Sony/MGM Distribution Deal Could Give New Life To 'The Cabin In The Woods' And 'Red Dawn'

We've known in the past 24 hours that Sony and MGM were working on a deal that would allow Sony to again distribute James Bond, and that would also carry forward as a real partnership between the studios.

Now we have more details, and some of them are quite good. The deal will allow Sony to "release all future films made by MGM," as well as films that have already been completed. That means we could actually see The Cabin in the Woods, written and produced by Joss Whedon and directed by Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard, and the Red Dawn remake this year.

The LA Times has the info, and cautions that the deal is not yet final. This deal would see Sony financing 50% of Bond 23 and 25% of the potential Bond 24. Sony would also co-finance other films produced by MGM.

We haven't written about The Cabin in the Woods since summer of last year, when the film was very tentatively slated for release this past January. (It was originally scheduled for February 2010, then pushed back so it could be post-converted to 3D.) There has been no reliable word on what might happen to either The Cabin in the Woods or Red Dawn in the months since MGM really went into bankruptcy and restructuring.

While I can't get too excited about the Red Dawn remake, I've heard a lot of good things about the script and shoot for The Cabin in the Woods and, post-converted 3D or not, it's a horror film I was excited to see. I'm not going to say that absolutely any deal that finally puts it in theaters is a good one, but this doesn't look like a bad scenario. I don't know how much work remains to be done on the film, if any, but it's good to know that we have reason to believe the film won't be orphaned by MGM's troubles.