At least two people are reporting a merger may be in the works between Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment. The first I heard of it was in a non-revelatory post over at Deadline Hollywood, which gave no information outside of what I revealed in the headline, but then SlashFilm points us to TheWrap.com where Sharon Waxman is reporting the same story, which she attributes to "two people familiar with the negotiations."

Lionsgate has had pretty rough times as of late and has hardly screened a majority of their films, including the profitable Saw franchise and Summit is coming off a year that looks a lot better than it really was thanks to the massive success of Twilight, but they are moving into a much stronger 2009, which kicks off with Push this Friday along with Alex Proyas's Knowing in March as well as the sequel to Twilight, New Moon at the end of the year.

Waxman points out the deal would be tricky following Lionsgate's recent acquisition of the TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com, but says "buying Summit would give the studio the rights to a guaranteed hit franchise which it could spin out for its television and video business."

The Waxman piece is a bit tough to read since it is one giant garbled paragraph, but the gist of it seems to be a focus on how Summit will bring more movies and both will benefit from additional TV exposure through the TV Guide Network and Showtime. You can read her whole article here and I am sure it will be much easier to decipher once it is all hashed out… if it is all hashed out.

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