Amazon is reportedly considering a deal that would see them purchase Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, more familiarly known as MGM. This would mean that Amazon would own the rights to several popular franchises including James Bond and the Rocky series. The deal could see Amazon spend between $7 billion and $10 billion in an effort to fold MGM and its large list of well-known properties into themselves, in a move that would no doubt bolster the company's already popular streaming platform, Amazon Prime Video.

MGM has an epic library of over 4,000 titles, many of them very recognizable, and over 17,000 hours of television programming, including franchises like The Hobbit, Creed, and the James Bond franchise, as well as popular television shows like The Handmaid's Tale and Vikings. Should the deal with Amazon go through, we will likely end up with a situation similar to that of the Disney/Fox merger, which has since seen several high-profile projects, including the likes of Alien and Predator, go into production under an all-new umbrella.

MGM has been experiencing financial difficulties for years, and the idea of selling up is not a new one. It was reported at the end of last year that the studio had begun exploring the idea of selling in the past, with the company hoping to begin a bidding war and draw attention from "international media companies, private-equity investors and blank-check companies" rather than traditional Hollywood studios, with current circumstances leading to the decision. MGM is hoping that "a bidding war" will ensue "for content to fill a new wave of streaming-video services" with the move to digital releases making their extensive library "an attractive target."

Of course, MGM still has several big releases on the horizon, including the long, long-awaited Bond outing No Time to Die. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and featuring Daniel Craig's final outing as the iconic spy, No Time to Die picks up five years after the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, with James Bond having now left active service. He is approached by Felix Leiter, his friend, and a CIA officer, who enlists his help in the search for Valdo Obruchev, a missing scientist. When it becomes apparent that Obruchev was abducted, James Bond must confront a danger the likes of which the world has never seen before.

Getting No Time to Die into theaters has been a task so difficult that even 007 himself would likely struggle to keep up. The movie was originally scheduled for release back in November 2019, but after several backstage setbacks, the movie was then moved to February 2020. Sadly, something happened which you're likely now sick of hearing about, which delayed No Time to Die over and over again until it was finally given a date of 30 September 2021 in the United Kingdom and 8 October 2021 in the United States.

So, would you like to see Amazon purchase iconic studio MGM and its Leo the Lion mascot? Or do you feel that these mergers will simply result in a situation where all tentpole properties are owned by just a handful of studios causing the emergence of a nightmarish golem where all creativity goes to die? This comes to us from The Information.