There’s no news for fans of the long-running Stargate television series yet, but production studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has just taken a big step forward. The studio, which emerged from bankruptcy at the end of 2010 (story), has just completed a deal to secure $500 million in new financing.
Some of the money will be used to pay off the studio’s remaining debts, but most will go toward the production of new film and television projects. MGM is already in production on a number of high-profile projects co-produced with other studios, including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (with Warner Bros.) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (with Paramount Pictures).
Production on the next James Bond movie, Skyfall, is also underway, as are remakes of RoboCop, Carrie, and Poltergeist.
At least one new television series, Vikings, is also in the works (story). MGM also produces Teen Wolf for MTV, which will air its second season this summer.
Co-CEOs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum managed to pay off a $325 million term loan in just one year, rather than the five years planned for. The pair told Deadline they plan to grow the studio from this point forward, and the new line of bank credit gives them the cash to do so.
“Not only have we paid off the debt but we have a significant amount of cash on the balance sheet and we now have a full untapped revolving credit facility,” the CEOs said. “The company is now completely unlevered with the ability to explore any opportunities. We have the currency to acquire assets to grow MGM. When we came into the company there were not a lot of project in developments. We started from scratch, and now we have a very interesting slate of pictures. Obviously Bond and The Hobbit led us into this new era. Now that we’ve got more buying power, people may come to us first so we won’t be left at the bottom of the barrel.”
Check out Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter for more on the story, and stick with GateWorld for any future Stargate-related news!
Aw, I really want the SGA movie. Maybe someone at MGM will think to dust off the idea one of these days.
This is encouraging. Perhaps someone from here can “come to us (them)” and propose a re-invigoration of the Stargate franchise. Volunteers?
Well, we still have a little over two years until the Destiny completes the FTL journey between galaxies, so…
A campaign to get Stargate on their minds isn’t a bad idea. but with the cast and crew spread out it will take time.
‘now’ we might be getting somewhere!!
Im not getting my hopes up, some stargate movies would be nice ;). But it’s mgm, so im not counting on them to do anything.
Now is the time to remind them of us.
As an unemployed studio electronic tech in Los Angeles I am very happy to hear this. Things have been slow. I would like nothing more than to catch a job at the studio which makes Stargate. Maybe they shoot it at Bridge, probably, or maybe in LA. Just as long as they start hiring soonest! I do work in lighting, thus the name.
I’ll bet they’re waiting for a milestone anniversary to announce something. I would personally like to see: an SGA movie that gets Atlantis back to Pegasus, an SG-1 movie that reveals the Stargate to the public finally, an SGU movie that concludes the series run and would maybe end on a cliffhanger that would lead to: a combo movie with ALL characters that would finally put the SG-1/SGA/SGU era to a rest and maybe pave the way for a new series (with a different creative team)? I’m sure most of the actors involved in all three shows would be happy… Read more »
And STILL people think the SGA and SG1 movies could happen. Its absurd!
@Browncoat1984, a movie combining the stars for all three series would be horrible, the three series are seperate and should be kept that way. But, hopefully there is some more Atlantis, and possibly SGU, as Atlantis was left with the a horrible ending, and after 5 seasons you expect a little more.
New Stargate will probably come out at the same time as those Farscape webisodes that they promised us five years ago.
Maybe there’s hope…
The most I’d expect from this is a movie, whether it be SGU or SGA I don’t know. I’d love if that meant SGU could be picked up again next year, but that’s unlikely in the extreme. It really is a pity this didn’t happen last year, as SGU was shaping up to be right up there with some of the best of SG-1.
I don’t think the SGA and SG-1 movies have a cat in hell’s chance of getting made. Too much time has passed, actors are doing other projects and the sets have all been destroyed, add to this the fact that the direct to DVD market is still pretty shoddy, I doubt that makes any SG-1/SGA film a no-brainer financially.
I’ll hope for an SGU TV movie or another series, but I doubt either of those will come for several years, if ever.
MGM is just funneling all that money into Skyline (new 007 movie) because Skyline’s box office returns will be ten times that of both the SG1 movies combined. Its a business decision, Stargate is dead and not coming back anytime soon.
I don’t like being a Doubting Thomas, but after all this time, (and the fact the actors have had to move on to other projects) I can see them going down the same road as James Bond, Batman and Star Trek. – Complete concept reboot, setting the gates discovery in the “present”.
Bond and The Hobbit are solid franchises that have made money on the big screen. If and when Stargate returns, it will need to be able to carry that level of promise. Now is not that time I am afraid.
I’m amazed that people still think the canceled movies are going to come out. I’d love for it to happen–but it’s not going to. Move on, folks. Stargate is done.
@rsanchez1
Technically it was 2010 when Destiny went into FTL so closer to one year.
Make it happen MGM. (Though there’s the obvious concern with RC’s availability).
