Latest in Roger Birnbaum

EXCLUSIVE: Miramax has acquired screen rights to the Erica Ferencik novel The River At Night. The project will be shaped by Kevin Williamson and Eli Roth, teaming for the first time after each had an illustrious genre past with the original Miramax. Williamson and Ben Fast will produce through their Outerbanks banner…

EXCLUSIVE: In an exclusive interview after months of near public silence, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum just told me that MGM is “definitely a buyer and a significant buyer in creating content”. This is great news for Hollywood which needs more buyers in the entertainment marketplace. What’s more this is a stunning…

LOS ANGELES, CA, September 20, 2011- MGM has appointed Dene B. Stratton to the post of Chief Financial Officer, it was announced today by Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum. Stratton, a nearly 20-year veteran of the Walt Disney Company, most recently served as CFO for internet…

EXCLUSIVE: MGM will reboot the 1983 thriller War Games, and the studio has set Seth Gordon to develop the film to direct. Gordon, who made his breakthrough with the gaming documentary The King of Kong, most recently directed the New Line comedy Horrible Bosses, with Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Jason…

When President Barack Obama arrived at the Sony Pictures lot in April for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, most studio employees left early and traffic was tricky. Tonight, it’s the First Lady’s turn. Michelle Obama will attend a fundraiser and discuss the 2012 re-election effort at the home of Michael S…

In what will be the first new production for the reconstituted MGM, the studio has set Vin Diesel to star in and produce The Machine. The action-comedy is being produced by Diesel’s One Race Films along with Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. They wrote the script. MGM will next set a director and start production…

Sony Pictures and MGM have finally announced the worst kept secret in Hollywood. They’ve reached an agreement that will return Sony Pictures to its role as distributor of the James Bond movies. Sony, along with studios like Warner Bros, Paramount and Fox, all engaged in talks with the reconstituted MGM on a deal that…

LOS ANGELES, CA, February 14, 2011- MGM has appointed Ken Schapiro to the post of Chief Operating Officer, it was announced today by Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum. Schapiro is the co-founder and a managing principal of Qualia Capital LLC, a private investment management…

2ND UPDATE:  The new MGM brass, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum managed to leverage the James Bond #23 film for a piece of Sony’s in-the-works big movie based on the Stieg Larsson bestseller, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which has already been shooting in Sweden under director David Fincher and starring Rooney…

Fresh from pre-packaged bankruptcy and restructuring, MGM has named former Pixar CFO Ann Mather to head the studio’s new board of directors, a group that also includes new studio heads Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber. Hopefully, the next step will be to start making movies again, after gifting Sony Pictures…

LOS ANGELES, CA, December 20, 2010 – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. today announced that the company's restructuring has become effective, with exit financing of $500 million in place. The company's "pre-packaged" plan of reorganization (the "Plan") was confirmed on December 2, 2010, by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the…

Most of the bigwigs left weeks ago, but today MGM began laying off 50 staffers, mostly from the post-production, marketing, and theatrical distribution departments. Once Spyglass Entertainment’s Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum start running the studio when it emerges from its prepackaged bankruptcy and closes a $500M…