UPDATE: Bond’s status has since been upgraded from “dead” to “indefinitely not alive.”

MGM is currently $4 billion in debt and desperately seeking a buyer, meaning that the movies MGM owns the rights to are basically screwed.  Their financial troubles have been a big factor in the delays with The Hobbit, and now the word is that they’ve killed Bond 23, kind of a shame since it was set to be directed by Sam Mendes from a script by Frost/Nixon‘s Pete Morgan.

The movie has been axed – and it could be years before the secret agent with a licence to kill is back on the big screen. A glum insider said: “Members of the production crew have been told the Bond film has been canned.
Production company EON confirmed in a statement yesterday: “We do not know when development will resume and cannot comment further at this stage.”
American TV company Spyglass Entertainment is the front-runner to take over but Summit Entertainment – which makes the smash-hit Twilight vampire films starring Robert Pattinson – is also understood to be in talks with creditors. [Mirror]

That’s the bad news.  The good news is that lots of other Hollywood studios have plenty of money, meaning that the Magic 8-ball movie, the one where zoo animals give Kevin James dating advice, ‘Hasbro Factory‘ — those projects are all doing fine.  And really, do we need another James Bond movie?  I already got my secret-agent fix from Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl.

MGM is out of money, and while it’s tempting to laugh in their face while you buy expensive clothes and light cigars with Washingtons like I do with the schizophrenic losers sleeping in front of my building, not all the consequences are so fun.  First, in an interview with Moviefone, Peter Jackson says that the script for The Hobbit is finished, but it still doesn’t have a greenlight.

It’s not really been delayed, because we’ve never announced the date. I mean it’s sort of interesting because the studio [MGM] has never greenlit ‘The Hobbit,’ so therefore ‘The Hobbit’ has never been officially announced as a “go” project, nor have we ever announced a date.  …We’re now in the process of budgeting the films, and then hopefully we’ll get to a budget the studio [people] are happy with, and they’ll greenlight the movies and we’ll announce the shooting dates. I’d be pretty optimistic that we’ll be shooting before the end of the year.

I have mixed feelings, because Jackson’s LotR movies got progressively more boring as the series went along, but so did the books, and The Hobbit was the one I legitimately enjoyed.  Meanwhile, the producers of the next James Bond film have announced that Bond 23 has been “delayed indefinitely.”  But according to Deadline, this could be a ploy by the production company working on Bond to get MGM to stop dragging their feet and either let the project go or get financially solvent enough to make it happen — in other words, to “sh*t or get off the pot,” as my father used to say when I’d try to sh*t in his pots.
Read the rest of this entry »

(Quantum of Solace and Robocop on a Unicorn)

Avatar cost upwards of $400 million and took a decade to make and is still the only movie ever made where 3D was more than a gimmick.  But it made lots of money, so of course every other movie has to be 3D now.  Even the 23rd James Bond movie, which is being fastracked by the struggling MGM to be directed by Sam Mendes.  Who famously displayed a penchant for extravagant visual effects in such films as… uh, American Beauty, and Away We Go.

An insider said: “The 23rd Bond movie has been put back a few months and that has given them the time to prepare to film it in 3D. Everyone involved in the project is really excited because it will take the franchise in a new direction.”  [TheAge]

Keep in mind, this is coming from a foreign newspaper citing an unnamed source, which tend to be about as reliable as a fox in a top hat (i.e., not to be trusted).  Though it sounds plausible in light of Moviehole reporting a similar story about the Darren Aronofsky Robocop remake, another MGM production.  Said their source:

Read the rest of this entry »

Well this is a surprise.  THR’s Heat Vision Blog reports that Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead, Away We Go, Revolutionary Road) is in negotiations to direct the 23rd James Bond film.

Production is being fast-tracked and could begin as early as June with an eye toward a 2011 release.
Bond regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are writing, along with “Frost/Nixon” scribe Peter Morgan. Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are producing. Daniel Craig will reprise his role as 007.

It’s an unusual (and good) choice, considering Hollywood execs hiring on an action project normally just find someone who can film special effects (*cough* Stephen Sommers *cough*) rather than, say, someone who can tell a story. Then again, Quantum of Solace had Marc Forster, who’d previously directed Finding Neverland, which, call me sentimental, I loved, and Quantum turned out to be a flaming pile.  Casino Royale is actually the only decent modern Bond movie I can remember, and that would’ve been hard to predict based on director Martin Campbell’s resume.  In any case, it’s Sam Mendes, so I’m just going to assume the plot of this one will be middle class ennui.

*Bond strangles terrorist with piano wire, makes love to a busty Russian double agent*

BOND:  Sometimes I just… I wonder… Is this all there is?  I mean, is this the man I thought I would become?  What’s the point?

*lights joint, puts on bathrobe, watches Golden Girls marathon, masturbates while daydreaming about neighbor girl*

I like most of Sam Mendes’ movies, though I avoided Revolutionary Road because it looks like a more boring version of American Beauty.  With fedoras.  But as luck would have it, he already has another project out. I hadn’t heard a thing about it until the trailer hit today. Away We Go stars John Krasinski (Jim from The Office) and Maya Rudolph (formerly of SNL) with a script by Dave Eggers and his wife, fellow writer Vendela Vida.  It sucks that hipsters like Dave Eggers, because now I have to defend it any time I say something good about him.  Hey, trust fund hippies, you know what’d be great?  You could hate everything I like!  Wouldn’t that be, like, so ironic?
Read the rest of this entry »