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How bad is MGM off right now?
Hey folks, Harry here and this whole situation with MGM is just so incredibly aggravating to folks like us. First off - all the problems with HOBBIT lead back to their mismanagement of that company. NOW... Apparently all development on the next James Bond flick is dead. They've actually fucked MGM up so much that right now, they've canned development of a new JAMES BOND film. And - is it because the public doesn't want a James Bond film? Is it because nobody wants to make a JAMES BOND movie? No. This is 100% because other than JAMES BOND, MGM cornholed LEO and didn't leave an envelope bedside. That's right - MGM is so royally fucked, that we're very much in danger of not seeing what SAM FUCKING MENDES was gonna do with a James Bond film from Peter Morgan, the writer of FROST/NIXON. At least now we can all uniformly scream and bitch and moan that someone, somewhere needs to buy MGM so the world can be righted. And whoever you are. LOVE MAKING MOVIES and run the company from that perspective. Not to sell off pieces of the company to support continual bad filmmaking practices. Not to create casinos. Not to sell off a backlot. But to MAKE MOVIES. That's the best possible purpose for MGM. And we need them to make movies and to continue to roar about it.
Readers Talkback
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awww what a shame
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What's LEO?
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Come on big guy. But yeah, MGM is done, methinks. I was pretty bummed when I heard they'd stopped development on JB23 this morning.
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ON A HOLIDAY WEEEKEND!!!
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Major rethink of the Bond movies required.
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July 2, 2010, 5:56 p.m. CST
Post that new Momoa pic so I can get first on that bitch!
by JackSlater4
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...and is rejected.
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Too bad for Craig.
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I don't even know what the fuck I'm saying.
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...but welcome to 3 months ago. Maybe welcome to a lot longer than that. This is VERY old news, my friend.
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And yeah, the last Bond was a big step backwards. Marc Forster can't direct action to save his life, and the script was one big jerkoff to Jason Bourne. No matter what happens, keep Craig- easily the best Bond since Connery.
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Harry, this was little more than a blog entry that offers neither context nor detail. How about a little journalism? What is the "whole situation" with MGM? Sure, I've read some things and keep up, but you assume that everyone has.
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typo
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Craig will probably end up like Dalton, a two pic Bond career that was cut way too short. I rather prefer the gritty Bond to the campy Bond. Someone get MGM straightened out pronto!
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Buy good scripts, fucking drop the whole commitee style of micromanagement filmmaking, and make more original movies than adaptations. I could turn them around in 2 years. MGM, I'm available to save the company. If making movies is your business you better start working.
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well, the situation is such that they shut down development on JAMES BOND... which is the story of the day.
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haven't seen the pic yet.
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The one good thing that could come out of this is that craggy sullen Gollum known as Daniel Craig won't get another Bond film. By the time this debacle clears up Craig will hopefully be out of the picture. And Judi Dench will fuck off as well.
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Swoop in, and pick the bones clean of every single franchise right and back catalogue you can find. That's capitalism, folks! Best system in the world!
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- it's an old story.
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July 2, 2010, 6:13 p.m. CST
Serves them right. Hit em where it hurts, their wallet
by Yoda's Ball Sack
These big wig CEO's need to stop thinking about there own paycheck and start thinking about making good movies. They think every turd they produce will be golden.
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Is it?
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but I'd be happy if they'd recast M. She's out of place in the Craig Bonds. Get the male boss back.
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I'm pretty sure all of the Simpsons merch goes to Fox, and yes Matt Groneing is rich as fuck from it too, but it's really all Fox's cash cow. He doesn't have a Lucas deal or anything.
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Was this all done so Sony could buy out Comcast and the other partnes, bringing the whole operation under one roof?-----later-----m
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Is MGM hoping to inherit a huge windfall from a distant uncle? No? Well how else are they going to make money, other than selling off the library? Do they even own the MGM grand in Vegas?
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Look, the guy should have retired when the cold war ended. The Bourne trilogy just embarrassed the last two Bond flicks.
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But it may take a while and I think think Daniel Craig may be reconsidering his career if his contract expires during this hiatus, like Dalton did.
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Die Hard, Terminator, Alien, Predator, Apes, and Spiderman make money that way. Sad way for MGM, to end up, they were the premiere studio for so loong. Can't they just dtv style do a James Pond, 008 movie, and avoid the whole copyright thingie.
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Though I don't know the nitty-gritty details, I couldn't agree MORE with Harry's assessment!
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that large breasted, goofey eyed, half Thai half German would be star fucker is pulling the whole house of cards down around her.
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The company has billions in the bank and Steve Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder. Why not buy up MGM for a song and get their entire catalog to add to the Disney/Pixar catalog?
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Seems to me that they should be putting some pretty heavy pressure on the Lion, or try to buy out its part of the rights so HOBBIT can move forward -
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Oh. My. GOD. <p> Yup, MGM's got problems all right.
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July 2, 2010, 6:59 p.m. CST
" MGM cornholed LEO and didn't leave an envelope bedside. "
by Knuckleduster
I don't know what that means.
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I know I've heard this before at least six months ago, a little behind are we?
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MGM is really just a sub-label of Sony. Sony just has to buy out the LOOONG list of past owners/parasites who still technically have a say about how the company is run, and all will be good again.
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Will be interesting to see if the studio will get bought.
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We've all known Bond was dead for weeks, right? What's new about this story, I'm confused. Did Harry just find out?
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July 2, 2010, 7:18 p.m. CST
Sam Mendes would have been shite anyway... Tarantino please.!
by workshed
Now is the right time to make this happen. C'mon QT. Step in.
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Uhhhhh no. Maybe if you haven't been paying attention for a few months, it is.
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Yeah, I literally thought I was somehow viewing a months old version of this site. This is very old news. Wilson and broccoli publicly stated that all development of the movie had completely ceased a couple of months ago. This was done to stop certain clauses in Eon's contract with mgm to come due. MGM had already gone under.
