The life of Bond (and The Hobbit) depends on it. Spyglass heads Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber are stepping up to co-chairmen/CEO positions at the near-defunct MGM. They’ve signed non-binding agreements, and their involvement would result in a bankruptcy that would essentially allow the studio’s heavy debt to be erased so they can generate capital, start over and produce movies again. [Deadline]
This means that The Hobbit can live on at MGM while the Bond legacy will most likely be bid on by the big Hollywood studios. As long as it finds home, I guess.
Birnbaum and Barber are looking to bring on Ken Schapiro (of Qualia Capital, once interested in buying MGM) as COO to help with the financial hurdles. MGM still has the reins on many high-profile projects that never got the money because of the studio’s woes (Deadline mentions the once highly-anticipated The Matarese Circle, an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum 1979 novel, which had everyone from Denzel Washington to Tom Cruise to Leo DiCaprio attached at one point).
It looks as though the MGM lion will roar again, one way or another.
What do you think of this news? Where will Bond end up?