Terminator’s Bidding Battle Royale

Now that Fast Five director Justin Lin and Arnold Schwarzenegger are thinking about Terminator 5, it didn’t take long for someone to step in and haggle over film rights…by outbidding the studio who actually wants to make the movie.
Deadline reports:

Yesterday, it looked like Lionsgate would win the property with an outright purchase, with an upfront payment of at least half of the $29.5 million that Pacificor spent to claim the property in a bankruptcy auction. That was until Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Films came in with a bid that was higher. They are now fighting it out. As she usually does when she commits to a film, Ellison is staking that amount without having a distributor locked in place.

Elison is rather good at getting some indie projects off and running- but Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film was sold off to the Wienstien Company; and the suddenly hot Kathryn Bigelow-Mark Boal drama about the hunt (and later demise) of Osama Bin Laden is now being autioned off. So I suspect if Lionsgate (or another studio) wants Terminator 5 bad enough, they will pony up the cash to Elison- but there’s another problem.

James Cameron, who, even though he’s pretty much done with the franchise, will get the North American rights to Terminator back in 2018 and any films concerning the franchise cannot be done without his blessing.
Believe it or not.

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About Darren

"Revenge is sweet and not fattening." Alfred Hitchcock

4 thoughts on “Terminator’s Bidding Battle Royale

  1. 2018! Now thats interesting, By then he’ll probally be done with his Avatar trilogy.

    even though he said he’s done and finished his story after part 2.
    It’s kinda cool it’s coming back to papa Cameron.

    so I’d say it’s done after that, No more Sequels/Prequels/Re-visions/Remakes.

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