Terminator 5 Schwarzenegger

TERMINATOR 5 BID WARS PART 2 (package now including Schwarzenegger himself):

Reported on 27th April 2011:

According to deadline.com "it is time". Long have we been in the knowledge that a hedge fund called Pacificor won the rights to Terminator after the company Halcyon (the guys who released Terminator salvation) went bust.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has given Hollywood agency CAA approval to discuss a potential new Terminator movie with studios, a source close to the star confirmed to Entertainment Weekly but until Schwarzenegger sees a script and specifics about the project, he will not fully commit to it.

Today a sales package/pitch will be delivered to Lionsgate, Sony & Universal. The studio most connected with this movie so far is Universal with their pitch that they want Justin Lin to direct the next Terminator...

There is currently no screen writer attached but a producer has been assigned already! The man most directly responsible for producing Terminator five will be Robert Cort (Save The Last Dance 1 & 2, Jumanji, Ferngully).

He's back. Arnold Schwarzenegger is attached to star in a rights package that CAA is shopping today which will revive The Terminator, one of Hollywood's most iconic science fiction franchises. The agency is dropping the package on studios this afternoon.

Deadline reported:

The Santa Barbara-based hedge fund posted a bid of $29.5 million, with the promise that additional multimillion-dollar payments for each film would go to Halcyon, the company that made the 2009 McG-directed Terminator Salvation. Halcyon wanted to make several films but ran out of money. At the time of the auction, Pacificor beat out a combined bid by Lionsgate and Sony planning to make back-to-back sequels to bring the franchise to a natural creative conclusion.

If you missed the original bid wars of 2010 you can find out exactly what went on here.

Now Pacificor are offering up a package to tempt the 3 major movie studios. Here is what they are offering if a studio pays them for the privilage:

Arnold Schwarzenegger to star.

The rights to make the next Terminator movie.

If Universal wins they will surely use Justin Lin as the Director. This is not the most popular sounding pitch to Terminator fans but in terms of money making it makes more sense than caring about the fanbase again for the bitch ass money makers.

Deadline reported:

The Terminator has a ticking clock on the rights. There is a stipulation in copyright law that if you assign your rights, you get them back in 35 years. In this case, Cameron assigned his rights to Hemdale, and the North American rights will revert back to him in 2018. Now, Cameron has more or less washed his hands of the Terminator franchise, but I'm told a new deal would have to be made with him if the plan was to keep making Terminator installments beyond that period. There is plenty of time to make at least two Terminator films before that happens, and that might be sufficient to end the saga that so far has spanned four films. Any financier that makes those films owns them free and clear. Rumor is the project price tag is at least $25 million upfront, against a purchase price near $36 million, not including paydays for Schwarzenegger or Lin. It would stand to reason because of the amount Pacificor paid in 2010 and the interest it has carried since. I'm told there is no set price, but this will likely be a whopping sale by the time the dust has settled and the bidding is complete.

The more money you have the whiter your teeth get!

This means that Jim Cameron will own the Terminator franchise again one day. He will either rub his fingers for more notes or perhaps he will slam down a coffin lid to prevent anyone doing anything else with the saga... ? Who knows? In fact who cares. What is more important is how this next film plays out. Will it be a train wreck or will it manage to put the saga back on track?

A new Terminator movie with Schwarzenegger attached could be announced in a matter of hours... We'll be back!

OVERALL OPINION:

It will be great to have Schwarzenegger back but he really needs to throw some weight around this movie... I for one would suggest that he has some say in script and delivery and if he feels dialogue is not suited to the character then he should refuse to say it. Afterall the many shit one liners T3 created made Arnold look like a vacant moron.

A Justin Lin Terminator movie ain't stoking our fire too much. He really needs to do more than prove himself worthy. Can Lin break the curse of the last two pictures? Or will his Terminator movie suck more than the last two combined? We hope who ever does direct this has some balls and is willing to break the rules as much as they possibly can to bring fans something they actually want.

As far as studios go it would be nice to see Lionsgate grab a piece of this... it would be something fresh for the saga... Sony had T3 & Salvation... Universal we think will just be more of the same whereas Lionsgate may be willing to take the series back to its horror roots and sci-fi war.

We ran an article a while ago about how we and the fanbase would like Arnold to return to the saga check it out here.