The Hobbit Movie Forum

[Beren]

perhaps the U.S. government should give MGM a bailout ...

but seriously, I think that Bond and Hobbit are so highly anticipated that a lot of studios will be grabbing at them once they become available. The real question is: who do you think will end up with Hobbit? Fox? Disney? (that would be a nightmare)

[Eldorion]

I wouldn't be surprised if Warner Bros. tries to buy the distribution rights so that they can consolidate them and avoid having to share profits with another studio. MGM might want to put them on the open market to go to the highest bidder though.

[Gandalfs Beard]

Erm...I must have missed the memo about MGM being the distributor . I thought WB acquired New Line, and I thought that meant they would be distributing . Anyone care to set me straight ?

GB

[Durin]

Disney? (that would be a nightmare)

Hmm, I know what you're thinking about Disney taking hold of it being a nightmare, and I would admit it has a huge chance for it to be a disaster if it does. But on the other hand, Disney pulled out Pirates of the Caribbean, a huge hit that wasn't necessarily for children either. So Disney taking hold of it wouldn't be a... total nightmare, but it leaves some room for it. .

[Gandalfs Beard]

Disney's biggest problem is Lack of Commitment . When Prince Caspian "only" made $450 million globally (one of the top 5 biggest grossing films that year), they dropped it like a hot potato . Also, they have a bad habit of plastering their brand-name all over products that they are merely distributing, giving the uninformed the impression that the product is Cheez-Whiz.

Having said that, their first tier films are often Good to Excellent. It's mainly their second tier films that are blander than Velveeta Slices .

GB

[Beren]

and I just don't like how Disney does business. There are many rumors out there about how much involvement Disney has in its films, but of course they have to have some say, since they're putting up the money. Ideally, the company would just loan the money, claim a profit, and be done with it. But that's not reality.
Disney is notorious for, as GB said, not committing (or backing out) of stuff. Plus, there were other reasons they dropped PC. There were disputes about VDT and how it was going to be handled between Disney and Walden. Walden is very faithful to Lewis and wishes to make a faithful adaptation. Disney wanted to make ANY change necessary to make VDT do better than PC. Walden didn't like how much Disney was messing with the affair of actually making the film, so Walden walked away. And Disney said fine, we don't want you anyways.

But I'm not against Disney just because of PC and VDT. Just their ethics seem to have gone down the drain, and their productions are no longer quality productions (with a few exceptions, like Pirates).

[Eldorion]

GB - for some reason the rights for The Hobbit got split up. MGM (through United Artists) holds distribution rights to it, while Saul Zaentz has production rights (and is letting Warner Bros. make the films). Wikipedia has a fairly good article with references on it.

[Eldorion]

Also, Kristin Thompson has put together a good argument about why this isn't cause to worry:

But that doesn’t mean that the production of The Hobbit is likely to be interrupted, let alone terminated. We don’t know what portion of the filming budget MGM is supposed to put up. It may be considerably less than Warner Bros.’s share. There is almost certainly a clause in the agreement between WB and MGM that dictates what would happen in the event of MGM being unable to pay its portion. It might be obligated to sell the distribution rights to The Hobbit to Warner Bros. Warner might even try to buy the ailing studio at a bargain price. I’ve got to believe that WB has covered all contingencies in relation to such a valuable property. It’s quite possible that WB executives would be quite happy to have MGM out of the way.

[Gandalfs Beard]

Great, makes sense to me. Thanks Eldorion.

GB

[Eldorion]

No problem, GB.