Dead Like Me

MGM Creditors Press for an Auction

Danioton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:56:25 +0000

Information from a series of recent meetings between Cooper at MGM and the 140 strong creditors has leaked. Cooper made a pitch for new debt to jumpstart MGM movie production, and the creditors declined the honor and opportunity to lose even more money. Instead they made it clear they want the studio and its 4,000 film library (this would include Dead Like Me franchise) to be sold either now by MGM or by the creditors from bankruptcy. The current agreement in which interest owed to the creditors is converted to equity expires on December 15th.

See inside for link and more discussion………

MGM Final Preparations Underway

Danioton — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:09:53 +0000

Steve Cooper, new head of MGM, has accelerated negotiations with debt holders. The current owners will be removed (or nearly so), significant amounts of debt converted to equity, and then the new owners will auction MGM off. Interested bidders are rumored to be Lionsgate, Time Warner, and Fox.

See inside for more detail……

MGM Resurrection is Nigh!

Danioton — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:09:15 +0000

In a last stand bid to maintain some control of MGM the private equity firms have removed the current CDO, Harry Sloan, in favor of a work out specialist, Stephen Cooper (he stepped into Enron after it imploded).

see inside for links to articles …

Callum (Mason) speaks

Danioton — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:53:55 +0000

Finally, my day ended with the 1 person I was most excited to see. Callum Blue. Smallville has brought him in to play General Zod on the show…but that means little to me since I refuse to watch the show. He is still Mason from “Dead Like Me” to me. Which was evidently apparent to him by the fact I had 6 or 7 different photos of him from the show. He cracked a couple jokes about how his autograph might actually be worth something now that he is on Smallville, which I replied to “I cant stand the show…I still wish you were doing Dead Like Me”, which got an excited “me too” from him. He was asked by others why he thought the show died prematurely, he answered that he didnt know, but found it odd that it seems to always be Bryan Fuller shows. He had a laugh or two at some of the DLM photos myself & my friend had of him, the last one being from a scene where hes getting a full body search by airport security because they think hes carrying drugs. He said “is that the episode where I had illegals in my bottom” & I replied “yeah” which he laughed to, and I said as he was starting to walk away, “no problems like that today?”, which he responded “nope, got away with it this time”. As he walked towards the rest of the hounds that were outside, he gladly signed & took pics for them as well. While he was leaving I asked him if there was any talk of a 2nd DLM movie possibly. He siad there is, and was hopefull…..and ended the conversation with “and hopefully a return of the series”…which I certainly would be thrilled to see.

Random bloggings – CANADAGRAPHS

Danioton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:42:05 +0000

Ellen Muth (aka Georgia Lass aka Peanut) will have the leading role in a new Independent film with the working title ‘The Nephila’.

:::The Nephila:::

The maker, Joshua Mathieson, will be answering questions about the movie over at DLMO on this thread (will need to register):

Welcome to Dead Like Me Online! • View topic – Nephila Q&A

Joshua offers this teaser about the movie and Ellen’s role:

I will give you a bit of a teaser and say that Ellen is the daughter of the fallen angel that she believes is her Uncle. Imagine all that could be possible if you had all the powers of an angel, with the free will of a human? Would you use that for the advancement of mankind or would you fall to temptation? Hmmm…

First indications of this news appeared on a Twitter account for ‘EllenAMuth’. This may well be her real account, so if you’re an Ellen Muth fan here’s the link:

Ellen Muth (EllenAMuth) on Twitter

Here’s a discussion of Ellen on Twitter from her website:

ellen-muth.net • View topic – Ellen Muth on Twitter

MGM Passes Audit (for now)

Danioton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:16:52 +0000

MGM passes audit

Court-supervised reorganization unlikely

By Carl DiOrio

July 15, 2009, 11:42 AM ET

MGM has passed its annual audit.

That’s the expected good news, delivered by the Century City-based studio on Wednesday. An unfortunate related update is that a J.P. Morgan-led creditors committee appears unmollified by the announcement.

There was never considered a sizeable risk that the audit would result in a warning being issued about MGM’s viability as a “going concern.” But the mere theoretical chance of that happening shook creditors, who then hired investment consultancy Houlihan Lokey to advise on possible strategies for dealing with the situation.

