Those of you that have been following us or the general advancements of the series will know that last year SONY & LIONSGATE were in a bidding war at auction for the rights. The dark-horse of the auction was Pacificor who out bid both studios and the representative for SONY was quite pissed on the day too. Back then we wanted Lionsgate to take some control of the saga after being impressed with the latest RAMBO movie in which blood, gore and violence was on the cards for an adult orientated war movie with a nicely meaty story (which is what Terminator Fans want).
The simple fact is that Pacificor is a hedge fund and they paid 30 million dollars for the privilege of ownership.
Wikipedia description for a hedge fund:
* A hedge fund is an investment fund that is typically open to a limited range of investors who pay a performance fee to the fund’s investment manage.
This means that a film studio did not buy the rights, a business did! and this business wants a high return on its investment but to do so it has to make a deal with a studio to be able to make a 5th Terminator movie possible!
Pacificor anticipated Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to Hollywood last year. Knowing that a Terminator movie with the Schwarzenegger name attached once again is a big money game and as the fans keep demanding a better Terminator movie they know the demand is there and thus the possibility for a high return on their investment.
So this means a war of studios may be on the cards!
SO WHAT IS UNIVERSALS PITCH?
DEADLINE & COMINGSOON.NET reported that Universal want in and they have an idea of who they want to direct and write the movie.
COMINGSOON.NET:
Universal may have machinations on the future of the Terminator franchise, Deadline is reporting. The site suggests that, with Arnold Schwarzenegger having completed his run in politics, the studio may be interested in acquiring the rights (presumably with him attached) for a development under Justin Lin and his Fast Five writer Chris Morgan.
With the franchise rights currently held by Pacificor, a studio-less hedge fund, there are a lot of balls in the air to be placed before anyone can make another Terminator film happen and there are also a number of routes that could be taken with regard to sequelizing or rebooting previous franchise entries. The original, released in 1984, spawned three theatrical sequels as well as a live-action television series.
No matter what, though, the rights likely won’t stay un-utilized for long, so check back for updates as they become available.
So the official Terminator 5 news has begun!
WHAT DO WE THINK ABOUT THIS?
The Scary news is that Universal may want to reboot… or do they want to continue the story? They obviously want Schwarzenegger on board! How do you feel about this as a fan? Does a reboot for the terminator franchise mean ignoring the less successful sequels, starting from scratch or perhaps continuing from T2 or instead take us to the future world we always wanted?
Justin Lin is known for The Fast and the Furious, Tokyo Drift and the new Fast Five which is in post-production…
We here at TheTerminatorFans.com fear that again we have another stylish director like McG was also stylish in his method.
Fans were set on Bill Wisher returning as writer to the saga talks now suggest that Chris Morgan (Fast and The Furious, Tokyo Drift, Wanted and Cellular) is in focus and to be honest with you… this isn’t too exciting.
This could infuriate the fan base that Bill Wisher’s treatments will be ignored, personally we and the fans wanted to see what Bill had to offer as afterall he did co-write the first two Terminator movies with Cameron!
Jim Cameron will not be back unless he changes his attitude towards Terminator altogether and see’s past the ego-delusion of Avatar being the best movie ever (it really isn’t Jim and time will crumble your CGI into ashes).
Is this writer and director good enough!? For now we will say NO, this is yet again another gamble and to be hoenst these guys being involved probably means a gung-ho movie with Vin Diesel as a Terminator. Think about it? It makes sense.
What do you think about Universal getting their hands on the franchise? We think it’s one step up from PG-13 sh*t with Warner Brothers to be honest.
The Fast Five will be a huge indicator for both Lin and Morgan, with Morgan having the most to prove with his screen writing ability on the new Keanu Reeves action flick 47 Ronin. MatrixFans.net mentions Chris Morgan and 47 Ronin.