NIKKI FINKE EXCLUSIVE: TERMINATOR RIGHTS ARE SOLD TO DEBT-OWNER PACIFICOR...

EXCLUSIVE: I've learned that the auction for the Terminator movie rights just ended after a marathon bidding session today that streched from 3 PM this afternoon until 8 PM tonight. Both Sony Pictures and Lionsgate separately were bidding for the franchise, and then joined up after the first round was completed. But the studios didn't come away the winners -- which, I'm told, prompted a furious Sony Pictures exec Peter Schlessel to "storm out" of the Downtown LA offices of FTI Capital Advisors which was holding the auction. Instead, Halcyon accepted the $29.5 million bid from, of all parties, the debtholder which pushed it into bankruptcy, Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor. "Sony and Lionsgate dropped out at just under $29.5 million when it became clear that Pacificor was willing to pay almost any amount of money for Terminator," an insider tells me. Halcyon will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie made from now on, as well as keeps the revenue streams from the movies Terminator 3 and 4. An arrangement also was made that the sale now wipes out the debt Halcyon owed Pacificor. MORE