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seems to happen on this site sometimes
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He left the project after one draft. But that's old news too.
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So Sam Mendes isn't *awful* or nothing, but why does anyone go nuts if he's to direct a film? Martin Campbell seemed to do fine, and he's just an average joe with average movies to his name.
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Was really looking forward to the Hobbit coming out somewhat in the near future and to the next James Bond movie. This shit needs to get fixed ASAP.
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With Summit Entertainment making a mint off of the Twilight movies, they should consider purchasing MGM. It would be a win-win in my book.
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Search google for "james bond mgm development" and you get news items from 4/19 and 4/20. Come on now...
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Dead serious, I think we're all in agreement that Warner's is the best studio going at the moment. Inception's gross alone could probably buy out MGM at this point from the sound of it. Not to mention the fact that Warner's execs are definetly smart enough to just leave guys like Peter Jackson/Sam Mendes the fuck alone so they can make great films. Harry I'm sure you know people at WB so just make it happen already!
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...I also read it this morning. So somebody must be circulating it again. *shrug*
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This implies that they "missed the mark" ("how bad is MGM off..") versus "being broke" ("how bad off is MGM...").
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I didn't mean "THE STORY OF THE DAY" I meant, that was the story of the day... ...as concerns MGM and Bond.
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Means getting entered from the exit door. Envelope bedside means he MGM didn't pay for the it. LEO THE LION GOT FUCKED IN THE ASS AND DIDN'T GET PAID, YO. I hope that was clear enough.
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MGM wants to be bought out of their woeful mistakes, just like the US banks were bought out of the failures of their own gross mismanagement. It's called "falling upwards," and it knows no political persuasion.
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...or and company like Apple to buy MGM???
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was that Bond was going into hiatus. Now, it is abandoned altogether. They've managed to stop the unstoppable franchise. Amazing.
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Eon Productions can buy back the rights from MGM and sell them to another studio, and Sony has been trying for years to get the Bond rights. Sony should buy the rights; Come on, Sony where are you??
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i have respect for MGM for not cancelling the franchise and stayed with it for all these years. ps. fuck james bond, he died when casino royal got made and then got pissed on his corpse with quantum of solace
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they could afford it; hell, it would have given them the rights back to rename the Orlando themepark Disney/MGM studios again.
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July 2, 2010, 8:19 p.m. CST
James Bond was killed by egotistical studio heads.
by Stereotypical Evil Archer
There's no gadget to get him out of that situation.
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July 2, 2010, 8:23 p.m. CST
Olga is the last Bond girl! Bring on Centurion!
by Stereotypical Evil Archer
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hmmmm?
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For half of my savings...I'll pay the rest later after all my movies have mad millions of dollars.
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he signed for 3 or more films. I hope not, Craig is by far my favorite Bond. Just hope this doesn't go down like Dalton. Thats what I fear the most.
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to fund the next James Bond film.
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July 2, 2010, 8:31 p.m. CST
What about MGM's "The Cabin In The Woods" from Drew Goddard and
by Barry_Woodward
It's release date has been pushed back so many times. Word from test screenings was overwhelmingly positive. The reason given for the last release date change (January 14th, 2011) was that it was being converted to 3D, but the film's editor appeared on a podcast recently and said the 3D conversion hadn't happened yet and it was up in the air if it would happen at all. Now I've heard it's been postponed yet again. Will we ever get to see this?
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Harry is right, LOVE MAKING MOVIES. <br> <br> But the sad reality, MGM will get snapped up by a conglomerate of Saudi investors who are barely aware they own a movie studio.
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As written, it just says something that we've all known for months now. Either there should be some new development, or there should be some deeper look at the situation. <br><br>I know they don't like to discuss the money side of things here, but my understanding is that most of the major studios lose money each year on their theatrical releases, only to make their real profits on DVD and through television deals (Where they don't have to divide up the grosses to theaters, or pay for major marketing campaigns, so nearly all of the profits go straight to the studios). I've read in multiple places that television is the big cash cow for studios, because they can sell and resell flicks from their catalog constantly. I have to wonder... Didn't MGM sell off their catalog years ago to Ted Turner or something, back before this gravy train really started rolling? If they have to make all their money off of their box office, then no wonder they're so screwed.
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is Peter Jackson directing the HOBBIT!!
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The Daily Mirror tabloid has a new story running citing sources saying the movie has been "canned" and "axed". Technically it already has been canned. We've known this for months. This just probably means we won't get Bond 23 as long as MGM controls EON and 007. EON NEEDS TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO TAKE BOND SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!! I don't know how that is possible but it needs to be done. Bond ain't going nowhere with MGM. MGM NEEDS TO FACE THE FACTS AND SELL BOND! AND USE THE MONEY TO HELP ITS DEBT.http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/07/02/new-james-bond-film-canned-due-to-cash-crisis-115875-22375892/
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I don't give a shit about "The Hobbit". LOTR is worthless to me now, so whether or not Peter Jackson's precious little vision of Middle Earth is brought to the screen really means zilch to me personally. But now the Bond franchise, in its most successful incarnation, is being canned? Christ. Frankly, I hope the "Hobbit" production dies as collateral damage.
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lol you people must have sad pathetic lives...
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From what I understand MGM isn't allowing anyone to do it in a way that makes business sense for "the money". They want full price and complete control over everything. In affect, they just want somebody to give them incredible amounts of cash at extreme risk of not making it back. Don't have that from any kind of quotable source. But if you read everything that's happened so far, that's what it sounds like is going on. But there have definitely been people interested in trying to keep them afloat, save them or whatever you want to call it.
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Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson need to release a statement to calm us Bond fans down.Whether this story is true or not. They need to assure us that Bond will come eventually. This is fucking bullshit. I am so pissed off.
