Vulture buddy Nikki Finke reports that the rights to the Terminator franchise have been sold at auction to Pacificor, the hilarious hedge fund whose alleged malfeasance purportedly necessitated the sale in the first place. Finke says Pacificor — who lent $30 million to holding company Halcyon in 2007 to buy the rights to the series, then (allegedly!) bribed, extorted, and defrauded Halcyon so they could seize the franchise themselves (according to a lawsuit!) — bid $29.5 million, beating out Lionsgate and Sony Pictures, whose “furious” president of worldwide affairs, Peter Schlessel, “stormed out” of the building when it became clear Pacificor “was willing to pay almost any amount of money” (Pacificor also beat Joss Whedon, we guess, who last November offered $10,000). The sale is subject to the approval of a bankruptcy court, but if the judge shoots it down, Pacificor will probably just send a naked guy from the future to terminate him.
