The Next Terminator Film Could Be The Animated 'Terminator 3000', From Tiny Film Company Hannover House

Arkansas-based Hannover House is a company that seemed to come out of nowhere early this year, when it picked up the distribution rights to Joel Schumacher's Twelve. (Er, good call on that one. Ahem.)

Now the company claims to be moving forward with a new production venture in conjunction with Red Bear entertainment: Terminator 3000, "a $70-million dollar budgeted, 3D animated feature film based on the characters and situations introduced in the original Terminator." There is a link here between Hannover and the Terminator, and it's not even quite as obscure as you might think. But the ideas behind the movie — beyond making money — are pretty damn obscure.

Hannover House released the info in a press release (via ComingSoon) which clarifies one thing: HH CEO Eric Parkinson was previously the CEO of Hemdale Communications, which had a hand in video distribution of James Cameron's original Terminator. (But Parkinson wasn't part of Hemdale when the original was made — he seems to have come to the company years later.)

OK, that's all fine and good for the press release, but who is writing this thing? Directing? Voicing? Doing production design? The press release doesn't say. It does say "Story details for Terminator 3000 are being kept under close wraps, but the writers and production team have a stated goal of minimizing violence in order to obtain a PG-13 level of material."

I could care less about the PG-13 angle, but I wonder why no specific talent names are announced. Well, I don't actually wonder; I have a pretty good idea. The idea isn't good, and right now it's hard to see what potential this really has outside the realm of a cash grab. And as we've talked about before, using The Terminator as a cash grab without key people like James Cameron might not be a great idea.

(There's more recent history on Hannover House here.)