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because Jason Bourne is a head injury run amok. We need the cool-headedness of a Connery Bond again. Sorry, I just finished figuring how to get the Bond DVD's to run in Linux (they're copy-protected) and I'm a bit pumped.
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Can someone give me a number, I may have some loose change kicking around my stationary supplies drawer.
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..and heard MGM is working with Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate and some third player I can't remember at the moment to try to get out of trouble. But it isn't going well. <p> And I think it's a lot more than The Hobbit and Bond that has been halted. I think it's everything currently in development. So that's what...The new Robocop, Red Dawn, The Matarese Circle, probably some more. <p> And things with the Hobbit are probably more complicated yet. A lot of the profits from The Hobbit are slated to go to folks involved in the production which means MGM is going to have a real problem attracting money (assuming they can at all with their management woes) because the return, even if the movie's a hit, will be short. <p> This actually looks pretty bad, at least for MGM surviving as a functional movie studio.
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...yes, as of now anyway even the already in the can Cabin in the Woods is dead. MGM is paralyzed. <p> Eventually, of course, Bond will reappear and Cabin will get released. And I've got to think the potential windfall from The Hobbit will eventually attract the money it needs somewhere.
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July 2, 2010, 9:41 p.m. CST
i think we can all agree that stargate is far more important
by DioxholsterReturns
than cranky james bond and some hobbit fetish movie
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...the Poltergeist remake and The Three Stooges.
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An LBO company (they're called "private equity firms" now) is simply looking for a company with a steady income. Not a large income but a steady one. With this MGM business being so public, you can bet your ass that the LBO folks are doing their HW right now. These are the people who buy record labels not because they love music but because they can just rerelease classic collections and greatest hits while gutting the innovation side of the business. I don't know how easy it is for a movie studio to be turned out in this manner, but if it can be done, it will.
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They said if I helped finance The Hobbit they'd suck my dick.
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LOTR and Bond. What planet do you live on Diox? Obviously your own one where anyone actually gives a fuck about some crappy syfy level quality tv show originally created by one of the biggest hacks (Emmerich) working today, and based off a very mediocre movie. By all means you delusional twit, show me how Stargate (which im sure is code for your asshole) has had anywhere the critical or commercial success of either Bond or LOTR?
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His insights are always appreciated.
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July 2, 2010, 11:23 p.m. CST
southafricanguy--- fuck you, Stargate is most vital to MGM
by DioxholsterReturns
the people at mgm said it so, they think of it as their star wars. so dont let me stick a vuvuzela up your asshole you loser.
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He's the world class ASSHOLE who kept buying & selling & buying & then again selling MGM until it had lost all its assets - backlot, film library, etc. THE FUCKER SHOULD BE THROWN INTO RALLWAY PRISON AND LEFT IN A CELL TO BECOME SOME 400 LB GUY'S BITCH.
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while frank is as anti-communist as can be, the time is way past due to start putting bullets in the heads of ceos. that's one thing china is doing right
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They managed to stop the unstoppable franchise??? What kind of nonsense is that? Paused it maybe. MGM does not own Bond. It has a distribution/co-financing deal with the company that produces Bond. Eon owns Bond lock stock and barrel. And when the smoke clears, there will either be a company that has taken over MGM, like Spyglass, or Bond will essentially be freed, and will be able to go to the highest bidder, like sony or Warners. It may have delayed it a bit, and yes, this could be the end of Craig as Bond, given that so much time will go by, but the series is in no way shape or form dead, or as you put it, "stopped." I mean talk about a simplistic argument. I heard the sky was falling too.
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that once MGM went bankrupt, they would actually be able to make another Bond movie? The moment that news broke, Bond was effectively done at MGM. How can it possibly shock you that a bankrupt "studio"-- and I use that term loosely, as Eon was literally the only deal they had with any producers-- could not make a 200 million dollar movie? Once Wilson put the movie on indefinite hold, that was that.
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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also dead? i hate MGM
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Eon made years ago was continuing with MGM in the first place. Yeah, I know MGM got it when UA went under, but they had a chance to get out way back when it was very clear MGM was going absolutely nowhere. Jesus, that was clear 20 years ago.
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That's the sad fact if this doesn't get sorted and you know how long these things drag on for. How long was Spider-man in development again? Disaster.
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Only Summit Entertainment and Phoenix pictures will respect Robocop in 2D by Aronofsky.
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works for other big companies
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Isn't Lionsgate still planning on buying them out and all of their properties? BTW, isn't Robocop an MGM product since the Orion merger? What ever happened to that project anyways?
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organicstudios beat me to it about ten times. That's what I get for double checking my facts I guess.
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He wants to shove something long and round up my asshole. Sorry Diox I dont go that way. Im not into that whole "entering" the "stargate" thing that you are. However Im sure your mom would be happy to put a strap on on, and enter your stargate. You can even pretend she is Richard Dean Anderson Diox.....
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Wars, unless you can show mw which Stargate films are equal to a billion dollar media empire, but by all means you keep on believing Diox...
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http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2010/05/10/the-china-price-for-metro-goldwyn-mayer/
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Sure, it would be a shame to lose Mendes, but it'd be a MUCH bigger shame to lose Craig. Please, MGM. Don't screw this up. Craig is the best Bond since Connery. Maybe INCLUDING Connery. And QoS wasn't great, but it had moments of brilliance and was a fine "second film" in a series. That opera sequence was nothing short of incredible.
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It started out good, but the villain was silly. Bond jumps out of a plane that is crashing and lands safely? And people say Moore was bad?
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Suck it biatches!
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craig said he'd be down as long as the same writer and director were back on board.that was definitely one of the best films of the last decade.great music and charachters as well as a solid story.that beatdown to duran duran was fucking genius
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... then the rights to "Bond" can be given/sold to a new major studio and production can resume. OR if someone buys MGM, why would we want them to drop the casino in Vegas? I don't see how them choosing to do that was wrong. A studio can or should be able to churn out some quality movies and run a casino at the same time.
