Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is preparing to roar back to life and is already on the prowl for top talent to help revive the studio and ramp up film production.
After 18 months of turmoil, the long-suffering film studio is poised to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as early as this week under the management of Hollywood executives Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum.
Already the studio’s new co-chiefs are looking for senior management to help reposition the studio and revive production on two large-scale films, the 23rd “James Bond” installment and the long-delayed “The Hobbit.”
Barber and Birnbaum are searching for a president to help lead the studio and are talking to Qualia Capital’s Ken Shapiro as well as other Hollywood veterans, sources told The Post.
“He is a candidate,” one insider said.
MGM will also need to hire a head of production, a role previously filled by Mary Parent, who exited shortly before the studio filed a prepackaged bankruptcy plan on Nov. 3 that wiped out some $5 billion of debt.
As part of the plan, JPMorgan Chase agreed to provide a $500 million loan facility to fund MGM’s operations and productions.
While insiders say the studio is set for now, some bankers believe it won’t be long before MGM will have to raise additional funds. The 23rd James Bond alone could cost as much as $200 million to produce.
“I suspect its deeply possible they’ll look for additional financing,” said Stephen Prough, a founder of Salem Partners, an investment bank specializing in media and entertainment. “They have been very successful at getting money on Wall Street.
“Their first step is solidifying the team there. Then the other thing they’ll do is to start looking hard at franchises that can easily be monetized: Bond, The Hobbit and ‘The Thomas Crown Affair.'”
MGM also recently appointed a nine-person board that includes executives from traditional and online media, including Fredric Reynolds, the ex-chief financial officer of CBS, and Jason Hirschhorn, the former co-president of MySpace.
MGM’s new chapter follows months of dramatic plot twists involving on-again off-again merger talks with Lionsgate and a takeover battle with activist investor Carl Icahn. The company has been all but closed for business for months.
Despite its quick trip through bankruptcy court, there’s more drama ahead. One source close to MGM expects the studio to lay off as many as 75 people as it restructures its operations.
MGM will also need to find production partners to distribute two completed films — “Red Dawn,” and Joss Whedon’s “Cabin in the Woods” — that were held up by the studio’s financial woes.
“They’re going to have to do a lot of cleanup and assess all the damage and figure things out,” the source said. “Who’s leaving? How many staff they have to let go? What they’ll do with ‘Red Dawn’ and ‘Cabin in the Woods,’ and how they’ll be distributed?” catkinson@nypost.com