Does Amazon even know what it’s buying with the MGM acquisition?
0Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/22567113/amazon-mgm-deal-chaos-reigns
Reported today in The Verge.
Does Amazon even know what it's buying with the MGM acquisition?
When Amazon announced its plans to acquire MGM in May, the primary focus of discussion was what Amazon planned to do with the studio's intellectual property. Spin-offs and reboots were one possibility cited by the company at the time. Who, it's now worth wondering, will shepherd Amazon's creative vision for the legacy movie-maker?
A new profile published this week in the New York Times on the creative brain trust behind the MGM brand offers a few clues about how the acquisition may look moving forward. Namely, it profiled Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, two of MGM's top brass who have tasked themselves with reinvigorating the MGM brand. Key to their strategy, as De Luca described it to the Times, is "treating the filmmakers like the franchise." Both seem to value high-caliber theatrical releases over the straight-to-streaming content churn.
But their approach to pumping blood back into MGM's decaying legacy seems to counter Amazon's own vision for the studio. Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said in a statement at the time the acquisition was announced that the "financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM's talented team. It's very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling."
MGM's library may offer some potential for franchise spinoffs, sure - primarily with future Bond films and potentially IP like Legally Blonde, and Rocky. (Though it's worth noting that MGM does not outright own the Bond IP, which may or may not have eluded Amazon executives hoping to wring the franchise dry.) Yet its strength has always seemed t