Back in 1924, Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures merged together to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM, with the motto, “Ars Gratia Artis”, a Latin phrase meaning “Art for art’s sake.” Over the last 85 years, the studio has become one of the most powerful and recognized studios ever, due in part to their iconic logo (seen above) and roaring lion at the start of all of their films.

Now, the studio reportedly needs $170 million to get through to the end of the year.

The company requires a $20 million short-term cash injection to cover overhead and $150 million to start shooting on Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit.

The news emerged from a heated MGM conference call, in which bondholders became “loud and very upset”.

“The implication was that it’s teetering on bankruptcy,” a source told Deadline Hollywood.

The conference call was made to ask creditors to forgo interest payments on MGM’s $3.5 billion debt until next February, freeing up cash that the studio can spend on putting movies into production.

MGM fears that bankruptcy will mean losing the rights to the James Bond franchise, which it regained control of from Sony after the latter’s two-film deal expired with the release of Quantum Of Solace. MGM executives are reportedly concerned that the studio will not be able to support itself without the 007 films.

[Source] Nikki Finke