MGM's big movies in the future

Over the next few years, MGM is planning to release half a dozen films, some in the $150 million to $200 million-plus range.

* "Terminator 4"
* one OR TWO installments of "The Hobbit"
* a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair" with Pierce Brosnan
* a "Pink Panther" sequel
* the next 007 pic "Bond 22," due out in November 2008
* "Rocky Balboa" unspools in February.

The pics are all franchises that MGM owns the rights to through its 4,000-title library. The goal is to release two or three "tentpoles" a year.

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Interesting. The first "Terminator" was distributed through MGM, but "T2" and "T3" were neither made nor distributed by them. Neither was "The Hobbit." They are not exactly MGM "franchise" pictures, so I wonder how they got the rights to do them. Must be another of those Hollywood studio in-breeding things. Anybody know?

John

john,

mgm bought the live-action movie adaptation rights to "the hobbit" a few years ago.

rights to the "terminator" series are a mess. producer gale anne hurd had all the rights to "the terminator" because james cameron sold his share of the rights to her for $1. the movie was distributed by helmdale, which went bankrupt. subsequently, gale anne hurd struck a deal with the people at carolco for "terminator 2", which now had half the rights to the series.

orion bought up helmdale's library, as it did the libraries of several other defunct production companies/distributors. artisan bought "terminator 2" in an auction of carolco's properties. eventually, orion went bankrupt, too, and mgm bought orion's library. meanwhile, lionsgate bought artisan. this explains why mgm distributes "the terminator" on home video now and why lionsgate distributes "terminator 2" on home video.

the former owners of carolco and gale anne hurd actually retained sequel/re-make rights to the terminator series, which explains why neither orion nor artisan/lionsgate ever made any sequels/re-makes. the former owners of carolco formed C2 Pictures, bought out gale anne hurd, and made "terminator 3", financing it partly by selling north-american rights to warner and international rights to sony (which explains why warner distributes the dvd in region 1 while sony distributes the dvd in most of the rest of the world).

presumably, the C2 Pictures people still have the sequel/re-make rights and have simply chosen mgm as their new distributor (or perhaps they sold their rights to mgm).

eddie

Thanks, Eddie. I knew if anybody would know, you would.

John

If Arnold is not involved in T4, then the rights aren't worth much. Even if the The Rock is doing T4.

The Rock as the Terminator? Now that would be funny. I can hear the dialog now, “You have two choices John Conner. You can pick either option A or option B.”

:D

8)
MGM is talking to Peter Jackson about "The Hobbit".
"...we have had a few initial conversations about the project with Mr. Jackson's representatives."
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Thomas Crown has replaced Terminator 4 in the latest makeup of the 5 MGM core frachises.
MGM's talks with Peter Jackson are in an advanced stage! Film 1 would be the book, no. 2 would be all the footnotes, backstory, and connection to LOTR. Howard Shore said he and PJ talked and both really want to do it. Production would be 2008/9. However, the negotiation with New Line is still inprogress, as is the PJ vs NewLine lawsuit.