Last week we broke the news that, unfortunately, it appeared that negotiations about Stargate had broken down between Mark Fergus’ Penguin In A Parka and Amazon/MGM.
On the week commencing the 12th of December, mark Fergus and his team was in the final stages of negotiations with Amazon and contracts should have been drawn and signed by now.
The First Roadblock
The first roadblock that has stalled negotiations to no one’s surprise was the budget.
According to our sources, Fergus asked Amazon for $10 – $11 million to produce a new series of Stargate and Amazon responded with a counteroffer of $6 million per episode. Making the prospects of a $100 Million Budget for 10-12 episodes half of that at around $50 – $60 Million for the series.
According to our sources, Fergus was not happy with the amount proposed by Amazon stating that he wouldn’t be able to achieve his vision for Stargate with such a small amount.
Fortunatley, we are being told that the negotiations are to continue next week (The week commencing 9th January, 2023) with Fergus’ team at Penguin in a Parka and Amazon/MGM. There is still hope that they will come to an agreement. What generally happens with negotiations like this is the customer (in this case Amazon) will ask a production company (Penguin in a parka) what they would need to develop a series. Budgets are often a stumbling point and in many cases can be the make or break decision that decides whether a show is made. In this case it seems as though Amazon wants to lower the budget for a new series.
The Second Roadblock
The second point that was raised is where the new series would go, from what we have been told, Amazon’s plan was to put a new Stargate series on their new streaming service MGM+ in the US and for the rest of the world it would go on Amazon Prime. However we are being told that during these meetings, it was infered that the series would go on MGM+ Worldwide.
The general concencus was that for a new show to succeed it would have to go on Amazon Prime for the rest of the world, because although MGM+ (formerly Epix) is an established streaming service in the US, for the rest of the world it isn’t and any new show should stay on Amazon prime at least in its first season, whilst the new service picks up more traction.
MGM+ is set to launch in mid January (possibly around January 15th) and the hope was that the meetings in December, 2022 would be finalised and they could announce a new show around the same time. It is looking ever more likley now, however, that we won’t get an official announcement until mid spring (April – June 2023). The really worrying part about all of this though, is we have been told that if we don’t get an announcement by that time. Its likley Stargate would be put on the back burner and we wouldnt see an announcement for years.
Whats Next?
What we can say for certain though, is nothing has been decided. The negotiations will continue next week and whatever the outcome, we will keep you updated. If the budgeting roadblock cannot be resolved its very possible that Fergus and his team can still produce a new series, with a much more limited budget. This would mean that instead of 10 -12 episodes we may only get 6 – 7.
