'Terminator' Reboot: Can Producer Megan Ellison Make It Shine?

Paramount has confirmed an original, stand alone Terminator trilogy. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already confirmed that … wait for it … he’ll be back for the series, which is scheduled to be released in late June 2015.

For people interested in the trendy, serious take on franchise reboots, the Governator won’t be the biggest star name slated, instead, intrigue is focused on Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Hollywood’s pre-eminent one-stop shop for funding gigantic projects of art house legitimacy.

Ellison runs the recently illustrious production company Annapurna Pictures. The name "Annapurna" is reference to the Hindu Goddess of feeding and housing the hungry, and the spiritual safe guard against starvation and fear. Such is the spirit of the independently wealthy Ellison, she entered the business to back films that would otherwise would risking the beholden servitude of the prudent studios, or risk not having enough money to achieve their vision.

Ellison funded The Master, Spring Breakers, and Lawless, which were pricey, ambitious films that did not always make their 30+ million dollar price tags back. Ellison also threw down for Zero Dark Thirty, World War Z, and Star Trek: Into Darkness. If this latter triplet is an indication of future intents, Ellison may be somewhat past her pension for overbidding on the cool kid projects in Hollywood in exchange for more quotidian blockbuster fare.

Still however, people with the means and associations of Ellison match with the recent bloom of “legitimate” franchise reboot that stem from the Batman trilogy. Terminator always seemed to walk the line between swashbuckling adventure and sinister action film well, but nowadays you can’t re-up on a brand name series without an unflinching, dark interpretation of the character in question.

So expect an especially evil look at cyberdine, their evil skeleton robots, and the social commentary vaguely manifest in the post and pre-apocalyptic, time travelling narrative. Depending on who directs it, maybe there will be a crying scene or two as well.