15 Things That Almost Ruined The Terminator Franchise

14. The Rights

Prior to the shooting of Terminator 2, James Cameron was unable to move forward on production on the sequel. mostly because the franchise€™s new backers, Carolco Pictures, had a legal wrangle to straighten out. The pesky matter of intellectual property rights arose when original owners of the franchise, Hemdale Film Corporation, made public their reticence toward making a second film, because clearly they had something wrong with them.

The entire incident could be traced back to Cameron€™s original deal for The Terminator. At the time he sold the treatment, he was living out of his car, and desperate to make a name for himself, when Hemdale showed interest he offered them the rights for a measly dollar if he could direct.

Cut to 1990, and clearly not wanting lots of cash, Hemdale dug their heels in and refused to make another until Schwarzenegger convinced Mario Kassar, head of Carolco, to bid for the rights. $5 million later and the franchise was reborn.

Contributor
Contributor

Gem is a freelance writer, musician and librarian. Her hobbies include: recreating movie death scenes from LEGO, concocting new types of bird suet cakes, walking on fresh snow and playing the glockenspiel - all at the same time.