Merrick again...

THIS piece in Variety reveals another wrinkle in the matter: TERMINATOR rights winner Pacificor is now negotiating with Sony and Lionsgate to sell one or both of them the rights - presumably at a cost greater than the same rights were purchased for yesterday. I suggest both companies could nab the rights because of this mention in the Variety piece...

Sony and Lionsgate had combined their bids during Monday's auction.

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Merrick here...

Nikki Finke posted an interesting article about a battle to nab the TERMINATOR rights from Halcyon (initial sales details HERE).

Seems Sony was a serious (and frustrated) contender, as was Lionsgate - who was planning to heal the franchise by going 'back to the basics' with emotional stories that used FX as a secondary consideration.

Alas, the outcome of said negotiations appears less-than-auspicious.

Halcyon Holding Corp accepted the $29.5 million bid from, of all parties, the debtholder which pushed it into bankruptcy, Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor. (This is the same Pacificor whom Halcyon accused in a lawsuit of extortion, bribery, and fraud and demanded $30M in damages.)

Tonight, Sony and Lionsgate dropped out at just under $29.5 million when it became clear that Pacificor "was willing to pay almost any amount of money for Terminator," an insider tells me. Halcyon will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie made from now on, as well as retains the rich revenue streams from the movies Terminator 3 and 4.

...says Nikki HERE.

'Tis an odd sounding move to be sure, but perhaps it's not all that surprising given Nikki's assertion that Pacificor's acquisition of TERMINATOR allows seller Halcyon to erase its debts to Pacificor - as well as other creditors. Which is pretty huge for Halcyon I should think, and makes one wonder if this maneuver was more or less fated all along.

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