Terminator to make return in 2019 in new trilogy backed by Tencent
China’s tech giants are engaged in intense competition to acquire and create content, whether movies, TV dramas or games, to attract and retain users across their various platforms
Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a return to the big screen next year in the first instalment of a new Terminator trilogy backed by Tencent Pictures.
The entertainment arm of the Shenzhen-based internet giant will work with US production firm Skydance Media to revive the Terminator movie franchise, according to Tencent Pictures CEO Cheng Wu.
Tencent invested in Skydance earlier this year for an undisclosed sum, and as part of the arrangement will co-finance movies, TV shows and video game projects while lending their expertise to each other in their respective countries.
China’s tech giants are engaged in intense competition to acquire and create content, whether movies, TV dramas or games, to attract and retain users across their various platforms.
At stake is the world’s largest internet market with almost 800 million users, with the growing number of younger digital-native consumers more willing to spend on content.
The original Terminator movie hit the theatres in 1984, directed by James Cameron and starring Schwarzenegger – now aged 70 – as a cyborg assassin sent back in time to kill the future leader of human resistance against the rise of the machines.