The Halcyon Co., current owners of the rights to the Terminator franchise and the production company behind Terminator Salvation, issued a statement saying they expect to successfully auction off the franchise rights by February 1, 2010.

Check out the statement from Halcyon that Variety managed to snag:

"Over the past few weeks, Halcyon and its professionals have engaged in in-depth discussions and negotiations with numerous serious potential buyers, including several major movie studios... In addition, a number of attractive refinancing alternatives have also been presented. In order to maximize the value of a transaction for all of the company's creditors and stakeholders, we are fully analyzing all these options."

Huh.  Sounds like something a person with a college degree would say to his knuckle-cracking bookies.

Anyway, we here at Screen Rant have written quite a bit about this hot little topic, including an explanation of the legal woes that brought Halcyon to this point, the battle over the rights to the next film, and even the $10K bid Dollhouse creator Josh Whedon put on the table to acquire the Terminator rights after Halycon announced they were for sale.

Variety points out that the rights to franchise include everything from the movies to the TV shows (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) to lunchboxes, t-shirts and everything else that came along with Schwarzenegger's greatest performance. It could be a hot commodity for whomever ponies up the money to snag the rights.

Arnold Empire Pic

"I promise you - I'll be back."

Our own Kofi Outlaw dug up the fact that Halcyon purchased the rights for $25MM yet expects to be able to sell them off for around $60MM.  Not a bad turnaround after unveiling Terminator Salvation, which was met with mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office...

Unless Linda Hamilton walks into the right boardroom reloading a shotgun one-handed, the immediate future of the Terminator is sealed.  Let's assume a major studio ends up buying the rights (not one of the private parties currently eying the property.  Which studio do you think would do the most good handling this beloved sci-fi franchise?

Source: Variety