Halcyon Likes Lionsgate Bid For Terminator Franchise Rights

Reports on Deadline Hollywood Daily are liquid, to say the least. One minute they might say one thing, the next... the complete opposite. As a result, I feel a little on-edge when I report on one of their stories but find curious inconsistencies popping up.

The current headline is SOURCES: Halcyon Chooses Lionsgate As Stalking Horse Bidder In Bankruptcy Sale Of Rights To 'The Terminator' Franchise.

According to the attached report, Halcyon have asked Lionsgate to make an offer for the Terminator rights as a preferred bidder. It seems to follow that, should the bid not be beat, the sale will complete – but a stalking horse bid like this isn't anything like a done deal yet. What we have, really, is Halcyon setting up a safety net to cut out really low offers.

But... perhaps there's more to this report than meets the eye.

Reporting on Finke's story, The Playlist are saying that Lionsgate have the rights in the bag. Are they referring to an older draft of the story? Looks like that might be the case. I can't Google up any cached version of the story, but recent changes to Google have put paid to that kind of trickery anyway.

What does it mean for the Terminator franchise if Lionsgate do snag the property? I don't think we can really tell, and anybody who does express some kind of forecast is only guessing anyway. This whole scenario still reads like look and see to me, Lionsgate deal or no deal.

It's clear to me that there's still life in the Terminator franchise, perhaps most particularly if the films are reasonably priced. I'd like to see a smaller outfit like Lionsgate in charge, as opposed to one of the studios, if it means smaller financial risk and therefore bigger creative risk. Of course, on the other hand, I've sat through hours worth of Saw films that seemed completely drained of inspirational creative ambition...