New Line Cinema to be folded into Warner Brothers?
Posted on by Ian

According to Nikki Finke in her Deadline Hollywood Daily Blog, a planned meeting took place earlier this week between New Line Cinema and the new chairman of their parent company, Warner Brothers. the result of this is that founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are to lose their positions and New Line’s current projects, including ‘The Hobbit’, are to be folded into Warner Brothers. This is seen to be the result of a string of financial failures since the end of the Lord of the Rings franchise. There is no mention of The Golden Compass or His Dark Materials franchises and their future. Read about it here.

Addenum 24/1/08: Theonering.net reports that New Line have confirmed by email that there is no substance to the suggestion that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are about to lose their jobs and that all their projects would remain with the company. You can read about it here.

About Ian

A keen fan of His Dark Materials and Philip Pullman. Assistant to Paul Temple and Sir Graham Forbes.
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29 Responses to New Line Cinema to be folded into Warner Brothers?

  1. Andreas says:

    Now this is interesting! Warner Brothers may not be as afraid as New Line Cinema, to make a controversial film. And, their economy doesn’t hang in a thread, so they might be interested in finishing the trilogy…!

  2. Foulksy says:

    Hey!! its a good thing…

    Warner brothers is the studio which makes Harry Potter and so of course warner bro will want another success like harry potter coz thats comin gto a end! they obviously know it did well (overseas) so they possibly will make the subtle knife!!!

    They of course won’t be as stupid as New Line and give it such a HUGE budget and then basically only show the audience half of the footage they shot (what a waiste of money and a longer waste of time for fans wanting to watch the film)!!! so they give about 100 budget and market it well and a success is definate!!!

    Have you ever heard of problems with the Harry Potter filmmakers and Warner??? I haven’t!!

    So maybe Chris weitz (a big IF) can do the 2nd with warner and do a film he wants to!!!

    NEW LINE is gone!!! good!!! they expected too much from hdm and thought they were the top studio with lotr but now they learnt a BIG lesson!!!!!

  3. Conor says:

    well i dont care who does the subtle knife, as long as the auditions are going to be public for will im good

  4. Reedie Belacqua says:

    But wait, are we actually having the subtle knife?

    and well, I agree, it might be a good thing, we’ll see..

  5. Grissha says:

    I greatly hope Jeff Bewkes is an executive with vision.
    If he is, Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass shall be awesome movies. If he isn’t, well, it may not be movies at all.

    That’s it, show what you’re made of, Warner Bros.

  6. ian says:

    PLEEEEAAASE Warner Brothers, recognise the director’s cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. Grissha says:

    Yeah, Golden Compass REALLY needs a director’s cut to repair some of New Line’s awful last-hour mistakes. It’s unbelievable how much of interesting action/emotion footage they have cut off, the movie became very basic and unsatisfactory because of it; that’s unanimous among reviewers, and the audience agrees. The low box-office isn’t so hard to explain, is it?

    Director’s cut! Warner, redeem this movie!

    Hope they have read (and recognized) this truth
    http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/12/golden_compass_scripts.html

  8. Entilzha says:

    Theonering.net is reporting now that this is a myth.

  9. Foulksy says:

    Dont say that!!! i want new line gone!!! Hearing the death of Heath Ledger this week was already sad and now this….

  10. Conor says:

    No im being seirios, just going to the auditions for will would be a dream, but if they’re going to have a different director and everything… well then hemight not hold public auditions for will parry… and then “poof” my dreams popped into thin air.

  11. Conor says:

    notice that hisdarkmaterials.org have said nothing about it.

  12. Conor says:

    this is what the http://www.theonering.net/ have to say

    “Contrary to previous reports on IMDB there is “no truth” to the rumor that New Line Cinema’s Bob Shaye & Michael Lynne were being sacked, and all projects, including The Hobbit were moving completely over to the Warner Bros. camps. A New Line spokesperson stated via email to us today that the story was false, and they are seeking a correction on IMDB.”

  13. Ian says:

    Thank you Conor for your slightly inane comments – as you may have noticed, we have already modified our news story to reflect what we’ve seen in the media as a follow up to the initial rumour. It’s lovely to think that you don’t take bridgetothestars seriously when they report news and you seek verification from one of our major rivals. The last time we checked, they have serious ethical issues in the way they report news.

  14. Skye says:

    Serious ethical issues?
    Eep.
    I thought yours was a friendly rivalry.

  15. Conor says:

    I do take btts seirsosly, but i just had to make sure if the warner bros rumor was true. And as you may have noticed if you’ve read my further up comments that you know why i had to double check. And unfortunality i am very confused on to what to beleive, for btts are saying one thing, hdm are saying another and the other websites is also saying another. So as you may see… its all gone to poppycocks.

  16. Conor says:

    Oh, right. I’ve seen the modified part, wich i missed, sorry.

  17. John L says:

    Flash! “The Golden Compass” (production budget demonically high) will be out-grossed worldwide by the $60 million low-budget kiddie movie “Alvin and The Chipmunks” within the next three weeks. No wonder New Line is out of business; They produced the turkey of the 21st Century.

