Bye-bye, MGM and UA -- So Very Sad .........

[BJ_M]

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- It's very sad. MGM is gone. So is United Artists.



The deal, expected to close on Friday, for a consortium of companies (including Sony Corp.) to purchase the MGM assets for some $4.8 billion reminds us that in today's entertainment universe, it's all about selling DVDs.

Ted Turner was right: It's the library, stupid. All 4,000 titles.

Truth is, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer -- the once-star-studded Tiffany studio that produced "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" in 1939, and its United Artists studio, the great lotless indie founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith -- were long ago reduced to financial transactions. They had been dying little deaths for years.

So much history. So much talent.

We all have our fave MGM moments: Elizabeth Taylor racing her Pie in "National Velvet," Charlton Heston racing his chariot in "Ben-Hur," Judy Garland singing the trolley song in "Meet Me in St. Louis," Omar Sharif kissing Julie Christie in "Dr. Zhivago," the space shuttle twirling in "2001: A Space Odyssey," or Peter Finch exhorting New Yorkers to open their windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

MGM produced "Network" during the hard-luck '70s after billionaire Kirk Kerkorian had squeezed its assets to buy a series of hotels, slap them with the MGM brand and then sell them again.

He had shrunk MGM into a small production company whose pictures were released by the powerful United Artists.

Remember UA? Back then you could walk the halls at 729 Seventh Ave. in Manhattan and see posters for Billy Wilder's "The Apartment," Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Woody Allen's "Annie Hall," Hal Ashby's "Coming Home," Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" and Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky."

These were once mighty studios, packed with talented executives who knew how to nurture talent and release a full slate of movies every year, some of them bound for Oscar glory.

It takes years to grow a global production and distribution machine, which then thrives on forward momentum: Hits yield more hits; Oscars attract more Oscar-hungry stars and directors.

But it doesn't take much to bring these monoliths down. MGM's slide began when Kerkorian outbid Edgar Bronfman for the studio in 1969, cannily recognizing the value of the MGM brand.

Over the years, the library was packaged and repackaged, sold and resold. In the mid-'80s, Turner shrewdly bought MGM, then almost as quickly sold it, keeping MGM's pre-'86 library for himself, using it as a building block for Turner Network Television. (Turner Network Television, and the entire Turner Broadcasting holdings, are now part of Time Warner, parent company of CNN.)

Over the years, the famed Leo the Lion MGM logo was plastered on hotels, airplanes and an ill-fated Las Vegas theme park.

At UA, troubles began when longtime chairman Arthur Krim and president Eric Pleskow sold their studio to Transamerica in 1979 after an unprecedented four-year run at both the box office and the Oscars.

The matchup was disastrous: soon Krim and Pleskow moved on to found Orion Pictures. After hapless Transamerica insurance executive Andy Albeck took over UA, he supervised the megaflop "Heaven's Gate," and it was downhill from there."

In 1981, Kerkorian grabbed the struggling UA for a song and merged it with MGM; nine years later, he sold the MGM/UA combined for $1.4 billion to shady Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, who eventually wound up in jail.

In 1996, Kerkorian reacquired the studio for $1.3 billion and brought in business executives Alex Yemenidjian and Chris McGurk to build the value of his MGM and UA assets. This they did.

Their cinematic legacy includes the execrable remakes of "Rollerball" and "The Mod Squad" but also the hits "Barbershop," "Legally Blonde" and the Bond films "The World Is Not Enough" and "Die Another Day."

As Kerkorian finally closes his latest deal to sell MGM Inc. to the Sony consortium -- including Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Banking Partners -- for almost $5 billion, he will make billions; Yemenidjian and McGurk make millions.

Nobody knows quite what will become of MGM and UA. About 250 out of 1,400 employees will stay on, mostly at the home video company, while the rest cash their severance checks, switch to their home e-mail addresses and join their Miramax brethren sending out resumes.

The CD press kit for the upcoming "Amityville Horror" remake, complete with MGM mailing label, is starting to feel like a collector's item.

Sony will divvy up the outstanding MGM and UA titles for release through its divisions including Columbia, TriStar, Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics. If MGM continues to co-produce films with Sony, it's mainly to keep the library refreshed, insiders say.

