LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- The Terminator is coming back.

A nascent film company has acquired the franchise rights to the popular movie series from producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, intending to make a new trilogy. The deal is said to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

The Halcyon Co. -- a privately financed firm -- plans to begin immediate preproduction on "Terminator 4," with hopes that it will be ready for release in the first half of 2009.

The script, by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, was part of the transaction. No distributor is on board, or any talent.

Halcyon -- headed by advertising veteran Derek Anderson and "Cook-Off!" producer Victor Kubicek -- pursued the "Terminator" rights aggressively for several months, knowing that the series is one of the few recognizable properties out there not in the hands of a major studio. Halcyon also is concentrating on a merchandising and licensing push for the property.

The rights to "Terminator" have changed hands several times.

Kassar acted as an executive producer for 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and he and Vajna acquired interests from Gale Anne Hurd -- who produced the first one in 1984 and executive produced the second -- when the duo made 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

Wow, that is just terrible.

No Arnold = No Sale!

I'm betting the first one in theaters, the rest straight to DVD. Or Sci-Fi channel.

Really? I'm thinking that not needing Arnold is a blessing. The original trilogy stands on it's own (where have I said that before...) and the worst thing that can happen here is you ignore these movies.

I'd love to see a all-out future war between the humans and the all-metal (see, no spot for Arnold anyway) Skynet army.

horrible news, sounds like straight to video hell for the terminator series. Not that I think terminator needs any new movies, but to see the name probably pimped out on shitty straight to DVD flicks will do some damage to the brand.

I don't see this as any different than the upcoming Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series. At least the movies will tell a story I'm more interested in hearing - the war with the machines rather than what Sarah & John did in between T2 and T3.

I'd settle for Roland Kickinger. Arnold is just too old.

YEEE-OUCH!

Sounds Great. I wonder what the story will be for T4

that and a

Boo-Yha!

and a

They might have something if they worked off some of the Terminator novelizations.

I don't get why Vajna and Kassar decided to dump the franchise onto some unknown independent film company. This was such a lucrative franchise for them, unless they knew there was no shot of getting Arnold again. I thought they were developing T4 right after T3 finished. Are these guys really hurting for cash?

Wouldn't mind a new Terminator trilogy (in the same way I don't mind a new Spider-man trilogy) if done well. Kind of a re-imagining, alternate universe. Like Burton and Nolan's Batman series'.

Sure, part of the "fun" of the Terminator movies is the Arnold factor. The new movies would have to be different in tone, (more serious) and not try to replicate what came before.

Considering this duo's last couple of screenplays, "Catwoman" and "Primeval", probably a good assessment.

If it starts with John and Kate coming out of the bunker and starting the resistance, it could be pretty cool. However, with those screenwriters attached, I'm not expecting much.

They did write Terminator 3 which I enjoyed very much so I won't shoot them down just yet. I agree though that if a 4th movie started like that it could be good (assuming they get the same actors). Whatever they do I don't want someone immitating Arnold or someone who thinks they are the next Arnold (like the Rock). I'd be happy if no one came back through time and the Terminators were just crude robots that would eventually develop into the rubbery 600 series.

Expect the latter half of this statement to be a recurring theme.

das

I have a bunch of great ideas as to how they could do a new trilogy....but i know the final effort done by these guys will be nowhere near as good.

Oh, they wrote the third as well? I enjoyed the third one quite a bit.

Yeah, there is a third person listed for the story (edit: apparently he wrote an intial screenplay that was scrapped but a few small ideas were kept) but they did indeed do the screenplay.

Story-wise, I never could understand how Arnold could be in any Terminator movie past the first one. If all the T-100s look like Arnold, how come Reese didn't immediately recognize him? (And furthermore, this contradicts a flashback scene in the first movie that shows a completely different actor playing a T-100 in the future.)

Reese had only seen the T-600's before he left. They were easier to spot since their skin was rubber. Arnold was the brand new T-800 in part 1. They looked more human and this is why Reese didn't know who it was right away. In part 2, the resistance was able to get their hands on a T-800, which was obsolete by that time as the new T-1000 was introduced. In the third movie Arnold says "that was a different T-101" which really makes no sense. I guess he's a T-800, model 101 (implying that their might be other T-800's). It's sort of like the T-800's are Honda Accords and Arnold is the Sedan model while a Coupe or Wagon is also available. Hope that makes sense (though I didn't like the way they referred to him as a T-101 in the third movie).

Arnold is supposed to be a model 101 of the T-800 series. Only the 101 models look like Arnold. So he really should have said "that was a different model 101" not "T-101". And to further muddy things, one of the special features of the T3 DVD reffers to the Arnold of that film as a T-850 (I guess to explain that new explosive energy source - forgot what it was - he had for batteries).

T3 was surprisingly good IMO, but I doubt anyone involved in the first three (particularly Arnie) will be back and it's gonna be a stretch to get a half-decent flick without them.