Ananova:

The rights to the Terminator film franchise are to be auctioned off in a sale set to spark a bidding frenzy amongst big Hollywood hitters.

They are being sold by Halcyon, the production company behind Terminator Salvation, the latest instalment in the four film series which has grossed $380m worldwide.

The rights will allow the buyer to make new Terminator films, TV programmes and other spin-offs that build on the popularity of the franchise, although the auction does not cover earlier Terminator films.

The rights to the franchise have changed hands many times and were sold to Halcyon for $25m two years ago by Mario Kassar, who produced Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

But Halcyon is struggling financially and recently applied for bankruptcy protection from Pacificor, a California-based hedge fund that lent it the funds to buy the Terminator rights.

All the big film studios have registered interest in the rights, with Sony Pictures reported to be a leading contender.

Summit Entertainment, the company behind the Twilight series, is tracking the sale, as is Media Rights Capital, which produced Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno.

The Terminator auction comes three weeks after the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sold for $60m.

The Terminator franchise is expected to fetch as much as three times that.

Referring to the Turtles sale, Kevin Shultz, senior managing director at FTI which was appointed by Halcyon in the wake of its protection application, said of the Terminator auction: "We have a property that has made three times the box office takings."

The Terminator series was launched in 1984 and portrayed the efforts of lethal cyborgs sent from the future to kill young tearaway John Connor.