MGM Stays With The Hobbit
MGM has landed support from key lenders to allow it to proceed with its participation in The Hobbit. Early this week we reported a story that MGM was in trouble and that their financial predicament may lose them Bond, The Hobbit and other properties that could possibly eliminate the historical Hollywood studio.
In that report we were told that MGM was asking for forbearance on interest payments on debt would allow them to get The Hobbit and other projects up and running and once made the projected box office haul could cover that interest and debt.
The proposal from MGM’s new CEO Steve Cooper to defer the interest payments for the next three months won a crucial endorsement from J.P. Morgan on Thursday. The investment firm leads a lenders steering committee that has been agitating for a dramatic restructuring of the Lion’s operations and its ownership structure. In exchange for an agreement to limited interest forbearance, J.P. Morgan secured a few changes in existing debt terms.
Concern over MGM’s hold on Hobbit is at the heart of the activity. In a 50-50 rights partnership with Warner Bros.’ New Line unit, two Hobbit pics are being developed. The first Hobbit aims for theatrical release in 2011, with Guillermo del Toro on board to direct that and a sequel. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and del Toro are writing scripts for both and are expected to deliver the first screenplay by the end of November.
Current MGM owners include investment firms Providence Equity and TPG, Sony and Comcast. Now there was no mention on if this will help James Bond as well as MGM said they couldn’t lose that franchise or they would die and many would have to agree. Anyway this is certainly good news as the studio pushes ahead. You can read the full article here.
I will say with this monkey off the back of the studio maybe we will start hearing more on The Hobbit as this could have been the delay in greenlighting the project. At Comic-Con, Jackson, told us that they hadn’t finished a script nor have they officially been greenlit. I guess this was one of the major reasons why. I suspect we will start hearing more from this project soon.
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Categories: Fused Movies, Movie News
