Not long ago, we told you about MGM’s impending financial crisis which threatened the life of the company, as well as the franchises that MGM holds. It seems that the situation has only gotten more dire for the studio: Variety is reporting that they will essentially be auctioning off all of their assets within the next several weeks.

This could mean a variety of things for the 85 year old studio. One studio may grab the rights to their name and lion roar, while another may purchase some or all of the 4,000 titles in their catalog. It’s very likely, though, that we’ll see one of the big dogs like Time Warner grab much of what is at stake.

According to Variety, “some specialists in film libraries consider its list of titles to be geriatric.” This seems to be hogwash; there is plenty of value and enticing properties within MGM. I mean, come on. They own Doctor Zhivago. Classics remain classics despite their age.

MGM still stands a chance of perhaps pulling through, but it doesn’t seem likely. Its two heavy hitting franchises, The Hobbit and the James Bond series, are strong enough to pull through this disaster and find homes elsewhere. And remember: any property being acquired by another studio means that a new life and new spin on them could be put into place.

Disaster can breed creativity and spin things into new directions. It’s only a matter of time before we see what becomes of MGM’s properties.

A week or so ago we reported on the financial crisis facing Metro Goldwyn Mayer that threatened to knock Guillermo Del Toro’s The Hobbit off its axis. It looked like a tricky doomsday scenario for the studio, but we’re happy to report that MGM is safe, for now.

According to a brief Variety report, the studio has been allowed to skip three interest payments that are due on their $3.7 billion worth of debt.

According to an official statement from MGM:

“Under the terms of the agreement, MGM’s lender group has agreed not to enforce its rights or remedies arising as a result of the company’s request to not currently pay interest due on Sept. 30, Oct. 31 and Nov. 30, 2009.”

This is fairly good news as it gives MGM until the end of the year to get their ducks in a row — currently, all MGM productions are moving forward, including The Hobbit.