WARLORD CHRONICLES TV series to air in August

The Winter King, the TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's acclaimed Warlord Chronicles trilogy, will start airing on August 20th this year.

The show was only commissioned last September and was put into rapid turn-around, with Bad Wolf Productions (A Discovery of Witches, His Dark Materials, Doctor Who) prioritising the project which they'd been developing since 2015.

The novels take the form of a historically-inspired take on the legend of Arthur, with armour, weapons and military tactics based on real 5th/6th century sources. The books are narrated by Derfel Cadarn, a relatively junior member of the Knights of the Round Table. In the novels, Arthur is not a king but a warlord, a mercenary commander who is chosen to act as regent for the true heir to the throne, Prince Mordred. Britain at this time is a seething morass of competing religious, political and cultural influences, divided between the Roman occupiers whose time is fading, the native Britons and the invading Saxons. Arthur has the unenviable task of forging these forces into a coalition to ensure peace in the islands, aided by Merlin, in this version of the story a lecherous high priest.

The series stars Eddie Marsan (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell) as King Uther, Iain de Caestecker (Agents of SHIELD) as Arthur, Ellie James (I May Destroy You) as Nimue, Nathaniel Martello-White (I Hate Suzie) as Merlin, Stuart Campbell (Rogue Heroes) as Derfel, Daniel Ings (The Crown) as Owain, Valene Kane (Gangs of London) as Morgan, Jordan Alexandra (Mammals) as Guinevere and Simon Merrells (Knightfall) as Gundleus.

The series is produced by Bad Wolf and parent company Sony Television, and will air on MGM+ in the United States and ITVX in the United Kingdom.

Amazon targeting MGM acquisition, could acquire rights to THE HOBBIT, FARGO and ROCKY

Amazon are making a play to buy the MGM studio for $9 billion. MGM famously holds the rights to various movie and television properties including J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the Rocky movie franchise (including the recent Creed series of spin-offs), the Stargate multimedia franchise and the Handmaid's Tale television series. MGM also holds distribution rights related to the James Bond franchise.

The entertainment sector in Hollywood has seen massive consolidation in recent years, with Fox being gobbled up by Disney, Universal being bought out by Comcast and ViacomCBS re-acquiring Paramount. Reports are also circulating of a merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia.

MGM have had a long run of problematic finances, with the studio facing bankruptcy several times in the last two decades, despite the success of some its franchises. Despite righting the ship (somewhat), the studio has again been threatened by financial troubles due to the COVID19 pandemic, with the release date of the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, repeatedly slipping as the studio attempted to find a way of getting the film out into the marketplace. The studio has repeatedly rejected offers by streamers such as Netflix to put the film out on-demand.

MGM also owns rights to The Hobbit, although the rights to The Lord of the Rings remain with Warner Brothers and their subsidiary New Line. Warner Brothers have leased certain rights to Amazon (alongside the Tolkien Estate) to work on a new Lord of the Rings prequel TV series about the Second Age, currently shooting in New Zealand with a view to air in 2022. This splitting of rights meant that Warner Brothers had to join forces with MGM to produce the three movies of The Hobbit Trilogy in 2012-14, a fraught and complex process which has been partially blamed for the mixed reception to that trilogy.

MGM's television arm has had great success in recent years with The Handmaid's Tale for Hulu and Fargo for FX.

Amazon acquiring MGM would give Amazon a large-scale television and film production facility and structure that would enhance its own capabilities. It would also give Amazon rights to numerous properties it doesn't own at the moment, potentially allowing future entries in those series to be released exclusively on Amazon's Prime Television platform. It would also unite all of the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium under one banner for TV and film, which would be useful if Amazon were to pursue a plan to remake The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings at some future date.

MGM is the long-term distribution partner of Eon Films in making the James Bond franchise, but crucially does not outright own the franchise or character; Eon would be free to join forces with other studios in financing and releasing the films. Eon are unlikely to tolerate the mainline James Bond films being made streaming-only in the near future, suggesting they might seek another release venue for the series. However, the existing films might become exclusive to the Amazon streaming platform once their existing release agreements expire.

Amazon are expanding their own development and production schedule with numerous franchises and shows, as well as looking at tying in their TV and film slate with their video game service Twitch. MGM's library will make an attractive addition to the Amazon stable. It remains to be seen if the deal will go ahead.

MGM options J. Michael Straczynski's RISING STARS

MGM has optioned Rising Stars, a comic book series created by Babylon 5 creator and Sense8 writer J. Michael Straczynski.

The comic book originally ran from 1999 to 2005 (although only 24 issues were published due to huge delays between issues, resulting from difficulties between the publishers and Straczynski). It charts what happens when a meteor explodes over an American town, somehow imbuing 113 children in utero at the time with special powers. They grow up to become the "Specials", monitored by the US government. Years later, someone starts murdering Specials, resulting in their powers being redistributed amongst the other Specials and making them all more powerful. This poses a problem when some of the Specials want nothing at all to do with their abilities.

Straczynski himself with write the script, with a director to be announced.