MGM are in the midst of a financial clusterfuck, with their two biggest franchises “The Hobbit” and “Bond 23” stalled, and release dates postponed for two completed films — “Cabin In The Woods” and “Red Dawn” — due to lack of P&A funds, it perhaps speaks to the complete mess that has marked the studio over the past year that development is underway on a new project, a big screen version of classic sci-fi show “The Outer Limits.” (And don’t adjust your television set MGM; that’s the sound of no one caring).
Writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the dynamic duo behind “Saw IV,” “Saw V,” “Saw VI” and “Saw 3D” have been hired to work on the screenplay though there is some contention as to when deals were signed. MGM claims that while the duo were only paid in recent weeks, they were actually hired long before their financial woes started (which would put their hire sometime in early 2009) while the writers claim their work on the project only started recently. Somewhere between those two versions of the story, presumably, lies the actual truth.
No we don’t understand Hollywood accounting, but basic common sense tells us that if you don’t have money to handle the current films in your roster, developing a new project probably isn’t fiscally sound. But hey, we’re not accountants so what do we know?
Anyway, the situation remains status quo over at the Lion. They are still massively in debt and are looking to merge or enter co-production deals with other studios and production companies (Lionsgate, Summit and Spyglass have variously been in talks) rather than sell off the company wholesale. And just to confirm, “The Hobbit” is still without a green light.