Wall Street Journal interviews Sam Mendes

The Wall Street Journal, in its weekend edition, has an interview in Q-and-A format with director Sam Mendes, the would-be director of Bond 23. There’s not much 007 material.

Is it true that you are directing the next James Bond film?

It’s only speculation and, you know, at the moment there isn’t even a studio to make the James Bond movie, because MGM is for sale.

Of course, the fact that Mendes’ own publicist confirmed the director had been in discussions (with nothing finalized) may mean it’s stronger than just speculation.

Most of the Journal interview concerns a Shakespeare play Mendes is directing. To read the entire story, you can CLICK HERE.

No surprise: MGM wants to study bids

MGM received bids and, no surprise, wants to study them before proceeding. Here’s an exerpt from a Bloomberg.com story:

The company will start a second phase of its strategic review after evaluating the proposals, Los Angeles-based MGM said today in an e-mailed statement.

To look at the (short) story, CLICK HERE.

UPDATE: Here’s Nikki Finke’s take from the afternoon of Jan. 15, with a few, but not many, additional details.

Report: MGM may go on sale (yet again)

MGM, the home studio for James Bond movies, may be put on the sales block yet again, Peter Bart of Variety writes.

An excerpt from Bart’s Nov. 11 story:

Several sources say they expect that MGM will essentially be auctioned off within the next few weeks.

This would mean that a major, such as Time Warner, could buy the MGM-UA library while another entity might acquire the logo, and yet another deal could be made for United Artists. Sources speculated that Kirk Kerkorian, who has already bought and sold MGM twice, might buy the logo once again.

All of this raises uncertainty for the future of the Bond franchise as our co-publisher Paul Baack wrote in a Sept. 30 commentary. Eon Productions may produce the films, but it relies on its studio partners for financing.