The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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December 28 : 2009

Bids on MGM expected soon

Variety reports that bidding for MGM will begin within the next few weeks. The article has a good rundown on the situation: what companies own shares in MGM currently, what assets the studio has, how much it owes, which studios are likely to bid, and so on.

MGM is still considered to be a co-financer of The Hobbit, the rights to which are one of the studio’s major assets. The most salient part of the article is this:

Speculation has focused mostly on Time Warner Inc. as a likely bidder, since it has over than $9 billion in cash from the recent spinoff of its cable systems and would regain full control over “The Hobbit.” Time Warner also owns the pre-1985 MGM library through its 1996 buyout of Turner Broadcasting and made an eleventh-hour bid in 2004 for MGM but was topped by an investor group led by Sony.

Time Warner owns Warner Bros., which absorbed New Line after its financial problems began. New Line is a distinct production unit and will be in charge of making The Hobbit. Still, Warner is the other co-financer on the film, so the simplest solution as far as the production of the two films is concerned would probably be for Time Warner to acquire MGM. The prospect of News Corp. (which owns Twentieth Century Fox) buying MGM and coming in on the project boggles the mind just a bit.

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

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    Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
    hardcover 978-0-520-24774-1
    421 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 12 color illustrations; 36 b/w illustrations; 1 map; 1 table

    “Once in a lifetime.”
    The phrase comes up over and over from the people who worked on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. The film’s 17 Oscars, record-setting earnings, huge fan base, and hundreds of ancillary products attest to its importance and to the fact that Rings is far more than a film. Its makers seized a crucial moment in Hollywood—the special effects digital revolution plus the rise of “infotainment” and the Internet—to satisfy the trilogy’s fans while fostering a huge new international audience. The resulting franchise of franchises has earned billions of dollars to date with no end in sight.

    Kristin Thompson interviewed 76 people to examine the movie’s scripting and design and the new technologies deployed to produce the films, video games, and DVDs. She demonstrates the impact Rings had on the companies that made it, on the fantasy genre, on New Zealand, and on independent cinema. In fast-paced, compulsively readable prose, she affirms Jackson’s Rings as one the most important films ever made.

    The Frodo Franchise

    cover of Penguin Books’ (NZ) edition of The Frodo Franchise, published September 2007. The tiny subtitle reads: “How ‘The Lord of the Rings’ became a Hollywood blockbuster and put New Zealand on the map.”