Last year, Amazon closed an $8.5 billion acquisition of the film studio MGM, giving them ownership of the studio’s thousands of films and TV shows. Now they need to figure out what to do with all of the properties they own… and in the latest episode of the podcast The Hot Mic, hosted by writer/critic John Rocha and writer/critic/reporter Jeff Sneider, Sneider revealed the six MGM properties that Amazon is most interested in doing something with. These are their top priorities: Stargate, The Thomas Crown Affair, Legally Blonde, Rocky, Poltergeist, and RoboCop.
It’s not surprising to hear that Amazon wants to keep Stargate going, as that franchise already consists of a few films and many seasons of television. Michael B. Jordan has been attached to a new version of The Thomas Crown Affair for a while and Reese Witherspoon is on board to come back for a Legally Blonde 3, so maybe those projects will be put on the fast track to production soon. Although Sylvester Stallone has been making his issues with Rocky franchise producer Irwin Winkler very public recently, that property is still alive with Creed III now in theatres and a potential Drago spin-off in development.
It’s a little surprising to hear that a Poltergeist revival is a big priority at Amazon, but Sneider notes that horror is a major money-maker and Poltergeist is one of the biggest horror titles in the MGM library. But bringing Poltergeist back may be “complicated by the fact that Steven Spielberg would likely need to be involved“, since he co-wrote the original film and was a very hands-on producer on it.
As for RoboCop, it was announced a few years ago that Neill Blomkamp was going to be directing a direct sequel to the original film, a project that was being called RoboCop Returns. Blomkamp had to vacate the director’s chair due to scheduling issues, so RoboCop Returns was handed over to director Abe Forsythe… and we haven’t heard anything about it in over three years. So will Amazon get RoboCop Returns back on its feet, or will they develop something entirely new? We’ll have to wait and see.
Sneider doesn’t know if Amazon is thinking of turning these properties into TV shows or making more films in the franchises. But since they’re top priority, we should be hearing more about the franchise revivals very soon.
What do you think of Amazon’s plans to revive Stargate, The Thomas Crown Affair, Legally Blonde, Rocky, Poltergeist, and RoboCop? Let us know by leaving a comment below.