Fortunately for MGM, the successful conclusion of its audit means the creditors would be hard-pressed to force a court-supervised reorganization of the studio. It appears the more than 140 lenders comprising the creditors group can only jawbone about their concerns for the time being.

MGM, which is owned by a consortium of private equity firms, Sony and Comcast, also has been mulling how to restructure its finances. One big concern involves the April expiration of MGM’s credit facility at J.P. Morgan.

MGM didn’t mention a recent re-valuation of its film library conducted by Bank of Montreal. But the results of that new valuation will bear directly on any discussions the studio has with prospective new financial partners in the future.

Word among financial community sources was that the semi-annual library valuation came in considerably lower than MGM’s previous estimate but at a level that allows them to continue to operate under the current debt facility.

“MGM is in full compliance with all of its debt covenants,” the studio said.

MGM bears more than $4 billion in debt, and public trading in Lion debt instruments has been active. It’s believed that famed corporate raider Carl Icahn has been quietly buying debt derivatives instead of debt, because he’s not approved by creditors to acquire actual debt.

MGM passes audit

We’re at that point in the ‘House MD’ episode where the patient’s heart stops, but with the help of those handy little shocker devices the patient is brought back for the next round of treatment.

This means the bankers will wait for events outside their direct control to force the issue. Ominously the library has been valued lower than prior years reflecting an industry devaluation in prospective dvd sales – not a temporary move but reflecting the fragmentation of audience and successful growth of competing avenues taking that audience.

Is there a pathway buried somewhere in all this mess for MGM to start up another Dead Like Me project?

Callum (aka Mason) will play General Zod in ‘Smallville’

Danioton — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:14:24 +0000

That weight lifting program post DLM has been paying off.

SMALLVILLE’s Zod: Kneel Before Him – Mania.com

‘Smallville’ casts its General Zod

Ellen Muth Sees the End…

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:50:38 +0000

Just read this post in the Dead Like Me Forum by DB7878 (who is now essentially running the site – a true Dead Like Me Fan!!!)

It basiclly says how Ellen Muth saw the movie as an end to the Dead Like Me franchise.

The movie, which is about iconoclastic 18-year old Georgia Lass, who is killed by falling space debris (a toilet seat from a satellite), and becomes a grim reaper. She joins a local grim reaper group and is assigned the task of helping the souls of the newly dead cross into the afterlife. Dead Like Me: Life After Death is a sequel to the Showtime series, Dead Like Me, which ran during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. After its initial run, reruns of the series could be seen on the Science Fiction channel. Jasmine Guy, Callum Blue, Joy Stevenson, and Britt McKillip reprised their television roles for the movie.

A question and answer period followed the film, during which time Muth revealed the bad news that she felt the movie represented the end of the Dead Like Me franchise.

It is sad what happed to the Dead Like Me series, it was really an amazing show. The movie tried to recapture that “magic” – getting (most) of the cast back together, but I felt that somehow it was just different. Very good! – but different.

Despite Ellens thoughts, I would still LOVE to see another Dead Like Me series – or move. There is so much they could still do.

Do you feel Ellens comments suggest the end?

What would it take for new series of Dead Like Me?

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:19:29 +0000

Here is an article that many of us Dead Like Me Fans could relate to…

http://io9.com/5273419/what-it-would-take-for-new-firefly

“What It Would Take For New Firefly?”

So, any comments?

Events at MGM

Danioton — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:54:49 +0000

MGM, owner of the ‘Dead Like Me’ franchise , has two major stakeholders at odds. On one side are the private equity firms that bought it several years ago and then put Sloan and some $3.7 bil in debt in place. On the other are the lenders of that debt, and the lenders, not unlike any good grim reaper, have a postit with the initials M-G-M and an ETD quickly approaching and are holding meeting discussing the collection. The stakes are high for fans of ‘Dead Like Me’ because depending on the outcome we may see some new DLM project sooner, or perhaps never again.

See the thread ‘MGM State of Financial Health’ inside the forum for more detail.