MGM Issues Film Lineup

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. formally unveiled plans Wednesday to relaunch the moribund studio as a domestic movie distributor, going public with plans that had been expected for more than a month.

At a press luncheon at MGM’s Century City headquarters, Chief Executive Harry Sloan and Chief Operating Officer Rick Sands took the wraps off the company’s initial slate of a dozen releases this year.

Nearly all are being supplied by producers Harvey Weinstein and, separately, Philippe Martinez, who is launching a Hollywood comeback after having served time in a French prison on a fraud conviction.

Sloan spent the last several months securing multi-picture deals with a handful of producers, but inexplicably didn’t name any. Others are known to include clothing tycoon Sidney Kimmel and Lakeshore Entertainment, headed by “Million Dollar Baby” producer Tom Rosenberg.

“These are significant players and they deserve to have individual announcements of their slates,” Sloan said.

When asked if he was concerned about Martinez’s past, he said, “No. I think we vetted all the relationships we have.”

Martinez was unavailable for comment. His spokesman, Dennis Higgins, said “Mr. Martinez believes the important thing is the quality of films he is making now, rather than things that happened years ago.”

Sloan was named to run MGM last fall after it was sold for $4.9 billion to an investment group that includes Sony Corp. and Comcast Corp. He said relaunching MGM would fill “a very scary hole in our business.”

The number of film distributors narrowed after MGM mothballed its business, and also when DreamWorks SKG was sold to Paramount Pictures.

“It comes at a good time for our industry to have MGM back as a distributor,” said William Morris Agency Chief Executive Jim Wiatt.

Sloan aims to fatten up the company’s historic film library of 4,000 titles with 15 to 20 new releases a year with an eye toward selling the company in the next three or four years. It’s a strategy that served Sloan well over 20 years in the media business. He recently sold Europe’s SBS Broadcasting for $2.6 billion.

“The beginning, middle and end game is to take an asset we paid $5 billion for and make it worth $10 billion,” Sloan said.

Among MGM’s 2006 releases are six from Miramax co-founder Weinstein, including “Lucky Number Slevin,” starring Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis; a sequel to director Kevin Smith’s “Clerks;” and Anthony Minghella’s “Breaking and Entering,” starring Jude Law.

MGM is raising a $150-million fund for prints and advertising Sloan said, although producers such as Weinstein will fund and control their marketing. MGM will collect distribution fees to release the movies theatrically and Sony, which owns 20% of MGM, will receive fees to distribute new MGM titles on DVD and on its Blu-ray format.

Sloan said that with so much independent financing flowing into Hollywood these days, MGM won’t have to risk its own money developing and producing films outside of those it plans to co-finance with Sony.

“We’re willing to trade some of the upside to eliminate the risk,” he said.