MGM Announces NATPE Offerings

LOS ANGELES, January 11:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) will be heading to NATPE with a range of
movies, including the war drama Valkyrie, The Pink Panther 2
and the latest James Bond title, as well as a slew of television series.

Starring Tom Cruise, Valkyrie is based on the true story of Colonel Claus von
Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led the heroic attempt to
bring down the Nazi regime and end the war by planting a bomb in Hitler’s
bunker. The film is directed by Bryan Singer, who has worked on blockbusters
including Superman Returns, X-Men and X2: X-Men: United, and is written by Christopher McQuarrie and
Nathan Alexander.

The latest Bond film,
under the working title Bond 22,
features the return of Casino Royale’s Daniel Craig as 007. Joining the cast as the newest Bond girl is
Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko, and Mathieu Amalric will play the villain.

In addition to Bond 22, several other franchises will be updated with new
sequels including The Pink Panther 2, in which Steve Martin will reprise his role as the bumbling
Inspector Clouseau and form an international “dream team” of detectives; The
Thomas Crown Affair 2, the sequel
to the 1999 remake; Legally Blondes, a comedy following the cousins of Legally Blonde’s protagonist Elle Woods; and Cutting Edge 3.

Several film titles based
on television series will also be on offer at NATPE. Showtime’s Dead Like
Me, about an 18-year-old girl who
is recruited to be a grim reaper after being killed in a freak accident, will
return as a movie featuring the series’ original cast and executive producer
Steven Godchaux. Additionally, the Stargate SG-1 series is finding new life in three new flicks: Stargate:
The Ark of Truth, Stargate:
Continuum and Stargate:
Atlantis.

Headlining the studio’s
television offerings are the series The L Word, the Showtime series that follows a small group of
close-knit friends in West Hollywood; Spaceballs: The Animated Series, based on Mel Brooks’ sci-fi satire; Reno 911!; Chappelle’s Show and Las Vegas, among others.

—By Ned Berke