What should disgruntled, studio-hampered filmmakers do to ease their film woes? Why, buy out the studios!
Not that we’re saying Ridley and Tony Scott have had much trouble with the big Hollywood bosses in their careers, but it’s certainly a poetic idea.
The Financial Times are reporting that movemaking sibs Ridley and Tony Scott are interested in “steering MGM back to solvency after submitting a restructuring plan”.
The film studio has been floundering for many months, with over $3b debt sitting on their shoulders. Numberous bids have been made for the studio’s back catalogue, which would ease some of their woes, but none have yet been accepted.
Now, we don’t like to pretend we know much about money (we don't have any), but we know that $3b is a pretty big sum - so big that a handy ‘b’ is installed to get rid of all those ugly zeroes.
And if anybody can save a sinking film ship, it’s the might of the Scotts. They’re not the first to come to a studio’s rescue, with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner also helping United Artists recently.
Would the Scott brothers’ own studio Scott Free become a part of MGM in an attempt to boost its profit margins? That’s unclear just yet.
But if they do sign on, and successfully manage to steer MGM into calmer waters, we can expect The Hobbit and Bond 23 to get a much-needed kick up the backside - hopefully into production.
Good planning or another barmy Scott idea?
