There's some seriously bad news for the fans of the Bond franchise today as EON Productions reveal that due to the financial position of MGM and the inability to find a buyer, they're having to suspend work on Bond 23, the third Daniel Craig Bond film.

What's worse is that the statement contains the scary word, indefinitely.

The press release is pretty to the point and clear, and goes like this:

”Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on Bond 23 indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of Bond 23”

That comes from Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the names behind the franchise, and comes through Coming Soon. So you can take from that the fact that this is pretty serious and there's no getting away from the fact that MGM is in so much trouble that they're actually halting development on one of their biggest franchises.

You've got to then wonder about the business acumen behind that decision. With the company in trouble and a reprieve given for The Hobbit films, wouldn't you want them to go hard at it for their biggest titles and try and earn as much money as possible?

While we've heard that they are going all out for the two Hobbit films, it seems that three more big titles that were scheduled, Bond 23, RoboCop and Poltergeist are the ones to falter, but frankly I'm amazed, surely another Bond film would have easily been a bankable option?

That's even considering the fact that Quantum of Solace (Filmstalker review) wasn't as good as Casino Royale (Filmstalker review), well nowhere near as good, and that they've abandoned the storyline that the first two films were building. Despite all that, a Daniel Craig Bond film would still bring in huge amounts of money, even if they destroyed the film, and they wouldn't, Sam Mendes was set to direct.

I can understand if RoboCop and Poltergeist don't get made, although there's been no concrete announcement as there has been with Bond 23, but dropping a Bond film just doesn't make sense. The other two films need to reboot their franchises successfully, Bond already has been and to wide acclaim.

While the Hobbit films will bring in money, I am struggling to see why they wouldn't just keep going with Bond. Surely these films together could save MGM?