Business - Parenting the aging lion

V.Gangadhar

Mary Parent is no Hercules in physical strength. While Greek legend tells us that Hercules successfully performed 12 “labours”, Parent has just two. Hired at an annual financial package of $6 million last March as MGM’s new Chairwoman, Parent, a former production executive at Universal, was expected to revive the sagging fortunes of the once-famous Leo the Lion. And now, she has the additional responsibility of running MGM’s “sickly younger sister” United Artists.

Given the past record of these studios, even Hercules may have preferred cleaning the Aegean Stables or dealing with the hydra. The ravages of time has affected not only human beings but also Hollywood studios.

MGM, for decades, was the greatest movie making unit and even a list of “selected” MGM movies exceeded hundreds. It had some of the biggest stars under contract: Garbo, Gable, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Greer Garson and the like. We grew up familiar with the roar of the MGM Lion. Men like Sam Goldwyn were Hollywood legends and whatever they said made news.

Debts

Yet when CEO Harry Sloan announced the appointment of Mary Parent, the studio had incurred debts of $3.7 billion on which it had to pay annual interest of around $300m. It lost $400m each in 2006 and 2007. No longer a major movie producer, MGM has been reduced to a sick lion that refuses to die. Before Sloan’s appointment in October 2005, MGM passed through the hands of business tycoon Kerkorian, entertainment czar Ted Turner, Italian financier Giancario Paretti and groups made up of Sony, Toshiba, Time-Warner and US TV giant Comcast.

Besides history and past fame, MGM did have an asset, its priceless DVD collection of old films, distributed by 20th Century Fox, whose sales exceeded $850m in 2007. Some of Sloan’s initial strategies did not work, for instance, outsourcing production to outsiders. Seventeen films under the MGM banner averaged $12m each in ticket sales; not a great record. In partnership with actor Tom Cruise for UA, MGM spent $35m to make and market “Lions for Lambs”, which flopped. “Pinkville”, on the My Lai massacre, was scrapped and “Valkyrie”, a Tom Cruise starrer on an unsuccessful plot to assassinate Hitler, has been postponed.

Revitalisation

Parent, however, exuded optimism. Under her, the studio invested in James Bond and Pink Panther movies. She acquired movie rights to the Robert Ludlum thriller, “Matarese Circle” with Denzil Washington in the lead, two “Hobbit” films and a remake of a successful comedy, “Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels”.

Despite her lack of experience, Parent, confidently streamlined studio management and administration and was confident of raising $650m for film making. She set up priorities, which included okaying the script for “Cabin in the Woods” by maverick sci-fi writers, Joss Wheddon and Drew Goddard. While Weddon will produce the movie, Goddard, who earlier scripted the $160m Paramount monster movie, “Cloverfield”, will direct.

Under MGM’s revitalisation programme, initiated by Parent, young, talented, original directors and script writers will move in. One of them , Darren Aronofsky, who directed “Requiem for a Dream” and “The Fountain”, will handle a new version of “Robocops”, which will be scripted by screen writer David Self (“The Haunting”, “13 Days” and “Road to Perdition”). Parent is also confident that the seemingly-jinxed “Valkyrie” will be released next February.

With her hands full, making films for UA will be a fresh challenge for Mary Parent. She knows the studio has to make and release movies to stay afloat. Whether she succeeds remains to be seen