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Didnt even know that... anything by Mendes is gonna rule. But he could really put Bond on a different level with a good script.
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would have never done a Bond together. Mendez hates Morgan for not letting him do "Frost/Nixon". Morgan quit Bond the Moment he heard Mendez was directing.
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they treated MGM like a round of Monopoly with the 'tard nephew and the 4 year old...they bought everything as fast as they could, then the first time a bill from the ghetto hit their accountants, they had to mortgage to the gills. but hey, They are too big (and stupid) to fail, so our government can bail them out, right? Bond is such an american icon anyway, lol.
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July 3, 2010, 4:05 a.m. CST
" MGM cornholed LEO and didn't leave an envelope bedside. "
by Ray Gamma
Harry, please speak in English. I have no idea what the fuck you are writing about, half of the time.
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Hobbit & James Bond are a license to print money.
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Somebody fix this!
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I say the geeks should inherit MGM. Whoevers the gaffer/s is over there is a fucking liability, they've just pissed away the best Bond since Connery. I've got £12.37 burning a hole in my pocket, i either liquidate it in the alehouse this afternoon or buy MGM hmmmmmm.
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now that that one dude is dead? Never Say Never Again Again anyone? That's our best bet at this point.
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to working title. a british franchise being run by a british company. it makes sense.
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The cour ruled on that thunderball sequel/never say never again thing some time ago. and eon won that as being the rightful ownwers of the bond franchise and tossed Kevin McClorys suit. the court ruled.
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How Joss Whedon constantly manages to get himself into these bad deals, who knows, but it looks like if we ever get to see this movie, by the time it is released, no one will care anymore, about the film, or Whedon? Straight to DVD for this one!!!
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MGM is a dinosor and this was on the cards for a good while. It may be a looonnnngggg time before we see a new Bond film and will we have to contend with their last piss poor effort. I just hope that whoever does take over, fires those writing hacks Wade and Pervis and extend the budget for someone really good like Tony Gilroy and get someone great in the directors chair, hell bring back Martin Campbell who did Goldeneye and Casino Royale to show those boys how it should be done. ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!
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...but I would rather watch movies as opposed to making them. Still ...I wonder how the company is going for.
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Oh, I just realised, it's Sam Goldwyn and Louis.B. spinning in their graves. A once great studio becomes a laughing stock. Incredible.
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quantum of solace was not shit.its incredile how people jump onto band wagons of hate.That movie got straight to the point,no bollocking about who's weak ending was its only downfall...a complete contrast to Casino Royale which also makes back to back viewings of these movies fit together really well.
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the koreans already make great movies, for them to have an american base of operations would be sweet.<br><br>Or could be the chinese. China is floating on money right now, they could buy MGM.
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and he's kinda old. So what's the point in hoarding it????
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I know the fanboys like to jump on anything that may have a flaw and devour it, but that film was ok. Had some good thing going for it, and I would have liked to see at least one more Craig 007 to hopefully wrap up all the Quantum organization stuff. But alas, the Bond curse continues, like it did with Lazenby and Dalton... at least the next Bond actor shuld have a good run, if history is anything to go by.
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MGM management are so feckin incompetent they could manage the England football team.... Assholes
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I certainly can't fuck it up any worse it would seem
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And, through my work, I have some connections to the people who make the films - and I have to put forth a theory here that I don't think anyone seems to be picking up on. The Broccolis, that is Barbara and her stepbrother Michael Wilson, are in complete control of Bond and seem to be using MGM's status as an excuse to stop making the films. Why would they do that? Because they're greedy and lazy and they're tired. This is a family business they inherited and thus they never had the same passion (or, IMHO, the creative understanding) for that their father did. They have swung like a pendulum trying to guess what the public wants, but they don't seem to truly "get" what makes their hero/franchise so special. But on every film they have made these unbelievable "Producer Fees" above and beyond their ownership of the franchise and they are filthy fucking rich. Ever wonder why Bond doesn't seem to end up in a major city anymore, like Bourne does? Because instead of putting the money "back on the screen" the way Cubby did, they put it all in their pockets. They don't really care that much, but they are also confused by the mixed responses they get their flailing. (QOS was a good film that could have been great, IMO, with just a better edit) It's not unlike what happened after Licence To Kill. Cubby stopped making the films not because he was in the middle of a lawsuit - that is the PR myth that Bond fans have been repeating for years - no, he was tired. Dalton's second film was the closest thing the series had to an outright box office bomb. His stepson was in charge and running this great series into the ground. Wilson wrote a script all by himself...Cubby read it and rejected it...and a six year "hiatus" was born. At that point, Cubby was old and didn't want the grief, wanted a break after 25 years of making Bond movies. I think the same thing is happening now. I think these two just want to do nothing and enjoy life. It could be the development of the new script wasn't going very well, or it just presented choices they were tired of making. But they have the right to take Bond anywhere they want. This MGM situation just gives them an excuse to go on holiday. I'm not demonizing them. They're just very very rich and this business is not something that's really in their veins - it could be a chain of hardware stores for all they really care. I say this not just as a fan, but as somebody who has known people working on the films. So... While I'm very disappointed, I'm wondering if maybe this isn't the beginning of the Broccolis selling off Bond altogether and getting out of the 007 business. I hope so. I think the series would benefit from the stewardship of someone new and fresh and who really loves it. That's my two cents. Sorry for the long post, guys.
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"They get FROM their flailing"
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Didn't the last 2 Bond films make like $500mil+ worldwide each?, i mean its not like its a financial gamble to make another Bond in fact it would probably help them.
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Too depressed to type any more...
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8631245.stm for fucks sake this site gets worse every day.
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from the looks of things in the top right hand corner of the site, he's already nabbed himself a job as a statue of Aragorn for the never reliable sideshow collectibles.
