Wanna buy a studio?

(Greta Garbo and Leo the Lion, back when MGM roared)

Poor MGM, up for sale again. Variety reports that what's left of the beleaguered film studio -- basically a 4,000-title movie library the trade-paper terms "geriatric"* a couple of films in production, and the Leo the Lion logo itself -- will be auctioned off in the next few weeks by the various equity firms that control it. Business Week points out one asset that might have other film studios circling: MGM owns the film rights (along with Warner Bros.) to "The Hobbit," currently in pre-production with producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro.

So much for the vaunted "MGM is back in business" deal with the Weinstein company in 2007, a push that gave us, um "Lucky Number Slevin" and "Clerks II," and the distribution deal with the Tom Cruise-led United Artists, a company whose own fortunes are now up in the air.

There are still a few MGM films in the production pipeline for 2010: a remake of the Commie-invasion 80s anti-classic "Red Dawn," a CGI kiddie carton called "The Zookeeper," and the deathlessly-titled " Hot Tub Time Machine," starring John Cusack and Crispin Glover. Maybe it is time to turn out the lights at the house Louis B. Mayer built.

*I don't know if I'd call MGM's film holdings "geriatric." Deeply weird is more like it. Since Time Warner, through Ted Turner, owns the cream of MGM's output from the glory days (along with the classic Warner, RKO, and UA libraries), the entity we now call MGM controls a patchwork conglomeration of assets absorbed and purchased over the years, including the Cannon canon of 80s schlock cinema, the films made by the late, lamented Orion Pictures, and the Samuel Goldwyn library, the latter an undeniable crown jewel.