Movies
‘Terminator’ Video Games In Development Under the Title “Terminators”
Reef Entertainment, which already has a new video game in the works based on the “Rambo” films (see gameplay footage below), has now locked down rights to another iconic ’80s property: “Terminator,” Variety reports.
The British gamemaker has acquired the exclusive licensing rights to make console games based on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Only the rights to the sequel will allow a PC version, as well.
Deal was brokered with Studiocanal, which controls the rights to the Terminator films. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.
New games will be released under the “Terminators: The Video Game” moniker (note the use of “Terminators” in the title).
“Here at Reef we are huge fans of (the) 1984 & 1991 sci-fi action master-pieces,” said a spokesperson in a statement. “It’s an incredible opportunity and an equally huge responsibility to create a game that does great justice to the motion pictures. We are studying all aspects and influences of the Terminator universe defined in ‘Terminator’ and ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day.’ We have started on our journey and are drawing on all the diverse materials available to produce a high quality, authentic and exciting ‘Terminator’ video game.”
Various publishers have produced games based on the franchise over the years for consoles and arcades, even pinball versions, from Bethesda Softworks, Virgin Games, LJN and Nintendo.
Bethesda’s DOS-based “The Terminator” was the first officially licensed game relased in 1990, and followed that up with a side-scrolling game in 1992.
New game deal comes as Paramount is set to reboot Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger set to return as the cyborg. David Ellison’s Skydance Prods and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures are financing the film, dated for a June 26, 2015 release.
Reef will release “Rambo: The Video Game” in the winter.
Final Destination Bloodlines filmmakers Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein return to their mutant roots with Freaks Part II, their follow-up to 2018’s Freaks. The first look has arrived ahead of the film’s world premiere.
Freaks Part II is the official closing film of Fantasia, where it will make its world premiere.
In the sequel, “Several years after a traumatic escape, we meet Mary (Amanda Crew, Freaks) and her daughter Chloe (Lorelei Olivia Mote, Riddle of Fire) as they live on the road, hiding their powers and identities. They are hunted by the Abnormal Defense Force, paramilitary police that specialize in ruthlessly exterminating ‘freaks‘ like them. Mary is fueled by revenge, determined to find the ADF officer (Lili Taylor, The Conjuring) who killed her first child.“
It’s not just the story that’s progressing with this sequel, but also the gore. Fantasia teases, “There’s also inventive gore – the most we’ve seen in a Canadian film in years – that punctuates the outstanding performances and serious subject matter.”
Mote takes over for Lexy Kolker, who played Chloe in the 2018 film that saw the young protagonist with growing powers confined to her home by an overprotective and paranoid father (Emile Hirsch).
Rafael Motamayor wrote in his review, “Freaks feels like an even more grounded, small-scale version of the X-Men, a sci-fi film filled with surprises, a message about parenthood and wanting to keep your child safe and isolated from the world, and a future star in Lexy Kolker.”
Lipovsky & Stein’s have a packed slate ahead, co-writing Gremlins 3 with Chris Columbus, directing the sci-fi survival film The Earthling for Columbia, directing the psychological horror film Long Lost for Amblin, and directing the sci-fi drama The Traveler for Paramount.