Over the past few years, Megan Ellison has come out of nowhere to start producing and financing challenging art house films through her production company Annapurna Pictures. From The Master and Zero Dark Thirty to Spring Breakers and Killing Them Softly, she has been helping great filmmakers get their movies made where they might not otherwise have the opportunity. She is also behind two of this year’s Best Picture nominees, David O. Russell’s American Hustle and Spike Jonze’s Her. However, there is one upcoming project that has been a bit of an anomaly on her resume thus far: the upcoming reboot of The Terminator. Although she was the one that originally acquired the rights in an auction back in 2011, she is now apparently removing herself from the project. Hit the jump for the details.

According to Deadline, Megan Ellison and Annapurna Pictures have dropped out of the Terminator reboot, tentatively titled Terminator: Genesis. Ellison will retain an executive producer credit but the movie will now be financed entirely by her brother David’s company Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures. Word on the street is that the bill will be split 66/33 although that has yet to be confirmed.

Megan Ellison’s only real explanation for her departure is simply that “Annapurna’s primary focus is to produce independent films” while clearly her brother is much more comfortable dealing with big blockbusters (ie. World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness). She insists that she still loves the project and the direction it is going in. Although it may not seem like this will have any real effect on the movie, I have to admit that her involvement was one of the things that was giving me a bit of hope for it. Do you think this is a bad sign for Terminator: Genesis?