It's been uncertain if a new Terminator film would get made, after all the rights were with Halcyon who went into bankruptcy and were bought by an investment fund called Pacificor, not a film company in any way. However it looks like the next Terminator film has taken a big step forward as a film production company has bought the rights from Pacificor.

More than that the production company has some interesting history behind it that suggests whatever comes next from the Terminator franchise won't be a fast and dirty release, although that said they are up against the clock it would appear.

Megan and David Ellison have bought the rights to Terminator franchise releasing it from the grip of the financial company who were more than likely looking for the rights to make them a lot more money than it did, and that includes everything from films through to videogames.

In fact the rights were bought back in May 2011, something I wrote about at the time and speculated about how the production could move ahead with potential ideas for two separate films already on the go from William Wisher who was involved in writing the script for the first Terminator, however it wasn't until just recently that the deal was officially completed.

There isn't a clear reason as to why it has taken some eighteen months to complete the deal but according to it seems a particular sticking point in the deal were the videogame rights.

It's a shame that it's taken so long for the rights to get sorted out for an article in Deadline points out that in 2019 the rights could well revert back to James Cameron, and while that might be a pleasing idea for many fans of the original films that's a long time to wait. It's also noteworthy that this will only happen if Cameron decides to recover the rights through the courts and that an untested copyright law would have to be invoked, something that might not even happen.

Ticking clock it may be but that's a long time in order to get a film together, and plenty of time for a pair of producers such as the Ellison's, and that's where there's some interesting history to consider.

Megan Ellison's company Annapurna has produced films that have been acclaimed by critics and not necessarily always accepted by audiences, films from True Grit, Killing Them Softly, The Master and Zero Dark Thirty. Not an expansive and long running history, but it is an interesting one when you couple it with David Ellison's production career.

David Ellison's company Skydance Pictures has produced films that are more known for big audience draws, films like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Filmstalker review), Jack Reacher, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Star Trek Into Darkness and World War Z.

Now couple those two production slates together and there's an interesting vision for the new Terminator film, a big budget, big audience and critic pleasing film? It's a long shot but even if it gets half-way there it's going to turn out to be something great and a strong runner for the top ranking in the franchise.

Still it needs an idea, a writer, a director, and none of those have yet been assigned. There have been rumours, names attached and talk of two films back to back but with the rights just finally agreed it seems as though they haven't really been able to get going until now. It's the until now part that sounds the most intriguing because now the project can go ahead, and how many Terminator related projects could we see before 2019?