Following up on the previous news about the Terminator franchise rights being up for sale, self-proclaimed “Very Important Hollywood Mogul” Joss Whedon has penned a hilarious note to the franchise owners in an attempt to acquire the franchise with a mighty fine $10,000 check. Says Whedon: “That’s four — FOUR! — zeroes after that one. That’s to show you I mean business. And I mean show business.”

He goes on to list the myriad of brilliant ideas he has for the franchise, including  Terminator of the Rings (”Yeah, what if he time-travelled TOO far… back to when there was dragons and wizards?”), liberal use of Summer Glau, and a throat lozenge for a certain Mr. Bale.

While hilarious, the piece could also be seen as spitting on the grave of the recently departed Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was very clear come last season that Fox was willing to only keep one Friday sci-fi show on the air, and that ended up being Whedon’s Dollhouse. Ultimately, I think Fox made the right choice because Dollhouse has gotten steadily better since the midpoint of season one. Sarah Connor was good campy fun, but Dollhouse has a greater chance of approaching greatness, as episodes like “Epitaph One”  and “Echoes” have shown.

This open letter is certainly meant in jest, but the fanboy in me can’t help but wonder what a Whedon-related Terminator would look like. With “Epitaph One”, I got a sense that Whedon was building up Dollhouse to be his take on Terminator-esque story, but it would still be interesting to see what he could do with the franchise proper.

All I know is that there’s a greater chance we’d see a good Terminator story if they sold Whedon the rights for $10,000, than we would when the franchise eventually gets sold off millions. But I’m sure at this point the current owners, the now bankrupt Halcyon Holding Group, could care less about the quality of the series.