First the news on the Terminator franchise:
The rights to the Terminator franchise (Sand the first 2 projects) are being sold by its present holder, Halcyon Company. Halcyon has previously filed for Chapter 11.
Halcyon put out the latest Terminator chapter, Terminator: Salvation. It cost them $200 million to make and the worldwide gross hit $371 million. $125 million of that coming from the U.S..
Tidbit Today: The movie’s present box office performance level puts it at 64th in the list of movies out.
Right now, Sony Pictures is at the top of the heap of studios drooling on themselves to scoop it up. But don’t be fooled. Everyone is looking at the franchise.
Joss Whedon Throws His Hat In The Ring
In what must amount to a grand scale of funny, Joss Whedon posted an open letter on the site Whedonesque. Here are snippets from that open letter / offer:
Dear Sirs/Ma’ams,
I am Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind Titan A.E., Parenthood (not the movie) (or the new series) (or the one where ‘hood’ was capitalized ’cause it was a pun), and myriad other legendary tales. I have heard through the ‘grapevine’ that the Terminator franchise is for sale, and I am prepared to make a pre-emptive bid RIGHT NOW to wrap this dealio up. This is not a joke, this is not a scam, this is not available on TV. I will write a check TODAY for $10,000, and viola! Terminator off your hands.
… Nikki Finke says the Terminator concept is played. Well, here’s what I have to say to Nikki Finke: you are a fine journalist and please don’t ever notice me.
… let me give you a taste of what I could do with that franchise:
1) Terminator… of the Rings! Yeah, what if he time-travelled TOO far… back to when there was dragons and wizards? …..
… (I will also offer $10,000 for the Lord of the Rings franchise).
2) More Glau. Hey. There’s a reason they’re called “Summer” movies.
3) Can you say… musical? Well don’t. Even I know that’s an awful idea.
4) Christian Bale’s John Connor will get a throat lozenge. This will also help his Batwork (ten grand for that franchise too, btw.)
6) The movies will stop getting less cool.
… End this bloody bidding war before it begins, and put the Terminator in the hands of someone who watched the first one more than any other movie in college, including “Song of Norway” (no current franchise offer). Sincerely, Joss Whedon.
LOL… As you can see, his pitch is laced with his usual observational sense of sarcastic humor. It’s a rich piece of snark from the man with a sardonic sense of humor. (No, I don’t know what sardonic is, but sounds cool where it is in the sentence!)
And there you have it. CRIPES, maybe we all ought to pitch in, set up a fund and buy it for him as an investment group! … huh?… I don’t know where I come up with these things, but dang, if enough of us got together, would that not be cool. To own the Terminator franchise and be the boss of Joss?
But seriously, the man behind the Buffy & Angel TV series, Serenity & Firefly and Astonishing X-Men. I think he could pull this off with the right focus!
Yea, that would be cool. Think they’ll forego their opening bids and take Joss up on his offer? Nah, but this was fun to ponder!
More coming soon on the prequels and sequels to Dr. Horrible! (I kid you not!)
references: The Numbers, Daily Finance, Whedonesque, (<- see the Joss letter in its entirety at Whedonesque.)
