Problem: Mechanic negotiated all these deals without the full rights to the film franchise--the other half belongs to defunct producer Carolco Pictures, who's trust is currently sitting in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Now, as far as Mechanic is concerned, Fox is still very interested in making T3--but this installment will have an extraordinary price tag. It will cost--at minimum--$7.5 million dollars for Fox to get the other half of the rights. Throw in more than $25 million for Schwarzenegger and another big wad for high-end special effects, and T3 will easily rival the mega-budgeted Titanic--another film Fox has a huge stake in.
Mechanic's initial strategy seems to make sense: Wrap up deals with Schwarzenegger, Cameron and Hurd, and he'd have all the leverage he needed with the bankruptcy court to easily get the half-rights from Carolco (which produced Total Recall and the Rambo franchise in its late-'80s heyday).
But Mechanic didn't know Carolco co-founder Andy Vajna had already signed a $7.5 million deal with the court for T3--a deal that doesn't guarantee Vajna the rights but does give him the ability to outbid any higher offer when the sequel rights are auctioned October 14.
Now Mechanic, who is said to be furious at Vajna for not revealing his plans, is not in a good negotiating position. In fact, according to attorney Rick Wynne, one of the lawyers representing the Carolco trust, the remaining film rights to T3 will probably cost about $10 million dollars.
It's not the first time Fox has bid for Carolco's T3 rights: In 1995, the big studio offered $50 million for Carolco's entire film library--which, of course, includes T3--only to be outbid by French pay-TV giant Canal Plus, who plunked down $58 million.
Regardless of how much it ultimately costs Fox, the Terminator franchise is still attractive. In fact, 16 percent of the television audience watched T2 on NBC Sunday night--impressive, considering most of us have seen it before (the film sold $500-million worth of tickets worldwide).