A few weeks ago it looked like the "Terminator" franchise, which has been the subject of sale talk since late last year, might go to Lionsgate after the studio put in a bid for it. Now there's news that the seeming sure-thing top offer might not be so sure anymore.

There's been no comment from the studio, but Variety reports that a bid was placed by Sony on Thursday, the final day of the rights auction. Lionsgate had previously offered $15 million plus 5% of future grosses to current owners The Halcyon Group. The sale plans came about in September 2009, after Halcyon filed for Chapter 11. MTV has reached out to Sony for comment, but I wouldn't count on hearing anything definite until the sale is finalized next week. Read more...

"Terminator Salvation" was a bit of a letdown. The myth of John Connor had long since been established by the three previous movies, and the writing in the latest just didn't support what fans had come to know. Instead of a charismatic natural leader inspiring a revolution, we got a gruff, brooding Christian Bale and a story that focused mostly on a robot suffering through an identity crisis.

The movie wasn't a dismal failure, not with $372 million in worldwide ticket sales, but that wasn't enough to keep producer and rights-holder the Halcyon Group from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The "Terminator" rights have been up for sale since September, though no one has been publicly revealed as a bidder until now. Lionsgate is the current frontrunner, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. Read more...

"Terminator" is back in the news these days, with the rights to the franchise on the auction block and "Terminator Salvation" director McG saying he's keen to make more series films despite the middling critical and box office reception of his first effort. James Cameron, the man who created this man-vs.-machine world, has gone ahead and made a little news himself.

In what we believe are his first comments after seeing "Terminator Salvation," Cameron sat down with MTV News' Josh Horowitz and discussed his expectations about the film, how it fits into the overall franchise mythology and if there's any chance he'll return to the series now that the rights are on sale to the highest bidder. Read more...

Let's get this out of the way right off to bat: I enjoyed "Terminator Salvation." I know I'm sitting in a somewhat lonely circle, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for big, loud robots, cyborgs, whatever you want to call them, and "Salvation" has some jaw-droppingly cool scenes. The film is now hitting store shelves, and leads the DVD Report for Tuesday, December 1.

The studio was taking a gamble when it greenlit a fourth film in the venerable "Terminator" franchise. After a lackluster response to 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," many fans advocated for putting the series to bed, either to breathe or permanently. But away we went with director McG at the helm, and Christian Bale and Anton Yelchin -- two figures with legitimate geek cred -- attached to the budding sequel. The resulting story saw a band of resistance fighters battling to save humanity from the ever-evolving SkyNet. Was the execution perfect? No. Did I get what I came for? Yeah, sorta. The attack of a mecha-sized robot against Yelchin and his clan in a gas station remains one of my favorite scenes of 2009. And there are enough other balls-out battles to satisfy my metallic quota. Read more...

Summer action romp "Terminator Salvation" hits DVD and Blu-ray today. Continuing the story started by James Cameron back in 1984, "Salvation" forges new ground for the series by serving up a story after the apocalyptic Judgment Day we've been hearing about for all these years. John Connor (Christian Bale) is the leader of the human resistance and we finally get to see him bring the fight to the evil robots of Skynet.

The universe created by Cameron has become a truly rich one, spawning a (criminally underrated) television series, comic books and novels. It's the last one that I'm here to feature today. "Terminator Salvation: Cold War," from Titan Books, is freshly arrived on store shelves. Set in two locations at two different times -- Russia 2003 and Alaska 2018 -- the story follows a different front in humanity's war against the machine armies. In the excerpt after the jump, read as a loen Terminator dispatches a hulking grizzly bear with ruthless efficiency. Read more...

For the record, I didn't dislike "Terminator Salvation." It was far from perfect and it felt more like a reboot than a continuation, but it was a fun action flick with good-borderline-great special effects and a promising performance from soon-to-be-everywhere Sam Worthington. None of that matters now though, as it seems the franchise is up for sale. Again.

There have been as many "Terminator" franchise owners as there have been movies, a trend that will continue at least through the fifth movie, according to the Los Angeles Times. Halcyon Holding Group heads Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek purchased the franchise rights in 2007. As the company now inches towards bankruptcy, Halcyon is looking to sell. They've valued the property at $60 million -- more than double the $25 million they paid in 2007 -- but with home video releases incoming and additional spin-off and/or sequel possibilities, the number might not be too far off. Read more...

Opinions are like a Terminator-filled post-apocalyptic future -- they're absolutely everywhere.

On the matter of "Terminator" as a film franchise, opinions on the recent "Terminator Salvation" are fairly widespread, though the general consensus seems to be disappointment with the theatrical cut. A potential remedy might be on the way courtesy of the "Terminator Salvation - Director's Cut" home video release however. UGO reports that the MPAA has rated McG's cut of the film with a hard R for "some violence and brief nudity." Might this version of "Terminator Salvation," the one that McG wanted us to see all along, be enough to change the commonly held dissatisfaction with last May's release?

Possibly... but probably not. Read more...

Sam Worthington is a peculiar Hollywood story. The Australia-born actor is already a common name in geek circles thanks to his work on "Terminator Salvation" and "Avatar," but one of those films was critically panned and the other one hasn't even been released yet.

Still, there's something undeniably refreshing about a guy who can identify a rotten egg even if it came from his own barn, so to speak. Sci Fi Wire caught up with Worthington during a group interview, in which the actor spoke about "Terminator"'s shortcomings in pretty specific terms. Aside from admitting to the film's complete lack of humor, Worthington pointed out some continuity gaffs that one wouldn't expect to hear from the movie's leading man. Read more...

History was made on Friday when Ryan Reynolds officially became the first actor to star as both a Marvel and DC Comics character. Fresh off of his spin-off spinning turn as Deadpool in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Reynolds is now getting to headline a “Green Lantern” film.

The "Van Wilder" star is just one of many actors who have made the smart –- and profitable –- choice to double-dip in the biggest and the best film franchises. Here is a look at a few of Hollywood's other famous double-dippers. Read more...

The first thing I should probably do is explain exactly what machinima is. It's a style of filmmaking that makes use of 3D graphics engines, the sort you see being used to power most modern video games. While machinima is typically a fan's pursuit, some high-profile projects have been embraced by the originating development studio, such as Bungie Studios with Rooster Teeth's "Halo"-inspired "Red Vs. Blue" series.

All of this means that what The Halcyon Company and Warner Bros are doing with "Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series" is completely unprecedented. For the first time, we have a machinima series produced in-house by a production company to coincide with the release of both a film and a tie-in video game. Moon Bloodgood's Blair Williams character is the focus of the six-episode series (launched on May 18), which is set several years before the events of "Salvation." Check out the EXCLUSIVE video below for an inside look at how the whole thing came together. Cool stuff.