Movies
'Bond', 'Hobbit' studio MGM faces bankruptcy?
Published Friday, Sep 25 2009, 15:43 BST | By Simon Reynolds
The company requires a $20 million short-term cash injection to cover overhead and $150 million to start shooting on Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro's The Hobbit.
The news emerged from a heated MGM conference call, in which bondholders became "loud and very upset", reports Deadline Hollywood.
"The implication was that it's teetering on bankruptcy," a source told the website.
The conference call was made to ask creditors to forgo interest payments on MGM's $3.5 billion debt until next February, freeing up cash that the studio can spend on putting movies into production.
MGM fears that bankruptcy will mean losing the rights to the James Bond franchise, which it regained control of from Sony after the latter's two-film deal expired with the release of Quantum Of Solace. MGM executives are reportedly concerned that the studio will not be able to support itself without the 007 films.
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