Well, this isn’t much of a shocking development. In a surprise move last year, our favorite billionaire producer Megan Ellison — earning fans of arthouse fare by getting behind recent pictures by Paul Thomas Anderson, Andrew Dominik, John Hillcoat, Kathryn Bigelow and Harmony Korine — won the rights to the very high-in-demand "The Terminator" franchise. It's certainly a bit out of step with her more auteur-driven leanings, but now it seems she’s drafting the help of her brother, David Ellison, who has worked exclusively on the tentpole side of things (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Jack Reacher,” “Star Trek Into The Darkness,” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”).
Deadline reports that Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Productions is joining forces with her brother’s Skydance Films, which has maintained a relationship with Paramount Pictures. Could this mean that the legendary studio may get involved? We certainly wouldn't count out that option, but whether Arnie returns remains to be seen. Earlier this fall, he was rather dismissive of the entire endeavor, saying, "They have been trying to put a script together but I've not seen it, so I've no idea. There's nothing on the drawing board at this point. Nothing on the plan."
Justin Lin was attached at one point to direct, but bowed out over a year ago, and there's still no writer involved, so this is probably still a long way off. But it looks like Skynet will be coming back to life in one form or another, and at some point, The Terminator will be back (sorry, we had to).