The MGM and UA labels will still show up on surviving franchises like "The Pink Panther," whose latest incarnation starring Steve Martin arrives in September. (The "Pink Panther," James Bond and "Rocky" franchises originated at UA.)

But after 20 films and New Line's smash "Austin Powers" spoofs, it's hard to see much life left in creaky old James Bond, even if sexy, broken-nosed Brit Daniel Craig ("Enduring Love"), the press-anointed candidate of the moment, does don the famous tuxedo for Martin Campbell's "Casino Royale."

New Sony corporate chief Sir Howard Stringer originally wanted to acquire the MGM/UA library outright but was forced by his Sony bosses to seek partners.

Now that he heads the company, Stringer might eventually want to buy out the consortium to gain control over MGM/UA, which he could then spin off into a separate public company. MGM and UA already have had many lives.

Sir Howard could even decide to do the right thing. He could remove the Sony logo from atop the studio on West Washington Boulevard that many Hollywood insiders still consider the MGM lot -- with its Cary Grant Theater and Irving Thalberg, Katharine Hepburn, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland buildings -- and let the MGM logo fly high again.

There's no place like home.

[NightWing]

They are redoing Casino Royale?

Most of the great hollywood studios have actualy been dead for decades. Others are one trick ponies. Paramount with Star Trek { Dying baddly to mis management and over exposure } and 20Century with StarWars { Some what the same }. And I wont get into Disney and that mess!

[Cole]

Truth is, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer -- the once-star-studded Tiffany studio that produced "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" in 1939, and its United Artists studio, the great lotless indie founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith -- were long ago reduced to financial transactions. They had been dying little deaths for years.

So much history. So much talent.

Empires rise and empires fall.

Look at the British film industry. Flourished in the 50s and 60s, dried up in the 80s and became literally non-existant in the early to mid 90s. But an empire rises again: seems to be doing very well at the moment. Just not the classic studios of old.

Having said that, I nearly fell off my cinema seat when I saw the Ealing Studios logo at the beginning of Valiant.
Was that for real or was it used as a spoof for the war-time story?

[AlecWest]

Most of the great hollywood studios have actualy been dead for decades.

Maybe not "dead" ... but there have certainly been enough misfires. Oscar nods to a lot of "indy studios" attest to that. In any case, I'm not really convinced that this buyout is necessarily a bad thing. I suspect that some of the key players in these studios will still be around after the dust settles ... and the "brands" will probably still be around. Sometimes, it's good to separate the wheat from the chaff and just move on. If the people with real talent in moviemaking are retained ... or the new scenario attracts talented young minds to the business ... this could end up being a renaissance of sorts, breathing new life into the old industry.

[musher70]

What evr happenned to Cannon Group???

they made dozens of great actions flicks in 80's
some were releasesd by MGM

[NightWing]

Some what off topic but I think the days of mega studios are fast drawing to a close. Look at what it cost and must make to break even.

Been looking at some of the micro independent productions. Mostly Star Treck, StarWars etc.

Quality and some of the stories are quite good. About at the same level as a early 1930 movies. But done on micro budgets or even totaly on a computer.

The way cheep computer horsepower both in editing and even in generation of CGI stuff is improving quickly.

Hollywood has been shreded enough that mergers are just recombining the stew. Just who owns what this week.

[AlecWest]

What evr happenned to Cannon Group???

they made dozens of great actions flicks in 80's
some were releasesd by MGM

Golan/Globus sold Cannon Group in 1987 to an Itallian guy named Paretti who, at the time, was attempting to buy MGM/UA, which released many of the Cannon titles. He renamed Cannon Group to Pathé Communications. When his MGM/UA buyout attempt went sour, Paretti's holdings went into receivership. His major creditor, Credit Lyonnais, sold those holdings to Kirk Kerkorian and Australia's Seven Network ... who retained Paretti into their consortium partnership. Then Kerkorian, Paretti, and Seven bought MGM/UA in 1998. Paretti couldn't keep up with his payments so his share went to the consortium. Then Seven sold its stake to Kerkorian. And now, Sony comes into the picture.

