Hannover House, the entertainment distribution division of Target Development Group, Inc., has entered into a feature film development venture with Vancouver-based Red Bear Entertainment, for Terminator 3000, envisioned as a $70-million dollar budgeted, 3D animated feature film based on the characters and situations introduced in the original Terminator feature. Hannover House C.E.O. Eric Parkinson previously served as C.E.O. of Hemdale Home Video, Inc. and Hemdale Communications, Inc., and handled the distribution of the original Terminator feature.
Story details for Terminator 3000 are being kept under close wraps, but the writers and production team have a stated goal of minimizing violence in order to obtain a PG-13 level of material.
UPDATE: Maybe the news about the $70 million computer-animated film was premature because now Deadline is reporting that Pacificor, the company that owns the rights to the Terminator franchise have sent a cease and desist letter to Hannover House following the announcement earlier today. Hannover House CEO Eric Parkinson, former head of the Home Video division of Hemdale, who made the original Terminator, claims that he owns the animation rights to the property which weren’t included in the sale to Carolco. You can keep up with the brewing battle over on Deadline.
Hemdale produced and distributed director James Cameron’s original Terminator feature, but released the sequel rights in 1990 to Carolco, which later transferred the rights to ultimately end up under the control of Halcyon Media. Santa Barbara based Pacificor, LLC prevailed in the most recent auction and transfer of rights to the franchise in January, and retains approval and licensing authority over the proposed Terminator 3000 project.
Hannover House and Red Bear Entertainment will release details of the production timing, financing and principal production personnel later this year, in advance of a proposed January, 2011 start.
