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The Financial Times is reporting (sub req’d) in Friday’s edition that Ridley and Tony ”have expressed interest in running MGM”. The newspaper quotes ”people familiar with the situation” as its sources. The assumption is that, if MGM emerges from the busted auction as a stand-alone and restructured company, a new management team will be brought in to run the studio once its fate is determined by creditors. ”The Scott brothers have their own production company, Scott Free, but it is unclear whether their proposal would involve combining it with MGM, or if they are seeking a stake in the recapitalized studio. They could not be reached for comment.”
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I know Russell Crowe thinks it’s a great idea.
I have to admit, that this makes me infinitely curious to see how it would turn out.
Go for it Tony – T. Scott directing Bond – thats a brit dream team there!! Please buy MGM
Oh great. A studio that makes incoherent films with fog and backlighting.
Easy, we’re talking about two of the most talented filmmakers in the history of the business, not Alex Young.
Finally a proposal that makes sense!
The Bros would put up lots of money and Scott Free would basically become MGM.
Where is Tom Cruise and UA in all this? Couldn’t Cruise also run MGM? ((smirk))
Last I heard Cruise was pissed MGM used $500 million he raised for UA on MGM expenses. Being that his latest movie doesn’t have UA attached at all I’m guessing he got so pissed he jumped ship and told MGM where they could go. It’s too bad because even Lions & Lambs did better than anything MGM put out recently other than Bond, but that doesn’t count sine that is more Sony than MGM at this point. It’s sad that a studio that was once the best of the majors back in the 30s was turned into the shamble it is now. It all goes back to corporate raider Kirk Kirkorian buying them all those years ago. Is there any doubt Icahn would do the same to LionsGate if he gets his way?
With Ridley at the helm, they could make magic…
Tony, not so much… time for a little fratricide.
What are you smoking? Tony is by far the better director. Bring on Bond for Tony. That is a dream team.
You can’t be serious. Ridley has three oscar nominations and has directed some of the greatest films of all time. Tony’s more of a popcorn director (but a great one).
How do you run a HUGE studio with NO money??
MGMS – Metro Goldwyn Mayer Scott
I like it.
what a great idea! Go for it Tony and Ridley-give the lion another run!
But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn’t, didn’t already have.
Would the board look like:
Co-CEO — Tony/Ridley Scott
President — Denzel Washington
CFO — Russell Crowe
Head of Physical Production — Will Smith
Head of Casting — Sigourney Weaver
LOL. At least we would be sure most of the movies coming out of MGM wouldn’t suck as bad as they have recently!
You know who else has expressed interest in running MGM? *Anyone who thinks running a studio sounds like fun.*
Congratulations on top-notch reposting of groundbreaking investigative journalism.
That’s a great question TV101 and one I’ve been wondering about myself. Not a word has been said about Cruise and UA. He let his longtime friend and partner, Paula Wagner, take the hit when things didnt go well at UA and she was fired. Now she’s moved on to her own production company and C/W is dead in the water so Cruise has nothing to go back to. I would love to know where he stands in all of this.
they would use this as their personal piggy bank and run it into the ground…again.
It would actually be a great idea. Filmmakers should run studios and not conglomerates. And when they need financing, which they certainly will, since MGM is FLAT BROKE, then what better source of funding to turn to than MOVIE FANS. CinemaShares.com has an SEC-approved method of CROWDFUNDING movies through the sale of $20 NASDAQ Shares sold online that pay a free DVD as a stock dividend. CinemaShares.com can supply all the money they need for production and for prints and advertising, while simultaneously building massive online communities around each movie project.
Gene Massey 310 476-3668
this is a horrible idea. they make the EXACT type of financially bloated films that drove MGM into the ground for the umpteenth time. they are bad, bad, bad financial filmmakers to do such a thing. the only true filmmaker that has, for 20+ films, kept on time, budget, etc., is Woody Allen. That is why he keeps churning out movies. The $$$ people, over time, do not lose on him. More filmmakers should take such lessons and practice being conservative with budgets, not as if they have an endless supply of money from banks…I mean studios…
Fantastic! They are the best, anything they do is first rate.
Great idea.
After all, Ridley is known for being fiscally responsible.
running a film studio and running a production company that has a small staff that hands product off to be marketed (worldwide) to a larger (worldwide) company are 2 different things.
but it’s not like they could make matters worse. but ridley scott makes 1 good film a decade, all the rest are crap –i mean, him collecting checks. plz don’t forget Legend and White Squall.
i don’t believe in ageism, but they’re both about as old as our retiring supreme court justice.
Huh?
John Paul Stevens will turn 90 in 9 days.
Ridley Scott is 62.
Tony Scott is 55.
This is about oeuvre, reputation, bankability & what that means to attract the best talent to the (now tarnished) MGM Brand. The ability to identify, develop & produce viable projects are what the Scott Bros bring to the table. This is not about day to day operations.
OMG – Hollywood has amounted to a bunch of idiots. These comments are horrible – and disappointing.
Since when can two directors – run a company. What has Scott Free done that has been so successful? Idiots – I’m surrounded by a bunch of idiots.
Its hilarious how you can make a comment like this. Without a doubt they are up for the job.
Sunset Blvd:
Except, of course, that Ridley’s commercial production company, RSA, has in fact been among the most successful of its kind for more than forty years now—hence why R. Scott was a multi-millionaire long before he ever made his first feature. That suggests to me (as indeed it should to anyone with even a modicum of common sense) that he has some inkling as to how to run a successful company.
Scott Free is mainly a shingle under which Ridley and Tony develop their own projects. I suspect that having free reign over an entire production slate will bring out their more pragmatic qualities. If nothing else, I’m a damned sight more excited to see a studio run by filmmakers than I am one run by spineless corporate jellyfish or assorted other raiders, plunderers and greenmailers.
In fact – if they want to run it – they should put their own money up. That way no more investors run away from hollywood with their tale between their legs for rich hollywood using their money on a fail investment – cough – Jada Pinkett Smith – cough – The Human Contract – cough.