Returning to our January coverage of industry rumours: Claudia Eller of the LA Times reports that New Line in its current form will cease to exist. Founder Bob Shaye and co-chair Michael Lynne have spent the last few weeks trying to save the 40 year old studio but were ultimately unsuccessful and the two will be leaving their posts. New Line Cinema will be absorbed by Time Warner’s film studio Warner Bros. It will continue to maintain separate operations but will rely on Warner’s international infrastructure to save costs and improve its profits. “New Line Cinema becomes Hollywood’s latest distributor to downsize its ambitions and business strategy in a tough market, where bloated overhead and soaring production and marketing costs have compromised profitability, once-reliable DVD sales have cooled and movie attendance is flat.” Read more.
It is unclear at this time how this development will effect the fate of the His Dark Materials movie franchise. Thanks to randomthotz for the tip.
oh oh not good
I think it is GREAT. I’m sure Cris Weitz will ask for sequels and explain to WB how New Line ruined the film. There is lots of proof! He can show them his origional version, maybe they will understand. We don’t have to worry about any more ruined sequels, guys!
YES!!! omg im so happy i really hope that they do a good job and omg how cool would it be if they redid TGC the way he actually wanted it and wooooo
“New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies. But New Line will now do so as part of Warner Bros. and will probably be a much smaller operation than in the past. Time Warner hopes that operating New Line as a unit of Warner Bros. will allow New Line to focus on the creative side of movie-making, while reducing costs and taking advantage of Warner Bros.”
So if NL is much smaller and reducing costs how they going to do big expensive stuff like hdm??? 🙁
You have to feel sory for New Line,they were hoping for a big break with TGC.The last time they had one was with Lord of the Rings.TGC wasn’t that bad was it?
Liz, they are cutting costs by using WB’s resources. That doesn’t mean they’ll have less to work with.
There’s always hope…
I’m sorry for New Line. They made history by producin some of the best movies in recent times. Quality isn’t always profitable, though. As for HDM, they underestimated the contentious issues which surround it.