, but there's really no point in speculating either way at this point.
This is the newest knot in the Terminator series' already-complicated tapestry of rights and ownership. I recall one of the reasons it took seven years for T2 to get made after the first movie was the difficulty producer Mario Kassar had securing the rights from the now-defunct Hemdale Pictures to get the sequel produced at Carolco (which is now defunct, too). You'll notice, as well, that each movie is licensed separately, explaining why you a THE TERMINATOR comic from one publisher and a TERMINATOR 2 comic from another. Its almost as convoluted as the movies' time travel-paradoxes.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
Log in to comment