The Terminator will be back – and this time it's official. Paramount film studios have announced that the first in a projected trilogy of new films based around the character of the unstoppable cyborg killer is being planned for release in June 2015. It will be the fifth feature film in the series: the last,
Terminator Salvation, was released in 2009 to widespread critical derision and underperformed commercially.
There is no confirmation as to whether
Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to the role that made him a global star, but he has been heavily linked to a projected fifth film after appearing only as a CGI image in Terminator Salvation. However, Schwarzenegger
told fans two weeks ago that he would be involved and that shooting would start in January 2014. Paramount have announced that writers Laeta Kalorgridis (Avatar) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry) will be working on the screenplay, but have not confirmed that Justin Lin of the Fast and Furious series, will be on board as director.
The new tranche of Terminator films owes its existence to the interest of brother and sister film producers David and Megan Ellison, children of software billionaire Larry Ellison, and who both operate separate production companies. David's is called Skydance, and is arguably the more commercial, with recent offerings including
World War Z,
Star Trek Into Darkness and
Jack Reacher. Megan, on the other hand, has so far specialised in high-end independent film-making with her company Annapurna, backing such projects as
The Master,
Zero Dark Thirty,
Killing Them Softly and
Spring Breakers.
The Ellisons
joined forces to finance the films after Megan
won the rights to the Terminator series two years ago, for a rumoured $20m. The rights had becomebecame available after Halcyon, the company that produced Terminator Salvation,
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. This was only the latest twist in the Terminator ownership saga. Originally, the writer-director
James Cameron assigned half to producers Hemdale, and sold the other half to his producer partner (and then-wife) Gale Ann Hurd for $1. Hemdale sold their stake on to Carolco, who then made Terminator 2. When Carolco went out of business, the rights were sold to a new entity C2, who were owned by Carolco's Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna; they also bought Hurd's half and went ahead with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Halcyon then paid $25m for the Terminator in 2007.
Due to US copyright law, however, the rights automatically revert to the original holder after 35 years, no matter who owns them, and so the Ellisons have them until 2018, when Cameron, writer and director of the original Terminator in 1983, will regain control.
