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UPDATE: Joss Whedon Makes Bid For ‘Terminator’
All the big studios, with Sony leading the way, as well as Summit Entertainment and Media Rights Capital, are interested in bidding when the Terminator franchise is auctioned off this month. This news comes from the Financial Times‘ Matthew Garrahan who says the rights auction is for new Terminator films, TV program and other spin-offs. Because we all know The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox did so well, right? that build on the popularity of the franchise. The sale is being conducted by FTI Capital Advisors for Halcyon which bought the Terminator rights 2 years ago for $25M from Mario Kassar. Halcyon recently filed for Chapter 11 after a dispute with Pacificor, a Santa Barbara-based hedge fund that lent Halcyon the sum to buy the Terminator rights. Sheesh, I think this character/concept is played out. Then again, Terminator 4: Salvation made $380M worldwide.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Nikki, See you got my email
As to the viability of the TERMINATOR franchise, I agree. Yet consider this. With the abysmal BATMAN AND ROBIN cringe-fest with George Clooney and Ahnold, most thought the BATMAN franchise was all played out, too. Chris Nolan and Warner Brothers changed all that, wouldn’t you say?
Hope Springs Eternal in Hollywood, and sometimes from where you least expect it. If presumptive buyer Sony Pictures buys the rights and puts some top-shelf writing talent on the job, surprises may yet be in store. Then again, maybe not. But that’s the risk every studio and producer in town takes with every green light they give, isn’t it?
I am tired of symbolism in movies. I can compare scenes in T4 to the previous films. The next director shouldn’t be a Terminator fan because most of them suck. Want proof? Watch T3 & T4 again…and again…and again until you see the crappiness. My ability to recognize this should exclude me from being excluded as a candidate to direct the next Terminator. LOL I came up with a bad ass story in 15 min. which simply tells the stories in the future war. Not difficult. No new characters whihc no one gives a crap about, though Worthington did a great job acting. McG (stupid name) mimics action scenes from all the other films. Mostow directed T3 (which blew goats) essentially parodied T2. Mostow also did Surrogates (2009), Breakdown, U-571 and a couple of other generic, forgettable movies. Breakdown was his best, but the man has no real talent. Every chance at directing he gets just sets the bar for mediocrity. McG had done 2 Charlie’s Angels films, but both were Terminator fans! Good ’nuff, eh?
Joss Whedon, who has bid for the rights, is from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer stock, but, I’m sure he’s a fan, too. To watch McG and Mostow talk/work about/on Terminator it was painful. They are both tools and morons when if comes to, for example, getting balls enough to tell the studio T4 is gonna be rated R. McG was feeling so lucky to not do a Charlie’s Angels movie that he just kissed ass and made T4 PG-13 as much as he could.
Hollywood economics is beyond may.
Nowhere else would be a $380m gross on what should have been $250m spent be considered a failure.
So what happened? Did they spend too much? Was the marketing not cost-effective? What gives?
Harold, drop almost 50% of that gross because that’s the split between the distributor and theater chains after the bottom falls out of the 90/10 split of first week of showings. The studios cut for worldwide grosses was less than $154M, so, yes they lost about $100M on the release. They will recoup some of it with DVD sales and broadcast licenses, but it lost serious money.
You might want to take basic accounting before you complain about economics. Say that $250m is right (probably low) and you’re not dealing with gross plays or sold-off rights (pretty sure you were here, IIRC).
Studio normally gets ~ 50% of the box office actually back to put against the negative cost. I assure you that $190m is < $250m.
The Terminator movies are seriously expensive. Both T3 and Salvation cost far more than they should have
The Terminator franchise doesn’t need a reboot. It needs a rest. People need to miss it and want it to come back. Not have it forced down their throats again.
What this franchise needs is a really good ‘AAA’ video game that can excite the young male gamers the way a HALO or Modern Warfare does.
The TV show went up in flames and no one is clamouring for a sequel to the Christian Bale prequel. There is no way they are getting ‘top dollar’ for this franchise at auction, it’s way past it’s prime at this point.
If Sony were to splash the cash (which is all they seem to do) I can imagine that they would just try and lure back Christian Bale back for another underperforming ‘prequel sequel’.
I can imagine someone like Legendary Pictures picking up the rights to this and perhaps turning it around….., in time.
The very notion of a ‘reboot of a reboot’ is laughable.
Problems: Mostow, McG, Studio wanting PG-13 and shitty writers, reluctance to make a decent future war dismal movie. T2 ruined T1 plot-wise and genre-wise. Let’s take stock: T1 was a sci-fi/horror movie with a self contained plot which didn’t contradict itself. T2: Contradicted and unraveled T1 plot and became sci-fi/action movie shrouded in summer blockbuster greatness with a whiney kid. Talent is what is needed and no one has it anymore.
This franchise still has life in it… as long as they’re willing to put in the TIME and effort to make it viable. I’d suggest holding off on a movie or TV show for the forseeable future, but develop it in OTHER media… a series of video games or comics. But don’t do the usual “tie their hands” stuff by making these conform to “continuity”- the reason most games and comics based on movies don’t work is because they’re just treated as “merchandising”. Get a good bunch of creators and give them the same freedom to rework the franchise that you would to a top director. Then, sit back and wait until the FANS start asking for a new movie…
In Hollywood every franchise is evergreen given enough time.
Now pardon me while I re-write this Ben Hur remake the studio wants to do….
I agree that it is played out but for the record “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” was the most intelligent contribution to the franchise since Cameron’s T2. It dealt with themes of humanity, guilt, and what it means to be the future savior of mankind. It may have been tanking in the ratings by the end, but that’s not reflective of the content Fox was putting out.
The Terminator concept is a perennial. It’s certainly not bulletproof, however, so get Tony Gilroy in there with Zach and roll us back to Doomsday and we’re good.
