MGM Mirage has been on bankruptcy watch for a while now due to the money pit that is CityCenter, a partially finished multibillion-dollar complex situated on the Las Vegas strip. MGM is buried in debt, the investors from Dubai World have their turbans in a bunch and they’re barely scraping by whenever payments come due.

Now, MGM is up 20% after hours because a savior may be on the horizon:

Colony Capital LLC, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm, is considering a possible investment in the troubled City Center project in Las Vegas, according to sources close to the company.

An investment from Colony could keep the $8.6 billion City Center project from bankruptcy and save thousands of construction and hotel jobs vital to the local economy.

Never mind that the possibility of getting this thing finished has appeared to be going the route of Criss Angel and Holly Madison’s relationship. Colony is no stranger to flights of fancy – they’re the folks who bought the bad loan on Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch in May ’08 and created holding company Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC to try to rid the property of any remaining pedophile taint. So, yeah. Wonder if Jacko will end up with a condo at Vdara out of all this?