It was back in August of this year that we heard there was trouble for the company behind the Terminator franchise, Halcyon. We heard that they were filing for backrupcy and that meant a knock-on effect for those behind the film and that the Terminator franchise could be sold off to the highest bidder.

That remains the same news today as the talk is once again of the companies involved undergoing the banckrupcy proceedings and that they are selling off the Terminator series to claw some money back.

Producers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek are the current owners of the Terminator franchise and have put it up for sale, something we knew was going to be happening a couple of months ago.

Now, according to the story from L.A. Times through SciFi Wire, an external company has been pulled in to review the assests of the company, including discovering the true cost of the Terminator franchise and will be approaching a number of studios and independent companies to see if anyone wants to buy the rights.

It's not the first time this has happened, forget the franchise changing hands for straight deals, back in Carolco, who released Terminator 2: Judgement Day, filed for bankrupcy and sold the rights in 1997, just a year after the film was released. Of course there they just did the great business trick of making a new company and buying the rights off themselves and then selling them later for a profit. That might not be happening here, they might not get the chance.

Still, what that means for the audience is not that much, perhaps in fact it is good news.

McG was lined up to start looking at the fifth film, and with a change of studio that might change too, and the idea of coming back to present day with armies of Terminators fighting in our time, just didn't seem that strong to me. Mind you the Terminator franchise can always go back, just like the Terminators themselves.

However Terminator Salvation (Filmstalker review) changed the rules of the universe the story inhabits, and that means that anything goes, and with the franchise changing hands, that's even more true.

What is interesting to consider is what would happen to existing contract retention clauses with the sale of the franchise. By that I mean Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, etc. Will any of these names return?

I think we can be assured though that there will be another in the franchise, we'll just have to wait for the legal stuff to clear. Let's hope that it finds a good and strong home, and by that I mean someone with plenty of backing to see another big budget film through the course and out the other side.