In a story from Variety, MGM is moving into a potential asset auction over the next several months. The studio is exploring "a possible sale, merger or remaining as a stand-alone" entity.

MGM let it be known that bondholders are going to hold off receiving debt payments until Jan. 31. This was the second exemption on an undisclosed amount of interest payments on its $3.7 billion in debt in the past 2 months.

What needs to happen first is for Moelis & Co., which was hired in May by MGM, to send out non-disclosure agreements to potential bidders as a prelude to seeing MGM's books.

In the meantime, the current MGM leadership will remain in place and production chief Mary Parent will oversee a small production and development slate.

MGM is going to continue on with the following films which are already set for release: Hot Tub Time Machine in March, The Zookeeper in October, Red Dawn in November and a 3D version of Cabin in the Woods in early 2011.

The studio will keep its position as co-financier with New Line Cinema on The Hobbit. That project is still slated to go into production in the spring in New Zealand. It will be part of two Hobbit films shot back-to-back by Guillermo del Toro. Executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are working on the screenplay and no cast has been announced. The two films should be released in late 2011 and late 2012.

MGM is going to continue to develop of another James Bond film. Peter Morgan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are going to write the script for the film. There is no director on board currently.

Lastly, development work is going to remain in effect for a reboot of Poltergeist.