Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

First I'd heard about it. I wonder if Jackson will do it, he's already producing it and he'd probably have a significant hand in it anyway. The reason given: startup delays, which means MGM's frailty. Jackson said: “...“The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. ...”

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2010/05/30/36920-guillermo-del-toro-departs-the-hobbit/

New Bond film suspended indefinitely

The next installment in the James Bond franchise has been suspended indefinitely due to the uncertainty over the future of movie studio MGM.

Daniel Craig was scheduled to reprise the 007 role for a third time in the 23rd Bond movie, which was scheduled for a 2011 or 2012 release date.

But filming has been thrown into chaos after the sale of famed media company MGM. The firm was put up for sale last year after falling millions of dollars in debt.

Producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have released a joint statement saying, "Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on Bond 23 indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of Bond 23."

Craig adds, "I have every confidence in Barbara and Michael's decision and look forward to production resuming as quickly as possible."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?entry_id=61733#ixzz0lqB0PvmK


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?entry_id=61733


I had not heard that MGM was having difficulties or was up for sale. Very sad and troubling. On the other hand, in many ways the film industry is behaving very much like the music industry: horrible business model more or less designed to fail in the digital age. Though I would hate to see MGM fail as they've made so many wonderful films for so many years, it would serve as a very big wake up call to the rest of the film industry and maybe the music industry. And said wake up call would probably be ignored and they'd hit the snooze button and continue on in business as usual mode.