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Im more worried about the Robocop remake/reboot/reimagining...Glad to see that wuss of a director Arnofsky isnt going to direct it.
Which ever company wins the rights to holding MGM's library of titles, it won't be Lionsgate who takes over the heavily indebted studio. HR reports that Lionsgate, once a front runner in the race, has no intention of raising its offer which currently stands between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion. This will leave two companies in the bidding action, which are Time Warner and Leonard Blavatnik's Access Industries. Those with knowledge of the situation say Time Warner is high bidder at $1.5 billion. But with $7.5 billion, making him the 93rd richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine, Blavatnik is by no means out of the running.
Blavatnik is an Ivy League-educated American immigrant from Russia whose Access Industries holding company has stakes in energy and mining concerns as well as a growing list of media assets.
Via Access Industries, Blavatnik, a former Warner Music Group board member, bought the U.K. portion of Mel Gibson's Icon Group last year and has purchased stakes in WMG, Russian TV company Amedia, Israeli TV concern R.G.E. Group and the U.K.'s Top Up TV, among others.
Insiders say News Corp. also has offered to purchase a stake in MGM for $250 million. Plus, there are two camps developing among MGM's creditors: one wants to take the high bid, the other wants to raise more cash, do some restructuring and keep MGM independent.
"There's a couple of ways to make it a standalone company, but a bankruptcy probably is in the cards unless they sell it," a source said.
Lionsgate's bid for MGM, which sports about $3.7 billion in debt, came despite objections from Icahn, the billionaire financier who owns 19% of Lionsgate and has offered to buy the entire company for $6 a share.
Lionsgate has dismissed Icahn's offer as too small -- the stock closed at $6.30 on Thursday -- and Standard & Poor's ratings service warned that Icahn taking control of the company could trigger a default of banking covenants, putting the studio's credit rating at risk.
Icahn's strategy to force his will on Lionsgate also involved a letter of rebuke aimed at CEO Jon Feltheimer in which he called Lionsgate's bid to buy MGM "absurd."
Im more worried about the Robocop remake/reboot/reimagining...Glad to see that wuss of a director Arnofsky isnt going to direct it.
Too bad MGM sold off their animation studios, characters, and classics library to Time-Warner and others years ago. Disney Corp. might have been a good fit.
Calibur, no offense, but screw Bond. This is bad because it could cause another delay in The Hobbit films!!
Sorry, I like Bond, but I've been waiting 29 years to see The Hobbit on film.
Muenster, I have seen and did like Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, but that's not the Hobbit. I also really like The Hobbit that Rankin and Bass did for tv, but I've always thought that each of those animated films left a lot out.
I'm sure Del Toro's will leave some stuff out too, but it'll be awesome to see a live action version on the big screen.
Muenster, did you delete your posts or did Mania? Because now my comments don't make any sense here.
this is bad- now we will have to wait even longer for the new bond 23 film to be made