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July 3, 2010, 10:58 a.m. CST
Looks like another "Thunderball" remake is in order.
by The Reluctant Austinite
Madame LaPorte: The coffin - it has your initials: J.B. Bond: At the moment, rather him than me. Madame LaPorte: At least you've been saved the effort of removing him. Colonel Bouvar passed away in his sleep, so they tell me. Bond: Mm... Madame LaPorte: You sound disappointed you did not kill him yourself. Bond: I am. Jacques Bouvar murdered two of my colleagues. MGM killed all the rest of them.
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because they're stuck in the "Dr. No" template: <P> Criminal enterprise . . . Bond assigned . . . Big Blowup at Villain's Secret Lair.
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For them to abandon their One Guaranteed Cash Cow movie franchise? They must be on the verge of a funeral down there. Sad.
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we are in a horrible, horrible world
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July 3, 2010, 11:26 a.m. CST
rumor has it that WB is very close to purchasing the studio
by RedBull_Werewolf
sources are reporting it might be made official by monday.<P>I think WB is the perfect fit for this, they already own MGM's pre 1980 catelog and WB knows how to handle franchises so them having the bond films would be fine with me, maybe now we can finally get the remaining films on bluray
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I think Warner Bros. should just bite the bullet and offer a couple more billion to buy the studio because then they'll have a very lucrative franchise, especially now that Potter is coming to an end.
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this is a real shame<p> It's also a shame that the managment was allowed to reward themselves while they mismanaged a company into the ground<p> but it's the new chic thing to do
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That a studio with so much history seems to finally be taking its final bow. <P> Sad that MGMs back lot was sold off... that their movie library of classic films was sold off... and now, after years in a downward spiral, the studio itself may be kaput. <P> This is not new... every few years it seemed MGM/UA would get restructured to make it "competitive". I seem to recall even the Bond franchise was in a similar situation a few years back between the Dalton and Brosnan years. During that hiatus MGM was under great pressure to stay afloat. <P> As for MGMs biggest tent pole franchise, I personally like Craig as Bond and thought CR was a superb entry into Bond canon. QOS, while it had faults, was certainly better than many of the 70s and 80s and 90s era Bonds. I hope they get MGMs situation stabilized soon so that we can get one more Craig Bond in the can so that there is a trilogy - beginning, middle and end - of films. A shame if they can't get it together.
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July 3, 2010, 11:44 a.m. CST
isn't it time EON just became a distribution studio
by RedBull_Werewolf
they've been around for like 50 years and they have the most successful movie franchise in the universe, they should just cut ties with MGM and distribute the bond films themselves
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I knew it was too long. LOL.
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You DO realize, as do all of us that bought the Bond blu rays, that no matter what studio ends up with the rights, that we, the consumers, are FUCKED? Because any studio that owns it is going to want to make their own money off those films. The sets will start all over again. Sucks big floppy donkey balls, but it's inevitable nonetheless. <p>On a side note, here's a question: the Casino Royale blu is from MGM and Columbia, while the QOS blu and all the classic installments available on blu are from MGM and Fox, so does either Fox or Columbia have any rights to the franchise? Can they inject the cash to get the thunderball rolling again? (And when did Fox even get distribution rights to Bond?) <p>I guess the bright side is that whenever they do start putting more Bond collections on blu, we should (hopefully) get better packaging than the cardboard books with the easily tearable foam buttons you're supposed to put the discs on. That, to me, would be a good thing, because the collection packaging thus far blows rhino dong.
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I read your post - as depressingly likely as it sounds. I'd like to say you're wrong, and that their top priority was to get B23 going again, but your words just sound like they could be true. (though I was always under the impression Barbara Broccoli was Cubby's ex-wife or something, not his daughter - shows how much I know)
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Or the Bond franchise is dead. They should cut a deal with Sony or WB, and get at least one more Bond flick with Craig.
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What I meant to say to kwisatzhaderach is that QOS had a good story, but was poorly edited and petered out too quickly in the action department. The finale was ho-hum. But Craig is the best Bond since Connery(or at least as good as Dalton), and we need one more film with a Flemingesque Bond before the series is retooled again and we get back to the dreg days of Brosnan.
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July 3, 2010, 12:44 p.m. CST
Sony owns CR, Fox owns distribution rights to MGM DVD's
by RedBull_Werewolf
Sony owns the rights to casino royale, they were majority shareholder of MGM when that film was relased and therefore they hold all home video and TV rights to casino royale. <P>Fox made a deal with MGM a few years ago to be the distributer of MGM's home media, meaning fox doesn't own the films but they are allowed to manufactuer the DVD's and blurays and they get a large chunk of any home video profits. <P>This may seem like a weird situation, but MGM figured they would make more money by selling manufacturing rights to fox (this way MGM makes money from DVD's but does not have to worry about authoring, printing, packaging or distribution of the discs, they do however still hold the rights and fox can only release an MGM DVD with permission from MGM, hense why there hasn't been any more bond releases - MGM has haulted all catelog DVD titles until the debt is resolved) <P>The Bond films have a rich history in terms of ownership, MGM has owned the franchise since 1981, but sony retains rights to Casino royale even though MGM sold sony the spider-man rights in return for the rights to CR, by 2005 sony had then purchased controlling rights to MGM and therefore owned both again
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My first Bond film was "Goldfinger" at the Chinese theater in '64. I've watched them go through many changes, and been a fan throughout. And the Craig Bonds are the most exciting change I'd seen in the series in decades, the first genuine willingness to try something new. The Brosnan films were light and fluffy fun (the Moores even more so) so what's the problem with a little darkness? Judy Dench was/is a great counterpoint--Bond as a near-psychotic "half hit man, half monk" nearly out of control, with the only thing tethering him to Earth his affection for Mother England, personified in mother substitute M. What man is going to dominate THIS Bond? Give me a break. "Quantum" suffered because they didn't have enough time to develop the script (the writer's strike hit them hard), but contained some really intelligent ideas--like Quantum being a dispersed neural net. Against an enemy like that, the only weapon would be the kind of violent, unpredictable chaos Bond represents. It was nervy. Christ sakes...what other film series has kept mixing it up for fifty fucking years? Really remarkable, and this is sad.
