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Jeez get on with another movie already !
What a difference a few days make in the world of competitive Hollywood bidding. That must be what the guys over at Sony Pictures and Lionsgate must be thinking in regards to the much-publicized auction for the rights to the Terminator franchise. It's been no secret that Sony, a co-distributor of Terminator Salvation, wanted to retain the rights after entering a bid last Thursday and Lionsgate was considered the front-runner after staking a claim early last month. Flash forward to today and it seems neither studio won the auction.
Instead, Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Pacificor--the hedge fund that put rights holder Halcyon Group into financial distress in the first place-- has somehow come out on top of the auction and taken over the rights to the franchise.
Both Sony Pictures and Lionsgate separately were bidding for the franchise, and then joined up after the first round was completed. But the studios didn't come away the winners -- which, I'm told, prompted a furious Sony Pictures Entertainment's president of worldwide affairs Peter Schlessel to "storm out" of the Downtown LA offices of FTI Capital Advisors which was holding the auction. Instead, Halcyon Holding Corp accepted the $29.5 million bid from, of all parties, the debtholder which pushed it into bankruptcy, Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor. (This is the same Pacificor whom Halcyon accused in a lawsuit of extortion, bribery, and fraud and demanded $30M in damages.)
Tonight, Sony and Lionsgate dropped out at just under $29.5 million when it became clear that Pacificor "was willing to pay almost any amount of money for Terminator," an insider tells me. Halcyon will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie made from now on, as well as retains the rich revenue streams from the movies Terminator 3 and 4. An arrangement also was made that the sale now wipes out the debt Halcyon owed to Pacificor and all the tther creditors. Of course, the deal is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court. It will be presented to the judge at a hearing on Thursday.
Read the full report here.
What are your thoughts? Chime in below, Maniacs.
I guess that means McG's trilogy is still on then.
Didn't love nor did I totally hate Salvation so keeping my fingers crossed that the next one is better, a lot better
Only in American can the company that put something into bankrupcty find the money to buy the rights they screwed up to begin with.
This is bullsh*t. I think something semi-illegal just went down and when the lawsuit against this group Pacificor come to light my bets are on them losing the rights to Terminator.
I am also more worried about some namless group of shady jack holes having the rights to Terminator than Sony any day of the week. I also think that this may be the doom of the Terminator movies in general. I just have a very bad feeling about this deal.
hey guys it comes down to whoever has the most money wins..just like ebay..lol I would have loved to see a Lions Gate terminator flick. I think they would have made it grittier and more violet. But they didnt post up the dough..neither did sony, guess they didnt want the franchise bad enough.
Oh, I understand that Darkknight. But the company that won is already being sued by Halcyon. You don't think it is kind of strange that Pacificor is being sued for various nefarious practices and then manages to win the rights to the films in question?
I was just glad to see that a Sony exec got mad and stormed out. Now he knows how we all feel about Spider-Man!
That is some shady shit right there. That's like the me owing the bank money I can't afford for an ice cream truck and to make my debts go away I sell the ice cream truck to the bank - and make a percentage off of whatever ice cream the bank sells from then on.
Maybe we'll get news. Maybe Pacificor is a real big fan of the Sarah Connor Chronicles and wants to see if they can get it back on television. Luckily - as of yet it doesn't seem any of the actors are doing any new projects yet. Summer was but we know how that ended.
@MrJawbreakingEquilibrium: That is not actually true. Lena Headey is now involved in the Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin that is being made for HBO. She is acting a Cersi Lannister which is totally bad ass. The pilot just wrapped and the series is being given a green light by HBO. The series of books is so long that everyone has work for years or until their character dies, which the series is known for. It is a brutal set of books.
I don't know exactly what happen. But all I know is something fishy went down