MGM update: more wheeling and dealing

There were reports this week that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., which controls half the James Bond franchise, is examining alternatives to selling itself after initial bids came in lower than MGM creditors would have preferred.

An April 8 Bloomberg.com story by Ronald Grover and Andy Fixmer reported this:

April 8 (Bloomberg) — Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media LLC offered Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. $500 million to make movies as part of a management-led plan to keep the studio independent, two people with knowledge of the situation said.

Part of the motivation, according to the story, is this:

Kavanaugh, 35, is seeking MGM’s rights to the James Bond franchise, according to the people. He also wants the studio’s interest in “The Hobbit,” a future film based on the novel by “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien that MGM shares with Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Brothers, they said.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that brothers Tony and Ridley Scott had submitted their own MGM revamping plan. The FT is a pay site, so to read a short Bloomberg.com summary of the FT piece you can CLICK HERE. Meanwhile, the Commander Bond Web site did a cut-and-paste on the FT story (which probably wouldn’t make the FT happy if they saw it). You can view that by CLICKING HERE.

What to make of all this? We’ll see but it’s unlikely there will be any Bond 23 until it all sorts itself out.