The sale of the Terminator franchise certainly hasn’t been pretty. On Monday, in a move that is certainly odd former rights holder Halcyon gave the winning bid of the franchise to shady hedge fund company Pacificor whom they had previously sued for fraud, alleged extortion and bribery. As part of $29.5 million deal, Pacificor agreed to erase the debt Halcyon owed them, and freed up the hedge fund all other creditors as well. Not too bad (though some have noted how this seems to have been all a big scam by Halcyon who never had any intentions of selling it to anyone other than Pacifor from the get-go).
However, the deal looked a little too a little cozy (see above), and competing bidders Sony and Lionsgate (who both filed separate and then, combined bids for the franchise) went to court. However, Judge Robles ruled that the sale was fair saying in his ruling, “I am sympathetic to calls that this has been an unfair process … but I don’t agree with it. What ultimately matters is a dollars and cents determination of what makes sense from the perspective of all the parties that have a significant amount of money at stake. That has happened here.”
But Sony and Lionsgate aren’t through with the franchise yet, and in talks late yesterday Pacificor has agreed to give the studios an exclusive window to have a first crack at negotiating a deal to produce and distribute the next “Terminator” movie. The debt-ridden MGM previously held first look distribution rights for any potential sequels, but sold them off for a paltry $150,000. This is all good business for Halcyon as they will receive $5 million for any forthcoming Terminator films, as well as continue to take in revenue from “Terminator: Salvation” and “Terminator 3.”
So where does this leave McG? The LATimes reports:
In addition, an attorney representing “Terminator Salvation” director McG argued that Pacificor and any producers it partners with should be forced to honor McG’s right-of-first-refusal to direct future sequels, which was part of his deal with Halcyon. The judge disagreed and said that if McG isn’t offered the opportunity to direct the next “Terminator” movie, his attorney can only file a claim against Halcyon in bankruptcy court.
In other words he has little recourse. We seriously doubt McG will goes to those lengths on what is ultimately, at the point, a matter of principle. So the proposed “chase movie with a new Terminator that is on your ass” McG was blabbing about last summer? Probably never gonna happen.
Finally, when it was announced that the “Terminator” franchise was for sale and the price was, comparatively, pretty low for a major franchise, there were concerns that the big budgets were out, and that we would be bracing ourselves for cheapie, churned out sequels. However, looking at the cost just to get a proposed sequel into production ($5 million to Halcyon, plus however much Pacificor will charge for licensing and backend profits) no studio can realistically take on a new film for a quick buck cash grab. Let’s argue that they would be $10 million in the hole before any talent of any kind are brought on. In addition, Pacificor would undoubtedly be siphoning a part of box office and DVD sales for themselves. If a studio is going to take this on again, they will want to make sure they get a decent payday out of their cut which means bid budget, big stars and the hopes of a big box office return.