MGM sucks for not doing a Stargate movie before now, but I think, they’re making one. It’s better to spend money on a sure thing, than waste twenty million on something that you’d need to spend another ten to advertise. But if they’re making a movie, it’d had better cost no more than twelve million, be in 3D, and deal with the Ancients, the Asurans, alternate universe, the return of the Ori, and Ba’al being manipulated by Anubis. Space battles, lots and lots of space battles.
I Have just got done reading your comments on the star-gate universe. i wanted to know why they cant finish the seasons off to get them back to earth….Are they going to be bringing it back out to finish the saga in the near future.
I would like them to entertain the idea of trying Stargate out on a tight budget.
I thought they had secured this months ago? Either way, I wouldn’t expect any new Stargate any time soon. Spyglass are apparently not interested in the franchise.
This was great news. As i make my way through season 8 (lil ahead of the rewatch) I keep wishing and thinking of “new” Stargate, and now it looks not so glim. Doent look hopeful… But doesnt look impossible either. Only the future can tell. But Im keeping my fingers crossed for new Stargate, Boy wont that be the day!!! Id even watch it on Cable TV (instead of the net) just to help its ratings!!!
i don’t think it’s too late to do anything stargate tv franchise related, but it should be done very soon or it will be! not a reboot, but just do one final movie/mini series to tie up the current tv franchise. if i were mgm, though, i’d do the most with sga and sg1, with a much smaller amount of sgu. (just enough to tie up the sgu storyline, but not have it the main story.) even though sgu was the series with the biggest cliffhanger, it’s also the one that hurt the franchise’s reputation. stick with what’s popular and… Read more »
I don’t believe that some people still entertain the idea of sg1 and sga movies.It ain’t happening,deal with it already.Dvd market is pretty much dead,so to do smthn like that stargate tv franchise would need to have feature potential and the fact is,it simply doesn’t now.And as time goes by it’ll have even less..if that’s even possible.The actors are too old and frankly aren’t of the caliber for that.(not that they’re bad) Anything that has any chance whatsoever is some low budget sgu tv movie to finish the story,but even that is highly unlikely. MGM has been perfectly clear about… Read more »
I like to think that stargate will come back and come back big. A big screen movie would be my preferred choice. I know it’s highly unlikely to ever happen but there are times when I watch episodes like The Lost City and think “I’d love to see this in the cinema”. It worked for Star Trek back in 1979. 10 years after the cancelation of the original series, it sparked a long running series of films. Admittedly they ranged from good (Wrath of Khan) to pretty poor (The final Frontier). The 3 things that really need to be addressed… Read more »
Theres an article on AirlockAlpha (i think it was that site) that had a brief quote from one of the SGU writers blogs that said they chose 3 years for the FTL jump for this exact reason. Hobbit, Bond and another big budget movie (possibly StarWars?) would be in theaters and MGM would have some more cash. The writers didn’t say that they expected any of the cash to go to SGU, but it would give them the opportunity to do so. I just checked on AlphaAirlock and couldn’t find the article – I didn’t look too hard. But where… Read more »
First of all,I’m glad to see MGM back on it’s feet. I can’t understand why everybody feels the need to rehash old movies with remakes. Surely the creative gene has not gone the way of the Dinosaur. I believe MGM owes it to the Stargate world to make at least one final epic movie that involves the Stargate going public. Imagine the Corporate world, The SGC & the combined Military forces of the planet in an all out Sci-Fi epic. You could even have the Destiny rock up at the end to save the day. To be honest, I doubt… Read more »
“I’m not too crazy about this ‘don’t call us we’ll call you’ policy
SG fans (who often use the revival of Trek as a sliver of hope for Spyglass/MGM to do the same for Stargate) usually forget that it was a very large swell of interest from Trek fans, certain media institutions/events, and behind-the-scenes creators/stars that got Paramount to take the risk in the late 70’s to revive Star Trek. And to a much smaller scale, Trek was re-revived in 2009, via that same formula… Sadly, I haven’t seen such a move or movement towards a SG revival/restart, to my knowledge. I think it would take a huge fan and media uproar, along… Read more »
I am positive that someone at MGM is thinking about Stargate now that they have money. I doubt they will do any sort of continuation of the TV shows.
What i would expect would be a movie reboot in the vain of what they did with Star Trek.
well we should all have our fingers crossed for a sga movie >:D but being realistic, i doubt it will happen. :(
sg1/atlantis/sgu aren’t *that* old as to be out of date, especially for the actors and fans.