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Both stared in harder hitting films and Both lost the role due to financial problems. Craig will not return as bond, it will be probabaly a good 4 years before this whole mess is settled and by that time EON will be wanting to restart the franchise and there won't be a place for an aging Daniel Craig.<P>It happend to Dalton, he was far too old to reuturn and they went with Brosnan. Craig will join Dalton and Lazenby as an actor that never got his chance to own the role.
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when did they halt all catalog releases? I just bought the new Man With No Name blu ray trilogy less than a month ago, and that's MGM. Did you mean they halted the Bond films, or everything?
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Your theory sounds plausible to me. I've long had the impression that Wilson and Broccoli were tired of churning out Bond films. (Wilson even admitted it in the wake of Die Another Day.) Their approach to every film has been to try and sell it as a gimmick: Goldeneye had Bond confronting political correctness; Die Another Day had him dealing with torture; Casino Royale was a reboot; etc. The latter provided each of them with a reason to feel excited again- Wilson finally got to make a "rookie" Bond film and Broccoli got to cast a friend in the lead- but Quantum revealed they didn't actually have any ideas for where to take the series afterwards. I have a feeling they're going to take a little time off, wait to see how everything plays out, then return in a few years with a renewed lease on the franchise. Another factor here is that these are producers who insist on a ridiculous amount of creative control- something that will likely be an issue if they're forced to deal with other studios. But they- and everyone else- also realize that Bond is a brand name that can afford to stay out of the limelight for a few years. It's not a star vehicle where you constantly have to worry if the lead actor is getting too old or losing his box office appeal.
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If Craig is the next Dalton, does that mean he'll play a character in Toy Story 4? <p>in seriousness, I get what you're saying, and it sucks. I dug Dalton's darker Bond, and think Craig is great in the role. Too bad MGM's got their heads up their asses.
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that the head of Quantum would end up being like the secret daughter of Blofeld out for vengeance (yes I know the timeline's screwed for that, but would have liked to see it anyway)
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Alan Rickman could make a great adversary for Bond
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was revealed to be the leader of Quantam. But the next film will probably be another reboot if time runs out.
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Yeah, I hate to agree with you (because it sucks, not because of anything personal), but I think you're right. I always wanted to see where Dalton would have taken Bond, and I think that's what's going to happen with Craig - a lost opportunity. However, you are wrong in one detail; It was Dalton who got tired of waiting around, not the studio that fired him. He was supposed to play Bond in Goldeneye. Dalton decided he wasn't going to do another while the rights holders were dicking around on the property in the early 90's.
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007 would be holding a camcorder... filming a white bag floating around a sidewalk.
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cubby was married at least 4 times. nedra clark, dana wirlson, gloria ablondell. He has three children. tina, and an adopted son tony and of course barbara. before marrying Albert dana brocolli married a man called lewis wilson. who died in 2000.
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And they finally killed off Bond. Dr. No won.
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Bond is on hold right now. Everything is on hold right now. MGM's creditors are pulling the strings on this-- they need to decide whether they're going to shit or get off the pot, but right now NOTHING is happening. Until the ownership situation changes -- which could happen in weeks or months -- everything is on hold.
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"ars gratia artis." but really, how could anyone at MGM ever be bothered to learn the meaning behind a such an obscure phrase?
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the next James Bond movie could be made by others, far more qualified.
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You won't find a bigger Bond fan than me, but I think a nice long break is what the franchise needs. If it gives them time to flesh out a genuine spy thriller, it would be better than force feeding a film every 3 years.
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Harry saw the comments on how poorly worded the headline is and just said "Fuck it". What is that like?<p> You know, to start a business (or something similar like a website), something you have a profound passion for, and then once you have it up and running you can't even be bothered to ensure that the simplest details are correct. Maybe Harry doesn't HAVE to care, because here's my dumb ass back at AICN today, again reading poorly written and titled stories. And I'll be here tomorrow. I'm an idiot and Harry's a genius. That has to be it. Great. I'm going to go stick my head in the oven now.
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July 3, 2010, 3:38 p.m. CST
whoever buys MGM, keep making stargate + more spinoffs
by DioxholsterReturns
and stargate revolution movie as well as stargate atlantis extinction movie.
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Maybe they can use this as an opportunity to reboot the franchise.
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Where's Ted Turner when you need him? Surely someone in Hollywood could buy it?
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And so are Connery and Dalton. There are those who like these types of hard edged Bonds, like me, and then there are those who like the Moore and Brosnan smug, smoothie type Bonds. Balls to the latter!
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July 3, 2010, 4:52 p.m. CST
Harry's grammar is even worse since his near-death experience
by Turd_Has_Risen_From_The_Grave
The Advil knocked his IQ down 10 points to -5.
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Why doesn't Peter Jackson and his crew just buy MGM themselves? It's not like they wouldn't be able to raise the money. I'm sure somebody would buy in under the premise of Jackson running the studio and getting Bond and Hobbit made.
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He never smiled once in all four movies.
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July 3, 2010, 6:19 p.m. CST
RPLocke---- exactly Brosnan was badass Bond but with style
by DioxholsterReturns
watch Goldeneye then watch Casino Royale. you will see the difference. back then critics excused the atrocity that is the Casino Royale Bond as they percieved it to be an origin story (lol i know right) but its clear now that that Daneil Craig Bond only got worse much worse with the last film. glad they halted developmented, more glad they havent cancelec Stargate yet.
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Yeah, Tomorrow Never Dies was silly, but Bond has always been about fun. Daniel Craig was fun in Casino Royale, but Quantum was so dark it wasn't fun.
