Sony buyout silences MGM's lion

By Neil Smith
BBC News entertainment reporter

It is all change in Hollywood as Metro Goldwyn Mayer releases its remake of The Amityville Horror, its first film as part of the Sony corporation.

Gone with the Wind was one of MGM's biggest ever successes

MGM used to boast that it had "more stars than there are in the heavens".

But most of those stars are gone now and - with the completion of Sony's $5bn (£2.6bn) takeover - so has its status as the last major independent in Hollywood.

MGM will continue to release films already in production, such as Steve Martin's upcoming remake of The Pink Panther, and produce TV shows such as sci-fi hit Stargate SG-1.

But future projects will be co-produced and distributed by Sony, who also take control of the company's vast library of over 4,000 films.

And though Leo the Lion will continue to roar, we will see much less of MGM's famous trademark and its motto, "Ars Gratia Artis" (Art for Art's Sake).

Timeless

It is a far cry from the studio's grand opening in 1924, where guests included Wild West showman Will Rogers and US president Calvin Coolidge.

The studio was also home to Tom and Jerry's animated adventures

The merger between Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B Mayer's production company created the most powerful studio in Hollywood, releasing one film a week in its heyday.

It was MGM that produced the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan adventures, the Marx Brothers' comedies, the Thin Man mysteries and Tom and Jerry's cartoon capers.

It was also the studio that gave us The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and such timeless Technicolor musicals as Singin' in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

But the rise of television took its toll, and isolated hits like 1959's Ben-Hur and 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey were not enough to save it from a corporate buyout.

Tempting

That came in 1969 when Nevada millionaire Kirk Kerkorian purchased the company and proceeded to sell off many of its assets, including 38 acres of backlot and massive amounts of historical memorabilia.

Media mogul Ted Turner bought the studio's catalogue of pre-1948 films for his TCM network, while the studio lot was sold to TV company Lorimar, producer of Dallas.

2001: A Space Odyssey briefly revived the studio's fortunes

In a foretaste of what was to come, the lot eventually became home to Columbia Tristar pictures - itself a division of Sony.

MGM's library, which includes the James Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky films, remained a tempting proposition, and Time Warner tried to buy the company in 2004.

But when negotiations stalled, the road was clear for Sony to step in with a $2.9bn (£1.5bn) cash offer.

The corporation will also assume the studio's debts of around $1.9bn (£1bn).

Its purchase leaves DreamWorks - founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994 - as the only studio in Hollywood without a parent company.