UPDATE: He won't back, yet? Naughty, naughty.
Deadline say Pacificor - the rights owners to the
Terminator franchise since February - have sent out a Cease & Desist letter to Hannover House telling them to remove all press releases boasting about their plans for
Terminator 3000, a $70 million animated blockbuster that they claimed was gearing up in January. The reason? The idiots at Hannover have yet to secure the rights to the franchise and until they do so, they won't be able to make any movie that resembles the universe
James Cameron birthed. It would be like me suddenly coming out with a press release claiming I was to adapt Frank Miller's
The Dark Knight Returns next year, a character/property I don't own in any way. . Depending on your opinion of a big budget animated Terminator (
eugh, who needs it?) - you'll either be happy or won't care that Pacificor and Hannover are set to meet next week so a movie can actually be pitched. Here's what Hannover's Parkinson said;
"We've arranged a meeting, we'll show them our money and if the rational brain prevails, they'll take the deal. If not, I can't do it without them. You'll have a followup next week that we are either holding hands, or not doing the film. At least we now have our meeting. I hope they will can think outside the box, because if we can make a movie that delivers a $20 million to $30 million rights payment, that is an income source they didn't realize was possible. If not, it was a good idea anyway."
Will they come to a deal? Well this this has all happened so fast for Pacificor who were still mulling over what they were going to try and achieve with the property they purchased earlier this year and they were licking their wounds somewhat after
they failed to get a Bill Wisher treatment the necessary funding. Ideally, they want to kick-off a live-action reboot but finding a studio who will back them will be tough (no studio was interested in paying the $30 million Pacificor paid for the property to own exclusive rights, so they would have no reason to spend the same backing a third party), so maybe this animated gig might sound like an easy way to make money, for a movie that won't really count towards any continuity anyway? Animated movies, generally, don't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can't be certain but my take on the news coming out of the Arkansas-based Hannover House is that they plan to motion-capture
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Linda Hamilton et all - to make a $70 million budgeted third movie in
James Cameron's vision of the
Terminator franchise. i.e. - as if Cameron had directed another movie in 1994 instead of
True Lies, and not some hack a decade or so later. The only
official word we have is this;
Hannover House, the entertainment distribution division of Target Development Group, Inc., has entered into a feature film development venture with Vancouver-based Red Bear Entertainment, for Terminator 3000, envisioned as a $70-million dollar budgeted, 3D animated feature film based on the characters and situations introduced in the original Terminator feature. Hannover House C.E.O. Eric Parkinson previously served as C.E.O. of Hemdale Home Video, Inc. and Hemdale Communications, Inc., and handled the distribution of the original Terminator feature.. ...the writers and production team have a stated goal of minimizing violence in order to obtain a PG-13 level of material.
I might be wrong and the statement does clearly say 'original Terminator' - so they might be going for that timeline rather than the events of
Judgment Day but I'm almost certain I'm not wrong about the motion captured thing. Especially when they are pumping $70 million into this. That ain't no usual animated fare. Back in February -
Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor bought the rights to the franchise for $30 million and this project already has their approval, presumably. Previously, Pacificor attempted to gain financing from Lionsgate and Sony to fund original writer
Bill Wisher's treatment for a two movie epic set in James Cameron's timeline but the pitch failed when the studio's balked at the idea when
Cameron himself refused to back it as producer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY57vJOQIlE I know
Robert Zemeckis was talking a few years ago about how he hoped one day someone would make a new
Dirty Harry movie with
Clint Eastwood motion-capturing himself so he can still look like he did in his 30's, but having Eastwood of 2010 provide the voice, etc. I'm certain this is what they have planned here with Arnie. Well,
maybe. Although I'm concerned they haven't announced a writer/director. They clearly have those but are shielding their names for what? And PG-13? Isn't this a Terminator movie????