The Halcyon Company announced the acquisition of all the Terminator franchise rights. These rights include the right to produce any future Terminator films, as well as all future merchandising and licensing rights, certain future revenues derived from Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, as well as certain rights in the television project The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the sole right to produce all future Terminator projects in any new or existing media.
The Halcyon Company is a recently formed, privately financed, film development, production and financing company, headed by co-CEOs Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek. "The Terminator franchise represents by far the most popular and successful franchise not owned by a major studio," said Mr. Kubicek. "While we have several other projects in the works, we see this global franchise as a cornerstone of Halcyon's future business plans."
Terminator 4 will be based on a script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris and is envisioned to be the first film in a new Terminator trilogy. Halcyon plans to immediately begin pre-production on the new film. While as yet no distribution agreement has been set, Halcyon anticipates that T4 will be ready for release in the first half of 2009, if not earlier. According to Variety the film will not feature the original's star Arnold Schwarzenegger and its director James Cameron.
Moritz Borman, the Executive Producer of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines as well as the then-CEO of Intermedia Films (the co-production financial partner for T3), is slated to produce the new Terminator 4 film as well as being an integral member of the branding and licensing team. Kubicek and Anderson will co-produce.
Moritz Borman stated, "With T3, we included many incidental details and plot points that, along with the main narrative, set the stage for an entirely new set of inter-related stories covering the future adventures of John Connor and the Terminators. This new Terminator trilogy will build upon the already huge worldwide Terminator fan base, which was both revitalized and expanded with the global success of T3."
Anderson said, "We also plan to maximize the potential of the Terminator franchise by entering into strategic relationships with world class merchandising and licensing partners. By quickly pursuing and finalizing these new opportunities, we are confident that all of these ventures can be completed in time to fully maximize their value by coinciding with the first of the new Terminator's release."
Anderson continued, "In addition to Moritz Borman, Peter D. Graves, who will be an Executive Producer on the film, was an integral part of the acquisition team. He will also continue to provide executive consulting services to The Halcyon Company as well as spearhead all aspects of the Terminator marketing program. Alan Schwartz, Randy Paul and Vincent Chieffo of Greenberg Traurig represented Halcyon in the transaction and were critical to its successful completion. Alan Schwartz and the Greenberg Traurig firm will continue to provide ongoing legal counsel to The Halcyon Company."
The most recent film of the multi-billion dollar Terminator franchise, Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, was released domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures and internationally (excluding Japan and Korea) by Sony Pictures. This film generated over $450 million in worldwide box office, breaking numerous box office records around the world. The film went on to even greater success in its ancillary markets worldwide.
The Terminator already seems to be doing well on the small screen. Nothing's official yet, but Fox has stated that they are very impressed with The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It could be ordered to series as early as this week.
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