Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek, the owners of the Terminator franchise rights and joint producers of this year’s critically panned Terminator Salvation filed for bankruptcy this past Tuesday. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy comes just one day after the pair sued their investors for allegedly forcing them to make bad business decisions and and placing what they claim is an illegal lien on their property.

Included in the list of unpaid creditors involved in the bankruptcy are a plethora of A-List Hollywood celebrities including Christian Bale (John Connor in Terminator Salvation), C2 Pictures (Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna the previous owners of the Terminator franchise rights), Paul Haggis (Oscar winning screenwriter who revised the Terminator Salvation script), Dan Lin (producer of Terminator Salvation), McG (director of Terminator Salvation), Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures and the list goes on and on.

While Terminator Salvation was universally criticised for it’s bland story and over-reliance on CGI it did make a healthy $370 million globally – plus 3/5 stars from me. The film has yet to be released on DVD where it is likely to pull in an additional $100 million globally.

According to the LA Times Blog, Anderson and Kubicek were finding it increasingly difficult to stay afloat and it’s now got to the point where the pair don’t have the assets to pay back PACIFICOR, the Santa Barbara hedge fund who financed their $30 million purchase of the “Terminator” rights.

Terminator Salvation director McG recently spoke about his eagerness to resume duties on the as-yet untitled Terminator 5, what effect this financial mess will have on the future of the franchise remains to be seen.