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Terminator Franchise To Be Auctioned Off

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the i'll-be-back-in-syndication dept.

"For sale: One slightly-used Terminator. Still works, minor attitude problems, get it cheap now!' Several sources are reporting that the Terminator franchise is set to be auctioned off just three weeks after another well known franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was sold for $60 million. The present owner, Halcyon, has filed for chapter 11 after a dispute with a hedge fund that lent Halcyon the money to buy the rights to begin with. The auction will include rights to everything but the first two films.

13 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. First two films excluded... by Shivetya · · Score: 2, Interesting

    from the same camp which some of us are sure that there are only three Indy films.

    I would prefer it to die, considering that since the second movie, what have we gotten? If it were not for a certain actresses connection to another cult fave who would have put up with the series? That was jump shark city.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:First two films excluded... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There was a coherent plot. Or rather, there were several coherent subplots, which wove together in a fascinating and (IMO) very believable way. This took more than five minutes to develop, and didn't involve misplaced Transformers with motorcycles in their legs, so a lot of people might have missed it.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    2. Re:First two films excluded... by petrus4 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I would prefer it to die, considering that since the second movie, what have we gotten? If it were not for a certain actresses connection to another cult fave who would have put up with the series? That was jump shark city.

      James Cameron's canon ended with T2. Although it's not shown in the film, at the end of the T2 novel, Connor and the Resistance succeed in beating Skynet.

      Sarah dies in that novel as well. She was with John almost up until the end of the war; it was only at about the second last engagement with the Machines, where she is killed on a supply run.

      Cameron refused to be involved with T4; he made the comment that he'd said everything he wanted to say by the end of T2.

    3. Re:First two films excluded... by ari_j · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My problem was that the show had too many subplots that were not, in fact, coherent. At the very least, the coherence developed too slowly for the show to remain on the air long enough to piece things together. If too many people miss the point, the show gets canceled. I find Heroes suffering from the same thing - lack of a clear direction for at least the past season and a half. Sarah Conner Chronicles had a lot of untapped potential, which should have been tapped early enough to keep it on the air. There were a few good characters, some good commentary-on-the-world, and some good plotlines, none of which came together in a sustainable way.

  2. Re:Everything but the first two films? by negRo_slim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I liked the last movie, it was no Citizen Kane to be sure, but it was a fun watch.

    And if the box office results from 'movies' like Transformers 1/2 and G.I. Joe are any indication they could do a lot worse with the franchise and still rake in plenty of cash.

    --
    On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
  3. So it's worthless, then? by residieu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The auction will include rights to everything but the first two films.

    I don't get it. Why would someone pay for rights that exclude everything of value?

  4. Re:I bid $1 by daveime · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thank you for your cooperation.

  5. Arnold should buy this by Crock23A · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If he has the cash lying around, he should totally buy the franchise and turn it into something halfway decent.... or bury it. Too bad the buyer doesn't get the first two films. They were the only part of this franchise that were actually good.

  6. Cameron by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember reading something where he said he passed on T3 because he couldn't see a good story. The guy might be one of the biggest assholes in Hollywood, but I'm grateful that he didn't just do it for the cash.

  7. Re:Everything but the first two films? by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Milked to death if not rebooted outright. It's a tacit admission that Hollywood ran out of ideas.

    I can hardly wait for Aquaman: The Movie.

  8. Re:First two films? by Virak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The third movie was very fairly maligned. Sure, it might have been halfway decent by itself. But as the sequel to Terminator 2, which was basically perfection in action movie form, merely decent isn't enough. It completely shat all over the "they finally beat Skynet and saved humanity!" thing, the characters weren't as well developed, the story didn't have as much depth, it wasn't nearly as tight (T2 advanced the plot in basically every scene and certainly didn't put any to waste), the Terminator in it wasn't really likable (T1's was an unstoppable killing machine; T2's was an unstoppable killing machine with a heart of gold; T3's was just a dick), the action wasn't as good, and the movie simply had overall a significantly different (and worse) feel from either of the previous ones.

  9. Re:First two films? by Sark666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    T1 hammers home the point you can't change shit. Arnie comes back and a protector follows ensuring the birth of Cyberdine and of john connor. T2 is the exception implying they can change things but they don't. T3 continues with the original vein of not being able to change anything, it's going to happen. So I'm not sure what gave you that impression with the series...

  10. Re:First two films? by DavidTC · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dude, did you even see the first movie? Why did you decide 'the basic message of series' was that you can change your fate? That held for maybe one movie, although it was really just them being optimistic.

    Trying to make sense of the time travel 'rules' in Terminators movies is stupid.

    The most logical assumption is that you can, in fact, change the future, but you can't change 'fate'. No matter what you do, you always have a Skynet and you always have John Connor fighting it and sending people back.

    This premise of time travel works for every movie and TV show and video game and whatnot. Anything else is just people making stuff up.

    --
    If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?