Want to Own the 'Terminator' Franchise?

Reports are brewing that the production company behind Terminator: Salvation, Halycon, will be auctioning off rights to the Terminator franchise. These rights will include the creation of new films, television series and other media spin-offs, but will not include previously released films.

The whole thing is rather confusing, but not unprecedented. In fact, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rights were just auctioned off for a cool $60 million. The Terminator is expected to exceed that figure. Halycon is in bankruptcy now, so I guess this is just part of selling off the assets. Halycon secured the rights for $25 million two years ago, but it would seem the profile of the property has risen since then.

Reportedly, of the studios interested, Sony (Spider-Man) is in the lead. I've always loved the concept behind the franchise, if not the execution of the latest couple of films. I say it's ready for a reboot, and with the right writers and directors on board, the future could be fraught with more peril than ever before.

How long before a fanboy puts up a petition to try and save up enough money to buy the rights and bring Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles back to TV? If Sci Fi Squad had that kind of scratch, you know we'd buy it up and make our own killer Terminator movie. It'd be low-budget as all hell, but wasn't the original low-budget? We don't need no budget to make movie magic!

Just so long as they don't accept any bids from a monotone representative from a small, relatively unknown company called Skynet.