Deadline reports:
Yesterday, it looked like Lionsgate would win the property with an outright purchase, with an upfront payment of at least half of the $29.5 million that Pacificor spent to claim the property in a bankruptcy auction. That was until Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Films came in with a bid that was higher. They are now fighting it out. As she usually does when she commits to a film, Ellison is staking that amount without having a distributor locked in place.
Elison is rather good at getting some indie projects off and running- but Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film was sold off to the Wienstien Company; and the suddenly hot Kathryn Bigelow-Mark Boal drama about the hunt (and later demise) of Osama Bin Laden is now being autioned off. So I suspect if Lionsgate (or another studio) wants Terminator 5 bad enough, they will pony up the cash to Elison- but there’s another problem.
James Cameron, who, even though he’s pretty much done with the franchise, will get the North American rights to Terminator back in 2018 and any films concerning the franchise cannot be done without his blessing.
Believe it or not.
