The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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November 24 : 2009

MGM lining up bidders for its assets

MGM has begun the process of sending out non-disclosure agreements to companies interested in bidding on its assets. The studio is setting up a secure online site where bidders can access its internal financial data.

Assets up for sale, apparently as a group, include, according to Variety, “the 4,000 title library, the logo, the United Artists operations, rights to the James Bond and Pink Panther franchises and half-ownership in the upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films.” The base price is said to be $1.5 billion, while Variety’s sources say the bidding will probably not top $2.5 billion.

Time Warner is considered to be the frontrunner. It has around $9 billion in cash on hand as a result of having recently spun off its cable systems. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the distribution company Lionsgate are also possible bidders.

The story concludes, “For the time being, current MGM leadership will stay in place and production chief Mary Parent will continue to shepherd a small production and development slate. It remains co-financier with New Line on ‘The Hobbit,’ set to go into production around spring in New Zealand with two films shot back-to-back with Guillermo del Toro.

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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.”