[Movies] Terminator Has A New Owner
Posted by Larry Csonka on 02.09.2010
But it isn’t Lionsgate or Sony…
According to Deadline Hollywood, the Terminator franchise has a new owner. It was thought that Lionsgate would be the owner, and then Sony got into the bidding war. At yesterday's auction, Sony and Lionsgate battled against each other, and eventually teamed up to bid for the franchise. But when it was all over, Pacificor, a Santa Barbara-based hedge fund, walked away with the rights to the Terminator movie, TV show, as well as other spin-off rights.
Pacificor is actually the debt holder that caused the bankruptcy issue for Halcyon in the first place, and led to the auction. At one time, Halcyon has accused Pacificor of extortion, bribery, and fraud. For that, they demanded $30 million in damages. Pacificor paid $29.5 million for the rights.
In other notes, Lionsgate had planned "a complete re-boot, back to basics, with real emotional stories, and effects that will be secondary" vision of the Terminator franchise. Finally, Sony Pictures Entertainment's president of worldwide affairs Peter Schlessel was reportedly furious about losing the auction, and stormed out after losing the rights war to Pacificor.
