Production on ‘James Bond 23’ To Be Suspended Indefinitely

MGM is one of those staple studios that has been around since the beginning. To this day, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is one of the oldest studios that is still producing films, but sadly it looks like that won’t be for very long. The studio has been hemorrhaging money for some time, and when put up for sale, it hasn’t gotten large enough bids from other studios to consider a deal.

At this point, MGM obtained to sole distribution rights to one major franchise in James Bond. They teamed up with Sony to produce and distribute Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but that didn’t seem enough to keep the studio afloat long enough to produce the next film.

In a recent press release from EON Productions Ltd., a production company who has worked with the franchise since Dr. No back in 1962, they seem to think this is the end of production for Bond 23.

“Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on ‘Bond 23’ indefinitely,” the duo said. “We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release.”

Granted, this could all change in a matter of months, given a willing buyer steps in to breath new life into MGM. While that’s quite possible, experts say it isn’t nearly as probable.

Since the film has yet to go into principal photography, members of a cast weren’t affected by the suspension, but writers Peter Morgan, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade were on a retainer to develop the script. Also, negotiations were ongoing for Sam Mendes (American Beauty) to direct the film, which will now obviously not happen.

No word on how this could effect any other MGM-produced films in the works such as Joss Whedon’s Cabin In The Woods or The Hobbit, but things are looking quite bleak for the studio and it’s future endeavors.