UPDATE: MGM Granted Extension of Its Debts. "Bond 23" No Longer Delayed, It's Canceled?

UPDATE: There is a great article at The Hollywood Reporter about MGM's continuous debt issues. THR is saying MGM was granted an extension on its debt until September 15th, that's an extension of a $250 MILLION dollar payment by the way. In addition to the $250 million, there is another $200 million in interest.

All this is going to do is give the executives time to restructure the studio or sell it; that's all. I'm a business major and I've seen a lot of company's go through what MGM is going through, GM most recently. GM closed down or sold off most of it's line/assets to become a more slimmed down version of its former self. So what now for MGM?

Apparently Warner Brothers offered a buy out last year to the tune of 1.5 BILLION (with a B) dollars, and the offer was considered "too low". Wow, hindsight is 20/20 and MGM should have probably accepted the deal. But it's too late for that. Does MGM sell off its assets, a la the 'James Bond' and 'Hobbit' franchises to recover from this mess? I'm going to say no. If they could just get some additional funding, which is a lot harder than it sounds, they could get these projects off the ground. And unless they do so, there's no winning this battle. So I figure MGM has until September to reorganize and sell the studio or file bankruptcy and hope for a sympathetic decision. It's too bad, another 'Bond' movie would have really been nice in this abismal summer of crap films.

This is really sad news. The 23rd movie in the Bond franchise has not only been delayed, it's been canceled. AICN via /slashfilm is reporting from a source that the studios future is to blame.

Here's the quote from the source: "Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on ‘Bond 23? indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of ‘Bond 23'."

I've been reading for months about how MGM was going under, then it was going to be sold, now this. So for all of us Bond fans, this is devastating news. What now? Well, the only case I can remember off the top of my head that compares to this is what happened with The Terminator franchise. That franchise went up for sale just like MGM.

Best case scenario is MGM is bought up by one of the majors and the franchise lives on. Let's hope that happens. But for now, the picture above of Daniel Craig (ridiculously ripped) will be all we get. Then we get to see him in Jon Favreau's Cowboys and Aliens. Keep hope alive!

MGM gets an extension on its debt

MGM is staying in business everyone... for now. Variety is reporting that MGM gets to skip the next three months of interest payments to its lender. Interest on 3.7 billion dollars is a lot of money. It's only three months, but what it gives MGM is some breathing room to figure out what it's going to do next.

The real goal has to be to get The Hobbit off the ground. The fourth movie in the Lord of the Rings saga is hopefully going to get the studio out of the red and into the black. Guillermo Del Toro is signed to direct and Peter Jackson will produce. The movie will undoubtedly be a success; the built in audience alone could generate anywhere from 300 to 700 million dollars worldwide. That's a lot of money! A lot of money! This extension will help, but I don't think it will solve anything. The only movie the studio has released THIS YEAR is Fame, and that has only produced 11 or so million dollars... um yeah... we'll wait for The Hobbit.