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The very messy bankruptcy of Halcyon Co. means that the group holding the rights to the Terminator movie franchise will lose that key asset by the beginning of next year.

Halcyon says it will sell the rights to Terminator to help pay its debts, and has hired FTI Capital Advisors to get it done. FTI, in turn, says it will auction off the rights, but will still allow Halcyon to select its old "stalking horse" bidder, that is someone who can place the first bid and conduct due diligence at the same time.

Although the two studios behind "Terminator Salvation" -- Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. -- are thinking about bidding on the franchise, the Los Angeles Times cautions that a private equity group outside of Hollywood could end up being the winning bidder.

Halcyon originally acquired the Terminator rights in 2007 for $25 million, but the company says the rights are now worth some $60 million. -- [Los Angeles Times]

Whedon Terminated: Joss Whedon may be the man behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the current Fox series "Dollhouse," but the self-professed "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" fan said he would love to own the Terminator movie franchise.

In an open letter made on Whedonesque, the producer and writer offered $10,000 for the rights to Terminator.

"I have heard through the 'grapevine' that the Terminator franchise is for sale, and I am prepared to make a pre-emptive bid right now to wrap this dealio up," Whedon said. "This is not a joke, this is not a scam, this is not available on TV. I will write a check today for $10,000, and viola! Terminator off your hands."

Whedon offered some of the changes he would make to the franchise, including where he would turn it into a summer movie franchise by adding former "Sarah Connor" and "Firefly" star Summer Glau as well as Christian Bale's version of John Connor will get a throat lozenge that would also help him in his Batman work as well. Oh yeah, and Whedon says he'll buy the Batman rights for $10,000, too.

There is one thing he would never do with Terminator, however: Make a musical.

"Can you say ... musical?" Whedon asked. "Well, don't. Even I know that's an awful idea." -- [Whedonesque]

Tennant is not your Doctor anymore: What will David Tennant do now that he's not carrying around a sonic screwdriver for "Doctor Who"?

He'll be a lawyer, of course.

Tennant is set to star in an NBC pilot -- yeah, the one in America -- called "Rex is Not Your Lawyer." He'll play Rex, a Chicago lawyer who suffers from panic attacks and actually avoids court by coaching his clients on how to represent themselves.

The pilot is being directed by David Semel, who successfully directed the original pilot for "Heroes," which would become a signature program for NBC.

No word yet (and likely wouldn't be until this spring) on whether NBC plans to order a full series. -- [BBC News]

Abrams not helming M:I 4: Has J.J. Abrams taken yet another step toward directly the highly anticipated sequel to this year's "Star Trek" outing?

Abrams said he won't direct a fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible series, and instead will work as a producer with Tom Cruise. According to Reel Empire, directing "Mission: Impossible 4" would conflict with directing work on the next "Star Trek" film.

And while he did a successful reboot with Kirk and Spock, Abrams said he's not planning any such manuever with "Mission: Impossible," adding that "it's a story that will feel consistent with the world that has been created." -- [Reel Empire]

ABC V. Environment: "V" premiered to some solid ratings, but not because ABC littered the sky with big red "V's."

The network decided to ax the marketing maneuver following complaints that the recently declared "green" company would be pretty brown with all the bad-for-the-environment things planes do when creating smoke signals in the sky.

But don't expect to get that reasoning from ABC. The network said it was actually more interested in spending its marketing dollars elsewhere. -- [TV Guide.com]

Lost composure: Elizabeth Mitchell has a great new gig as part of ABC's "V" cast, but she really misses playing Juliet on another ABC show, "Lost."

When she found out that she was departing the show, Mitchell said she didn't take it too well.

"I cried for a couple of days," Mitchell told Entertainment Weekly. "Evangeline [Lily] and my sister came over, and we drank until we fell asleep on the couch, which was not good, because none of us are big drinkers. We woke up and said, 'Let's do ice cream next time, OK?"

Of course, that doesn't mean Mitchell won't be in the final season of "Lost," that begins airing after the start of 2010. In "Lost," anything is possible. -- [New York Daily News]

Twitter notables: Finally, the Twitterverse was alive and well this past week, and here were some of the more interesting offerings to share. Don't forget you can follow Airlock Alpha to get some of these tweets and many more in real time.

@GaySpock: Khan's real name was Hank. He just changed the letter's around to sound like a bad ass.

@hindleTFU: Should the FBI be so concerned with aliens or flashforwards when there is a magic island out there that can go back in time?

@ashman01: "Sanctuary" gripe: Hot chick named Ashley. Can we stop with stereotype that all dudes named Ashley look like hot chicks?

@CandyMaize: Never retweet, never surrender!