  18. Conor says:

    Ian i was just shock to hear what happened and i needed info badly. i didnt know that the website i got that info was from your biggest rival, and i didnt even know of them untill i saw a link to them up further up.

  19. Foulksy says:

    John L…

    We know that… plz dont remind us fans!!!
    Fans have faced bad news ever since the film was made from critics so we don’t want others to join the critics!!!

    THIS IS A WEBSITE FOR FANS!!!

  20. Ian says:

    Conor: Apologies for the abrupt tone. It just irks me people don’t sometimes give us a little more trust – we are after all trying to source the best news we can for you! We were a little off the mark with this one, but at the time it looked genuine enough, and once we saw alternatives we modified it accordingly. Remember, just because other sites don’t carry the same news doesn’t mean we’re wrong – we’ve had quite a few scoops over the last few years… Remember our interview with Chris Weitz? We got the first comprehensive movie review up on the web. From fans for the fans… Anyway do keep dropping by – we’re trying to keep up with the fast moving news.

    Skye: Regarding how one ethically reports news, something to be discussed another day and elsewhere; but it does worry us.

    It does look like a number of us were had regarding the WB/NL saga earlier this week. The information, in our defence, was from a decent source… C’est la vie.

  21. namster says:

    A lot of us are unaware of these rivalries. Maybe a small notice in the “rules & etiquette” section about inter-message-board communications would help ease the confusion?

  22. Karine says:

    I don’t mind the rivalrie as much as Ian’s comment on HDM.org I’d like to know more about it, even though in any case I prefer being here and anyway it was the first website I came upon, still I’m curious and a bit worried. I have to admit, when there weren’t any news here, it was my second choice. But I do understand that this is not the place to do so 🙂

  23. John L says:

    The film was doing just fine overseas, and it would have been quite successful in the US had Bill Donohue of the Catholic League not exposed the movie as a facade upon Pullman’s effort to blast the underpinnings of Christianity.
    The exchange between Donahue and Pullman ended when Pullman folded like a cheap camera after Donahue published Pullman’s prior quote that Pullman attempted to deny. This caused American critics to look at the work in a different light. For the first time in memory, the Catholic Church withdrew an already-published favorable review of a film.

    Had the film not attempted to hide the stated motive of “His Dark Materials”, Pullman would have had no reason to try and deny Donahue’s charges. It was Pullman’s denial that made the entire body of work seem dishonest.

    Pullman should not have shown such timidity when confronted by Donahue. I mean, what’s the Catholic Church going to do if you simply attack it without holding anything back? They have no power.

  24. Conor says:

    Yeah me to, this was also the first website i discovered for pp and hdm seiries. Its also the best one so far.=] And John L i beleive that pp wasn’t attacking the Cristian church in the first place (propably because i’m a cristian myself) but pp thinks that there may or may not be a god. What i think he’s trying to get at is that the church has to much athority. and i think thats true because that prodestants take the bible to seirosly, and that catholics take the bible not seiros enough, so there becomes war between us, not so much now. but still the church has to much power and are trying to warp are minds into what THEY beleive and not what God beleive’s and i agree, i’m a catholic and i dont go to church, ever. i beleive in my own way. And if anyone else has different beleives, rules or anything like that then let them be, because it’s what they beleive and what is it to us to stop that.

  25. Liz says:

    Nikki Finke still saying shaye & lynne to be fired! latest update:

    http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/sources-semel-looking-at-new-line/

    I dont get it — last i heard imdb was suppose to issue a correction, but their source is still saying its true! Who to believe???? this is starting to get to me… 🙁

  26. Diolmhain says:

    “Conor says:

    well i dont care who does the subtle knife, as long as the auditions are going to be public for will im good”

    You’re wasting your time 😛
    I’m definately Will with my generalised dublin accent and slight ‘fro

  27. Pingback: The Golden Compass | Warner Bros. to take in New Line | His Dark Materials | BridgeToTheStars.Net

  28. dom says:

    if you do subtle knife PLEASE hold public auditions!!! please please please!!! and make sure you publish them all over the web well in advance so people know!!!

  29. Phoebe says:

    Since new line sold some of their rights to warner bros. i hope they will make the subtle knife. but i doubt that will happen anytime soon. WB currently have a lot to do now considering the next 2 harry potter films and hobbit.

    if they planning to make the subtle knife they might as well do it soon, because as long as the earth still spins, dakota blue richards(lyra)still need to grow up too. if she gets to old for the role then the subtle knife will probably not come into production.

    if push comes to shove, they could do what they did with judy garland in the wizard of oz. dorothy was suppose to be 12 years old but they cast the 16 year old judy garland to play her. anyone remeber what they had her do? she had to wear a corset to make her body look less curvy so she could appear like a 12 year old.

    anyway, i really hope that they make the subtle knife. it would be a waste if they didn’t. such talented actors. just beacuse some religious people hate the movie doesn’t mean the sequel shouldn’t be made.