The Terminator rights have been sold

The saga of the Terminator rights sale just can’t stop pushing out the twists. The auction to decide the new owners ended on Monday and the winner was neither of the heavy hitters that had been aiming to nab the franchise – Lionsgate and Sony – but Pacificor, which swooped in and bid $29.5 million.

“Pacifi-who?” is what you’re probably wondering right now. That would be the hedge fund group responsible for forcing rights holders Halcyon to hold the sale in the first place, since it held the majority debt owed by the Halcyon team.

But before this becomes an issue of Cinema Accounting Quarterly, let’s get back to the fun stuff. While Deadline Hollywood reports that Pacificor arrived at the auction like the lead character in a thriller, with a bulging wallet and a need to prevail, Sony and Lionsgate actually joined forces to try to compete, only to drop out once the hedge fund’s team showed its willingness to pay any amount to secure the rights.

And according to the LA Times, the story doesn’t finish there. Pacificor, which has zero experience making or marketing movies, is now in negotiations with… Lionsgate and Sony, no doubt figuring it can get a hefty extra payment out of the two studios.

So what does this mean for John Connor and co, and for us as moviegoers? For now, very little – if the Lionsgate/Sony pact participants can wrangle their own deal, we’ll be seeing more Terminator movies as soon as they can figure out want they want to do (focus on the characters and leave the effects as secondary in a back-to-basics approach, apparently). Otherwise? It’ll all be back in legal limbo…

/Empire Online/