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who wants that debt. Liquidate and get out of the business, already. Hopefully after this is resolved, Martin Campbell will be around to do a third reboot of the series, he seems to know how to do it.
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Honestly, I'd rather not have another Bond directed by a non-action movie director. Quantum of Solace was beyond terrible. If the fate of Bond was to continue along that path, I'd rather the series just rest until someone who will do it right will take the reigns. Consider me elated at this news.
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Bring back Connery & the others for a cameo, reveal that "James Bond" is really just a code name that has been passed down thru the years.
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so QOS wasnt a surprise, it was a natural ripple effect caused by the shit movie casino royale. yeah i admit casino royale on its own is decent especially considering what the previous was like, so it was definitly refreshing, but at the same time the intention was all wrong. Bond isnt a superhero he shouldnt have an origin story, precisely because of the mystery he carries with him. what makes him interesting is the sense of detachment the audience feels when they watch him, this might sound gay but James Bond seduces us with his mystery and throughout his adventures we get a sense of what he is and what hes about indirectly. <p> i could go on and on. if stargate has taught me anything is that, the audience are more likely to respond well to a character who they know little about his history. casino royale was so blatant in showing us how james bond became who he is --- not why he is who he is.
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called a reboot. I just see it as a new adventure with a short flashback in the black and white sequence to show how Bond got his rank.
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toilets + spys, you can never go wrong there. every spy got his ranks from a toilet smackdown. what bothered me was the movie as a whole, they treated it as a reboot and they went all out to show us that james bond was a ruthless bonehead in his prime.
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July 3, 2010, 9:15 p.m. CST
Casino Royale & QOS were the best two Bond's I've seen in years
by Hervoyel
That's all I've got to say about that. Bond was stone dead when Daniel Craig went to work. I'm sorry to see it all unravel this way.
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Yes, it was starting to look as though the producers were making the same mistakes that led to Quantum of Solace. Craig wanted another atypical choice to direct, while the screenwriter had given us such action greats as Frost/Nixon and The Other Boleyn Girl. What could've possibly gone wrong? I have a feeling Michael Wilson (who previously had to throw out Paul Haggis' entire script for Bond 22) could also see the writing on the wall.
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I've never seen a Bond shootout in a parking garage.
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basically The buyer would pay MGM a few billion, MGM would use that to pay off the bank and basically hand over the studio to who ever forked the debt money over, If WB bought MGM all they would inherit would be the current cateolog and rights, it seems like a no brainer especially with the bond franchise up for grabs
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how about another temple scene?
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...as I understand it (and I could certainly be wrong here) MGM's debt holders would have to accept the settlement. And given that the best offer so far has only covered about half MGM's debt that's going to be a hard fish to haul into the boat. Not impossible, if things drag on long enough, but hard.
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or just run of the mill assholes that bonused themselves out of a historical film making company?
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right now I wish I was filthy rich because I would buy MGM in a heartbeat and run it exactly how it needs to be run, with quality movies in mind. I'd do it in a heartbeat, cause making quality products is all I care about. I'd come up with some sort of seal of approval kind of thing, where nothing would be allowed release without it. If it doesn't meet the quality standards, then sorry, but try harder. Now how would THAT be for a company policy?
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could be the last MGM produced movie. I wish they could go into an HTTM and sell the whole deal to Turner again. At least he knows how to run a business, and never would have allowed this crushing debt to accumulate. The last really good MGM film imho Rocky Balboa, and the last MGM film to win a major oscar Thelma and Louise (best Screenplay)
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Every few movies bring in somebody else to play him. Johnny Depp in the remake of GOLDFINGER would dominate at the box office & put BOND where he belongs...at the head of the pack!!
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and fold.
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the shaved chest dolphin boy look is just too... when he rose out of the sea with the camera focused on his glimmering shiny pecs in Casino Royale was the absolute and bleak nadir of the series, nothing, not even Roger Moore in clown makeup was as bad as that.
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July 4, 2010, 3:02 a.m. CST
Harry, none of these people love movies more than money
by Professor_Monster
Dreamworks started as a place that promised to only make the films that Hollywood doesn't make anymore - striving for classics, and look where they are. Three of the most powerful men in the industry could really care less because they are all richer than any human being should be. MGM is a T-Rex in the tar pits - mighty but sinking fast and whoever buys it will only do so to turn a buck - because those are the people who run Hollywood. They make movies with their friends and keep distance from anything too risky - meaning, different from what played last week.
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Each new Bond starts off fairly serious and/or dark, then goes campy. You start with Doctor No, then end up with Diamonds are Forever. You go from Live and Let Die, end up with Octopussy (serious it up again for a flick with For Your Eyes Only only to end up with View To A Kill). Goldeneye was fairly serious, but you come to an end with invisible cars and terrible CGI stunts in Die Another Day. Perhaps Craig will become another Dalton. Quantum wasn't "shit" and neither was Casino, just as Living Daylights and Licence to Kill weren't bad. All Bonds are like pizza and sex - even when it's bad, its still pretty good. Craigs movies were just dark, serious Bonds - more-so than any of the others. I think Bond is at his best when he hits the "in between" strides, when he lightens up a bit, but doesn't go off the rails (or into space with lasers). Think Goldfinger, Spy Who Loved Me, Man With the Golden Gun, Tomorrow Never Dies, Thunderball. Craig, like Dalton (and even...oh shit whats his name. From Majesty's Secret Service....Fuck, how can I forget his name??? Don't feel like looking it up on Wikipedia - if you're still reading this, you know who I mean). It would have been interesting to see Craig hit his stride as Bond. People who have a "good riddence" attitude don't really understand Bond. The first chapters from every actor aren't the ones you remember.
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Damn. How did I forget that? Anyway, he quits MI-6, his wife dies, etc; etc; etc; - dark dark dark. Trend was set, but didn't follow through.
