First Draft of Screenplay for 'Terminator' Reboot Complete

Though I wouldn't consider this 'news', this little tidbit of information came out this past weekend, but was obviously overshadowed by Comic-Con.

Terminator franchise rights holder and producer, Megan Ellison, sent out this tweet last Friday:

Reading the first draft...no fate but what you make...

— Megan Ellison (@meganeellison) July 19, 2013

While I think it's great that we actually have a completed script for this new Terminator film, why are we just getting the first draft now when the film already has a release date of June 26, 2015?

So they set the release date without a completed 'first draft' - which is likely to be followed by who knows how many re-writes - along with not even having a director attached to the project yet?

This is why Hollywood churns out bad movies!

Doesn't it make more sense from a quality standpoint to actually have a director on-board, along with a completed, fully-approved script, and then set a release date?  Or do we really go by that old famous saying, "Hollywood doesn't make movies anymore, they make release dates."

I'm actually rather surprised by this news considering Ms. Megan Ellison (who owns her own production company, Annapurna Pictures) purchased these franchise rights well over a year and half ago. She's now just getting the 'first draft'?  What the heck has she been doing all this time?  I thought this woman was all about making quality films, and keeping that typical Hollywood BS away?  Now we're just getting more of the same for a franchise that has been kicked in the balls more times than Arnold Schwarzenegger's been unfaithful.

Yes, I understand that originally certain 'unknown' writers were brought in to work on a screenplay which was deemed to be going 'in the wrong direction' and then a new screenwriting duo of Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry) and Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) came in to start from scratch.  They obviously just finished their screenplay, which again, is great.  But why did it take so long to get to this point?

Does it have to do with the fact that Ellison has to share the production duties of this film with her brother, David (also owns his own production company, Skydance Productions), as well as Paramount Pictures?  Was she not able to come up with a good enough story to do the franchise justice so she had to bring in the team that's given us such gems as G.I. Joe: Retaliation and World War Z?  You know what those films are?  Anywhere from lackluster to average, at best.

At least now we can expect a director to be brought on as I bet they were waiting on a completed script to start shopping it around to big-name talent.  Maybe that's why it's only a first draft?  To give the new director the ability to re-write as they see fit, even though a less than two year release date is hanging over their head?

I don't know, I just do not like where this project has been going.

Hopefully they land a solid director that actually inspires some confidence or else this thing is going to go downhill real quick.

Source: Twitter