Halcyon Expects A Terminator Buyer By February 2010
The second most awesome media-related fire sale of the week is the 'everything and the kitchen sink' auction of props and materials from Terminator: Salvation. (The first most awesome being the eBay auction of every scrap of Nine Inch Nails' touring gear.) Halcyon needs cash — every penny they can get, it seems — so the company is selling off literally everything from Salvation. You can get full character wardrobe, a chaingun, an aged microwave and just about everything else that might have appeared on a set for the film, excepting the actual actors. If the company could, I bet Halcyon would even make you a deal on Sam Worthington.
But what of their most valuable asset: the actual rights to the Terminator franchise. How's that sale going? Just fine, says the company. "Oh, really?", says we.
Nikki Finke is running a statement from Halcyon that has a whole lot of jibber-jabber, and this bottom line:
Given the significant positive interest in the Terminator franchise, we expect to be in a position to announce a successful sale or recapitalization no later than February 1, 2010.
An either/or scenario seems to be developing. Either someone will buy the rights outright, or Halcyon will negotiate new capital for their own company — essentially taking out a new mortgage to keep the house. Carrying the strained housing market analogy further, one could speculate that the Terminator rights might actually be a fixer-upper joint in a lousy neighborhood, and the buyers aren't exactly beating a path to the door. Or maybe I'm just being overly negative. This real estate market has got me down.
By the way, my favorite item so far in the Salvation sale is this box of comics, evidently used for research. Four hundred bucks gets you about twenty dollars worth of funnybooks. A steal! (Of your money.)
Halcyon's full statement is below.
When Halcyon announced the bidding process for the Terminator franchise last month, we indicated that in addition to an outright sale of the property, we would also consider other strategic options, including a recapitalization of the company. Over the past few weeks Halcyon and its professionals have engaged in in-depth discussions and negotiations with numerous serious potential buyers, including several major movie studios. In addition, a number of attractive refinancing alternatives have also been presented. In order to maximize the value of a transaction for all of the company's creditors and stakeholders, we are fully analyzing all these options. As a result, we will not be committing to a 'stalking horse' bid at this time. Nonetheless, given the significant positive interest in the Terminator franchise, we expect to be in a position to announce a successful sale or recapitalization no later than February 1, 2010.