The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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July 13 : 2010

Lionsgate execs meet with MGM creditors

Today the Los Angeles Times reported that Lionsgate has taken a step toward a possible merger with debt-ridden MGM:

Independent studio Lions Gate Entertainment’s chief executive, Jon Feltheimer, and vice chairman, Michael Burns, on Tuesday made a formal merger presentation to the steering committee of creditors overseeing the future of struggling studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, people familiar with the situation said.

The meeting marks a major step forward for the two sides since they started to engage in merger talks last month.

The meeting comes just days after Lions Gate agreed to a 10-day detente with activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns 37.3% of the movie and television studio and launched a hostile takeover of the company. The parties agreed that during the truce they would jointly explore potential mergers and acquisitions.

As the story points out, there are all sorts of problems with this proposal. Icahn, Lionsgate’s largest stockholder, objects to such a move, and Lionsgate has about half a billion dollars worth of its own debt.

Still, as far as I know, this is the first formal plan of any sort to be offered since the round of bidding for the acquisition of MGM fell short of the creditors’ demands (though Time Warner’s reported bid of $1.5 billion remains on the table).

Variety has a shorter story on the meeting, adding its own take on the situation:

Neither company confirmed the talks, first reported Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times, but a knowledgeable source indicated that a meeting had taken place.

MGM’s expected to announce a sixth extension of payments on its $3.7 billion in debt on Wednesday when the current extension expires.

Liongate has been in informal talks about an MGM-Lionsgate merger in recent weeks. A combined MGM-Lionsgate would include a library with more than 7,000 titles and the ability to produce and distribute MGM titles — such as new James Bond movies and the two “Hobbit” films, which MGM co-finances with New Line.

At this point, all this remains unconfirmed, but it could suggest that some movement may actually be occurring.

(The studio’s name is Lionsgate, not Lions Gate, as written in the LA Times story.)

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

    US flagbuy at best price

    Canadian flagbuy at best price

    UK flagbuy at best price

    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.”