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"all the problems with HOBBIT lead back to their mismanagement of that company"<P>The bastards!
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Sorry, but there is no way in hell Wilson and Broccoli are doing this because they are somehow tired and don't want to make the Bond movies anymore. And it's not in their blood the way it was Albert Broccoli's?? That is beyond ridiculous. Barbara Broccoli has been doing this franchise her entire professional life, as is the the same with Michael Wilson. In fact, Wilson co-wrote FIVE Bond movies himself. When you write something, it IS in your blood. You care more about it than anyone.
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It's just unsubstantiated tabloid fodder. Try to look at your sources before you publish news like this. And Bond 23 has never been canceled. You guys don't know what you're talking about. It's been delayed while MGM is sorting out its financial crisis but never canned.
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July 4, 2010, 1:38 p.m. CST
sell the hobbit license to finance ROBOCOP by Aronofsky
by organicstudios
Robocop is more important than Hobbit
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the books might have stayed separate, and avoided the idiocy that has taken down the studio that brought us The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind in the same year. Corporate assholes are ruining the studio system.
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<font color="white">"Die Another Day" is a good Bond movie.</font>
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MGM made a lot of great movies back in the day, but today, they can barely produce a DVD.
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this is worst than 9/11 times 1,000!
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...delayed indefinitely has a very particular meaning. It usually means that the project is dead. In this case it doesn't mean Bond is dead because eventually someone will end up with the rights and continue the franchise. But odds are very good that this project, with this talent, will not be made, along with a whole lot of other projects to which talent has been attached. <p> Nothing wrong with what Harry wrote on this one, really, except maybe not enough depth. <p> Spyglass has probably moved into the driver's seat on this but their plan has fail written all over it. They want to turn MGM into a pure production house, shedding distribution and marketing, which makes damned little sense even though the guys at Spyglass are supposedly wizards at making distribution deals. The reason is that the money they save with the move will be absorbed by their distributors, no matter how good Barber and Birnbaum are at cutting deals. Not only that but it puts the whole new construction in a less competitive position, unless the Spyglass guys are hoping that technological advances over the next ten years or so will loosen the choke hold distributors currently have. It's the opposite of synergy and on the face of it at least it doesn't seem to make sense. However, the Spyglass deal seems to offer the most to the folks holding MGM's 4 billion in debt, so that's the way it will likely go. <p> And though no one is willing to come right out and say it (or maybe lots of people are and I've missed them) Lionsgate is out of this picture. Icahn's going to toss Lionsgate management soon and he doesn't seem to have any interest in taking on a ton more debt. <p> So I'm not sure what part you're talking about just being a rumor in The Mirror, but there is a better than fifty fifty chance that the Bond film will not happen as planned. <p> For all you Bond fans who love Craig here's hoping it will. If there's one thing on MGM's slate (other than Red Dawn and Cabin in the Woods, already in the can) that I think the Spyglass guys would try to save it's Bond. At this point the financial intricacies of The Hobbit may make it much a much tougher save for whatever comes out the other side of MGM's meltdown.
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Mathmatically, you're probably right. Die Another Day was 50% a GREAT Bond movie, 25% garbage, then the final 25% a good Bond movie. Probably evens out to "good". IMHO.
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Tomorrow Never Dies. Remote control car chase/shootout
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Oh yeah, you're right. That one was really cool. And Bond smashes the car into the car insurance place.
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condesending. One note. Dictionary definition of pretentious.
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July 5, 2010, 5:28 a.m. CST
Thought there would be more info than just a fucking rant Harry
by Harry_Knowles_Here_for_Benadryl
Seriously..Im still here wondering how fucked they are..you gave no fucking information whatsoever in that. What the hell man.
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If the workers own the means of production, then this won't be a problem. </P> Stop being Glenn Beck's bitches.</P>
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That is sad.
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Jesus christ
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No Reserve.....
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...fucking awesome. FUCKING AWESOME. Any opinions to the contrary are fucked. FUCKED. End of line.
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harry knowles is one of those people who stands outside a system saying a crap it is because they dont make the kind of films he wants to see. what ever they are and at this point I dont know. there are people who are foolish enough to actually believe harry's anti studio stuff and they are the ones who say all movies suck. thats very easy when you are out side the system. the only thing that is comparable to this is when a hospital or other building has fallen in disuse and the govt come to close it down and you get a bunch of people who will campaign to stop the govt closing this building down. the conditions in the hospital might be appalling and these people might have done nothing to improve the hospital. that about summs up harry's attitude to the film business he is very happy to stand outside the system and say things are crap. as our others in the talkback.
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According to both Craig and Michael Wilson, Quantum of Solace *was* the conclusion to the story that Casino established. So if they didn't have any plans to build upon it back in 2008, it seems unlikely they will do so after such a long delay. (We're already looking at a four or five year gap in between films- and that's at the earliest.) I don't think anyone really believes that James Bond won't return. In time, the franchise will end up at a secure studio and resume. However, it won't be a big deal if the next film doesn't star Daniel Craig. As Cubby Broccoli always pointed out, Bond will always be bigger than the actor playing him.
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reading this shit is a fucking chore.
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but next one better be better than quantum...that was a let down...better than casino is asking a lot.
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Mendes and Morgan could've made uber-Bond. Mark my words, Daniel Craig will never be Bond again. http://tinyurl.com/2eg85c3
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It really hurts to see huge franchises like this die. I've only seen the Pierce Brosnan movies, and I've never been a big fan of 007, but I still don't want to see this series go down like that.
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Bond is too big to be left to one company, who've had a long time with the character. I cant wait till it goes public domain and then there will be plenty of Bond movies.
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http://www.gossipcop.com/james-bond-23-canceled-cancelledpostponed-daniel-craig-mgm/ And no Red Ned Lynch, Bond 23 has never been canceled in any form.
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