@mulderc- “I am positive that someone at MGM is thinking about Stargate now that they have money. I doubt they will do any sort of continuation of the TV shows.” That would be really, REALLY sad… but I get the feeling you are right. @majorsal- “sg1/atlantis/sgu aren’t *that* old as to be out of date, especially for the actors and fans.” No, they’re not ‘out of date’; but as I said, I think SG needs some major acting names like Carlyle or Na, along with a super push from a well-known (respected?) runner, to even convince Spyglass/MGM to advance the… Read more »
No Stargate yet ?? Gee why are we not surprised.. How about some GOOD Stargate news GW ?? When was the last time you’ve posted some GOOD Stargate news .. For example.. The Grammy Awards on 2/12/12 just used TWO count em TWO ACTUAL Stargates with ancient symbols and everything at the Grammy Awards! SG fans would look at that as good news, but they have to find that out at Save Future Stargate Travel… A group of good folks working around the clock to reopen the gate .. Just sayin’ .. Isn’t it about time for some GOOD Stargate… Read more »
As great as this news is I highly doubt they will do anything with any of the past Stargate series. SG-1 is too old, SGA has been too long and the stars have moved on and they dismantled the set of SGU so that is pretty hopeless as well.
If anything they may start a new series of Stargate to appease the fans at best.
Here’s an idea. Why not have future episodes searche for the original stargates. Call it: Stargate: UniOri In the first of these episodes Daniel Jackson undergoes an archealogical expedition where he uncovers evidence of a mysterious long gone race far older than the Ancients. Futhermore (through several episodes) he eventually uncovers evidence that indicates the Ancients from 50 million years ago often worshipped a far older race. It was this old race, not the Ancients, who were the true original Stargate builders. An important reference he discovers from some Ancient text is what he theorizes to be a gate address… Read more »
Why not make a final SGA movie that ties up all the lose ends. With the wraith and everything back in the Pegasus Galaxy. And then make a new series of Stargate with a new SG team. I love SGA and won’t give up hope for one last movie.
And i think Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Jason Momoa, Ratchel Lutrell, Paul Mcgillion, Jewel Staite and the rest of the crew will agree to make one final SGA movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUPckmFAzI Go to 9:30 and listen what he says.
Cancel Teen Wolf, cancel Vikings, rehire Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper, grrenlight the SGA movie, and finsh Stargate Universe properly!!!
@Acet916 – If watching the episodes on the web doesn’t count on the ratings then why watch it on the web!!! Every year the ratings go down… some are genuinley not watching… and if its because some are going to the web to watch it then its your own faults that the Stargate francise is dying!!!!!!! You always hear of t.v. programs going off air because the ratings arn’t good enough!!! I really do hope that the Stargate francise comes back!! And all of those that have commented saying its “dead” “its not coming back” go to hell we dont… Read more »
Maybe MGM can make more money on these movies and series they are making and maybe do a new series of stargate witha new SG-team. But most of all i want them to do a SGA movie or perhaps a mini serie so we get a proper ending of the great stargate serie.
That’s positive news. I’d love to see a new stargate tv series more than another film. Drag it out a bit more! Who knows… one season could lead to two! They can’t let the franchise die!
While they’re at it, maybe they can pick up Legend of the Seeker. I don’t know why another network hasn’t picked up this amazing show. That, along with a new Stargate series, would be the perfect way to ensure sci-fi fans are truly happy.
@ medegno51
How can you compare a franchise that’s lasted for 17 seasons with a failed show that lasted only 3 seasons. Thing is, it makes sense to bring back Stargate. It didn’t make sense to bring back Star Trek back then.
i am glad MGM is getting back on their feet financially .i want the stargate series to continue on too . a fan above said it would be 2 years before Destiny reaches the next Galaxy .by then the current vampire and horrow shows will have run their course . for stargate to return we need a executive at the top to want the show back and who is willing to “make it so ” as Picard said on ST/NG . then we will see a re-birth of the Stagate series . SGU would have worked if the show had… Read more »
@Evilslayer
‘Twould seem that history did not agree with you.
Different fan base, different media scales, different era…
Still, I agree with you that SG should be brought back in some way or the other. But based on current news, I simply can’t envision a scenario where such a wish would be granted.
Does anyone actually really think that Stargate is even on the radar right now? What brought back Star Trek? Huge response among the fanbase. What made the Farscape mini possible? A huge response among the fanbase. What has the Stargate fanbase done? Pretty much nothing, at least that I’ve heard of. Too many of the fans that gave the fanbase strength jumped ship when SGU came around. There has been lots of whining about it, but no real action. And right now, it wouldn’t matter if there was action. The timing would just be bad to try to make it… Read more »
medegno51 and mythos , the events surrounding Star Trek and its 12 year wait for fans I lived through . both of you seem to have only read versions of history written by critics who hated the show . the 3rd year of star trek was not very good and the ratings eventually killed the show. SGU followed on the heels of atlantis and sg-1 . i never said the original characters would be available for or want to be in any sequel . i just stated what happened , robert cooper developed a soap opera series with people starnded… Read more »