The woes faced by the deeply in debt MGM only seem to be worsening: First Ian McKellen let it be known that he isn’t going to wait around forever to star in The Hobbit, and late last Friday Ain’t It Cool broke the news that all development on a new James Bond film has been completely scrapped. The studio had been planning another Daniel Craig-starring Bond feature with Sam Mendes directing from a script by Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan, only to announce back in April that it would be indefinitely delayed while MGM put itself on the auction block. Now production company EON is reaffirming that it doesn’t know when development will resume. While MGM holds its breath and waits for someone, anyone to agree to step up and try to straighten out its financial quagmire, the future of both projects certainly seems grim. We’re thinking about passing the hat with a PayPal account; who wants to own a piece of a once-great studio? We could all work together to make movie magic, and have weekly pizza parties in the break room.

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