The main problem with the Terminator franchise is that the delta between the world we live in and the world portrayed is narrowing. Judgment Day is already past. How many times can you keep shifting the technological singularity for the sake of a narrative?
The other problem, frankly, is that that Terminator 2 was so shit-kicking-awesome that it’s pretty hard to live up to that.
A few reality checks seem needed before the theorizing and gaming spins out of control.
While not a ratings winner, TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES was a huge hit in terms of DVR, streaming, downloads, DVD and international numbers. The show got stuck in the crossfire of the changing patterns of TV watching and measuring. The show’s cancellation had as much to do with Fox not having greater ownership/participation in the show as its low ratings. The first season DVD is one of the biggest performers in Japan of all time and a HUGE payback for WBTV.
The movie suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen. Paul Haggis and Shawn Ryan had big paydays and delivered phoned-in uninspired drafts. Moritz Borman played everyone against each other and did his usual behind-the-scenes money grabbing. Warner Bros had no vision and enforced it on McG.
The key to future success will be for the buyer to actually care about the TERMINATOR mythology not just box office.
No Cameron? No Arnold? No franchise.
The soulless exercise that was “Terminator: Salvation” proved that the franchise is dead.
“The Sarah Connor Chronicles” was (and still is) not a DVD success. Its second season wasn’t even the top-selling TV DVD set for its first, second, third… ANY week of issue. It was a pathetic attempt at a television series that would have required huge improvements in quality in order to be considered crappy. It’s spectacular ratings failure was confirmation of its worthlessness.
I expect Sony to win the rights to future Terminator properties. Sony is incredibly proficient at overpaying for garbage that has only a remote chance at recovering the cost of its investment.
After all, who paid for the rights for “This is It?”
You’re an idiot.
Most of your points have been validly countered before you wrote this. And you seem to have no criteria on gauging quality content.
Dear Nikki,
First off, I wanted to thank you for being a judge at the LA Intl Shortfest this past August. My short “I’m Not Matt Damon” was a hit! I was fortunate to have won an award. So thank you for that and I’ve always enjoyed your website.
As for the Terminator franchise, in the end, it should have stopped at 2, but the can of worms got opened and two more came out. I just wish they would have focused more on the story, rather than the SFX.
However, I don’t believe the franchise to be dead yet. With the inclusion of the last two chapters, the story expanded and it has made it possible, although somewhat difficult, considering all the new history that has been created, to tie up all the loose ends, and actually round and complete the franchise in two more installments. I started drafting a few scenes and outline a way to do it.
The key I believe is to bring it back to a character driven story and let the story dictate the action, rather than the other way around. Done right, with less SFX and more “old school” action sequences, I believe it would cost a lot less to make.
As a new filmmaker, whose grown up watching this franchise, whereever the film lands , I’d love the opportunity to pitch my thoughts to someone and perhaps draft a script for them.
Looking forward to the development of the story.
Talk soon,
Jim Rothman
That McG crap-fest (but I repeat myself) T4 grossed $380m??? Jeez…
Bring back The Sarah Connor Chronicles!! I think Warner Bros should buy the franchise,
. Terminator in general sells great overseas.
Just give the franchise to a real director like Bryan Singer and you’re good to go, money in the bank, lots of it: If Big Mac McG can get $380 million out of it, imagine what the X-factor of Singer could bring to the show!
‘Nuff Said.
The next Terminator movie definitely needs to make up for the ending of the last one. Sam Worthington (Marcus) was by far the best part of that movie and I saw no reason to save the fairly worthless John Connor at his expense.
Yeah, Singer really nailed it with his reboot of Superman so give the lad a blank check with this franchise. (rolls eyes in slo-mo)
The Terminator franchise had its day and that day was when nuclear annihilation seemed relevant. Not today (unless you count terrorist attacks). The main frisson of the first two movies was OMG what if our machines destroy us???? That really isn’t a compelling theme now, so just as rebooting The Omen didn’t fly because of differing attitudes about religion, the Terminator franchise has no reason for being other than to create special effect spectacles for undemanding 14 year old boys to ogle. Without the franchise’s key draws, Arnold and Linda Hamilton, the effort needed to make it work is never going to pay off.
But Hollywood is the most backward looking place on Earth, so someone will make yet another bloated unnecessary sequel to the first two movies.
How in the hell is MRC gonna get the money to but this? Everything they’ve touched has turned to crap and bombed miserably. They’ve gotta be close to being out of the business.
Just as long as whoever wins brings McG and team on board. Fans of Terminator: Salvation (and yes there are fans behind that 380 million) are eager for the second part of McG’s trilogy.
When Salvation comes out in the US on video Dec 1st, people are going to discover it and wonder why they let a few geeks keep them away from the theater. The film was solid. As this ownership change should not cause the story to be disrupted. Bring McG back, new owners!
hhhmmmmmmm better see the true numbers on the page before this jury casts its verdict
DVD gross is probably near equal to theatrical
TV and PAY particularly in international have huge value
Don’t bet against those Sony guys and they are among the smartest in the business
If you want to argue against that try bringing up District 9 where Sony will probably clear $ 50 mill net profit
now what other studio is doing anything like this
these guys are the real pros from Dover
Terminator Salvation was one of the best movies of the year.
There, I said it and I am not ashamed.
bb
Anything is possible with the correct script, actors and especially director to tie it all together. For example…I enjoyed the Star Trek movie and last Batman movies. New Star Wars movies not so much and was looking sooooo forward to them having seen the first ones in my early teens
Hey Hollywood…Back off the freak’n CGI, I have an xbox for that crap.
Write some more “original” scripts like district 9. Where has all the imagination gone?
3 words: Teminators vs. Godzilla