I imagine that, along the way, some people involved in all these switcheroos are still around, still doing the same things for the same people, just getting their paychecks signed by a different person (grin). Others have moved on to greener pastures.

[RottenFoxBreath]

[/quote]

Having said that, I nearly fell off my cinema seat when I saw the Ealing Studios logo at the beginning of Valiant.
Was that for real or was it used as a spoof for the war-time story?[/quote]

nope,i believe there still going.

[lordsmurf]

What evr happenned to Cannon Group???

they made dozens of great actions flicks in 80's
some were releasesd by MGM

Cannon basically imploded and it's properties went to whoever wanted them. In a few cases, some banks ended up with some of them. Some are "lost" and everybody argues over true ownership. Fun, huh?

It was run by either Russians or Arabs, or somebody outside USA/Europe. I forget who. They were idiots, if you ever hear interviews from people that produced films with them. Even if the studio were in the USA.

Find a Carl Macek interview and listen to him rant about Cannon. Hilarious.

[ntscuser]

If the Canon titles are 'lost', no one is producing them or has plans to produce them in the near future, I say they are 'public domain'.

[ebenton]

I guess that means we'll be seeing even more DVD movies with the new Sony copy protection that everybody who doesn't search this forum first posts about...."I can't back up Resident Evil II" etc. etc.

[BJ_M]

If the Canon titles are 'lost', no one is producing them or has plans to produce them in the near future, I say they are 'public domain'.

they are not

[AlecWest]

Click Here to see the 161 titles associated with the Cannon Group. I see one title with a 1994 release date so even the name survived the 1987 sale by Golan/Globus. I think it's obvious that someone owns rights to these films. But, a large number of them were "impulse" films meant to glom off the success of other films released at the same time ... and considered poorly made in comparison with them. In short, ownership and rights are still intact ... but possibly not the motivation to release them since the "impulse" moment has passed in the marketplace. Depends on the film. The "American Ninja" films made it to DVD. Some films like "The Barbarian" only made it to VHS. Others like "The Gas Pump Girls" didn't make it to home video at all.

[NightWing]

Ownership can be over the whole work or bits and pices.

There was a John Wayne picture that they forgot to renew the music rights and some one else got it. That is how Goodtime { cough and groan goes here... } bought the music rights and by that some strange way was abble to distribuit the picture. Was a big fight a while back. Think it was either Hondo or Mc Clintlock.

[BJ_M]

Those titles are ones they were the distributor for - not produced ... completely different than a production company ...

these are the titles they produced:

http://imdb.com/List?production-companies=Cannon%20Films%20%5Bus%5D&&tv=on&&heading=18...lms%20%5Bus%5D

[BJ_M]

also- date's a film is released, is sometimes many years after it is filmed...

[AlecWest]

also- date's a film is released, is sometimes many years after it is filmed...

Excellent points in your last two posts. Incidentally, to see what was going on during Cannon's final days as a movie "production" company, take a look at the trivia page on "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0094074/trivia

[NightWing]

If you think that was "fun" how about RKO last film? "From the Earth to the Moon". Started out big budget by the end its budget was microscopic! Even borrowed sounds from another "Forbidden" movie.

[BJ_M]

well anyway -- cannon is back in business (they say) - sort of (golan is back - not his cousin Yoram Globus)

http://www.newcannoninc.com/mgolan.htm

their website seems dead and looks like shit though

http://www.newcannoninc.com

[BJ_M]

http://us.imdb.com/List?production-companies=New%20Cannon%20Inc.%20%5Bus%5D&&tv=on&&he...nc.%20%5Bus%5D

[deadskullz]

We live in a world thats always changing so rapidly there will be newer and better companys i'm sure. Just like star's in the sky dim and then new one's are born. Our world is not at a standstill it will always change and grow just like the universe these company's will be missed.

[BJ_M]

yea - but a star lasts 10 billion years before it blows up

and 70% of the stars are not owned by one company (i hope, well maybe they are)

[Krispy Kritter]

Actually, this could be a good thing. Their movie library will now be in the hands of someone that could actually produce quality dvd's.