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.

Continuing bad news for STARGATE fans

Following the news of Stargate Universe's cancellation, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi has further bad news for fans of the franchise. He has ruled out a fourth live-action television series at this time, saying it's not even being considered. In addition, the long-gestating Stargate Atlantis TV/DVD movie has been indefinitely shelved.


However, he did hold out a sliver of hope with the news that SyFy have been talking to other networks to see if anyone else is interested in continuing the franchise. Since the series originally began on Showtime and jumped to SyFy, this wouldn't be the first time it's changed networks. It does seem to be a long shot, though.

The remaining ten episodes of Stargate Universe's run will air in early 2011 on SyFy in the USA.

STARGATE UNIVERSE cancelled, future of STARGATE franchise uncertain

SyFy have cancelled Stargate Universe, the third live-action series in their successful Stargate franchise.


Spinning off from the original 1994 Stargate movie, the first series, Stargate SG-1, ran for ten seasons and 214 episodes between 1997 and 2007. A second series, Stargate Atlantis, ran for five seasons and 100 episodes between 2004 and 2009. Stargate Universe's success, in comparison, was limited: two seasons and 40 episodes.

The show launched in 2009 with a blaze of publicity, some of it driven by the unexpected casting of Scottish character actor Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) as Dr. Nicholas Rush as well as an apparent change in direction for the Stargate franchise, taking it in a more 'gritty' direction, possibly inspired by SyFy's other space opera franchise, Battlestar Galactica. Compared to the under-performing Galactica and its spin-off, Caprica, Stargate Universe started strongly, with 2.3 million viewers tuning in to the first episode. However, Season 2 opened with less than half that, at 1.1 million viewers, and two episodes dropped below the 1 million viewer mark. Whilst this was still healthier than Caprica just before it was cancelled, Stargate Universe's budget appears to have been significantly higher than the other show, meaning it was not cost-effective to keep the show on the air.

This means that after Stargate Universe's final episode airs in Spring 2011, for the first time since 1997, there will not be a Stargate TV series on the air. SyFy had plans for a Stargate Atlantis TV and DVD movie to be produced in the near future, but this had been shelved indefinitely. Beyond that, there appears to be no concrete plans for the future of the franchise at this time. Because of this, and given that several already hours have passed since SyFy have announced the news, we will no doubt be shortly hearing that a reboot/remake of the original Stargate movie is on the cards.