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New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

post #1 of 10
Thread Starter 
This e-mail was posted at Perez Hilton (I know, I know...):

Quote:
February 28, 2008

To: New Line Colleagues

From: Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne

Subject: Our Company

This afternoon, Time Warner is announcing that New Line will become a unit of Warner Bros. This is, of course, a very difficult and emotional time for all of us who have worked at New Line. While there is not much we can say that can lessen the impact of this announcement, we did want you to know about the decision before you read about it in the press.

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.' distribution systems. The company will be holding group meeting with New Line employees tomorrow in Los Angeles and New York to discuss this announcement, and is committed to letting employees know as soon as possible about how this change affects them individually.

For our part, we will be stepping down as Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOS of New Line. This was a painful decision, because we love New Line and the people who work here have been like our second families. But we will be leaving the company with enormous pride in what all of us at New Line have accomplished together. From its humble beginnings 40 years ago, our studio has created some of the most popular and successful movies of all time. Those movies are a tribute to the amazing creative energy and entrepreneurial abilities of the talented people at New Line. They are a legacy that will endure forever.

Although we are stepping out of New Line, we intend to remain actively involved in the industry in an entrepreneurial capacity, and will keep you advised of developments.

We thank all of you who have worked so hard to make New Line such a success. We are very proud of every one of you.

Bob & Michael

Is this accurate, and if so what led to the takeover - legal issues with LOTR, or poor box office as of late (Golden Compass, Be Kind Rewind, etc.?)

Sad if this is actually happening...
post #2 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

Yes its true and New Line is now a part of WB. They were already both owned by the same company (Time Warner), but now New Line will be to WB what Columbia and Tri-Star are to Sony, and what Pixar is to Disney.
post #3 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

I guess this means so long DTS-ES. =(
post #4 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

Let's just call it the Golden Compass decision.
post #5 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

I wonder what this means for their catalog titles on BD.

And what of currently planned releases?
post #6 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by MatthewA
I wonder what this means for their catalog titles on BD.

And what of currently planned releases?

I'm worried about the quality of future BD releases......especially LOTR. New Line was always pretty consistant with the quality of their DVD releases (DTS-ES, loaded special editions that put Warners releases to shame.). Now that they have been absorbed by the WB, I'm very concerned that they will cut back due to their corporate mentality...New Line took risks - Warner likes to play it safe.
post #7 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

Hopefully, they will stay independent as they claim they will when it comes to DVD (kinda like how Warners allowed Morgan Creek to handle their own DVDs with DTS and all).

If anything, I'm curious as to how this will effect The Hobbit as well as the prospects of more films in the His Dark Material trilogy.
post #8 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray H
If anything, I'm curious as to how this will effect The Hobbit as well as the prospects of more films in the His Dark Material trilogy.
Unless Golden Compass makes a huge impression on dvd, HDM is a dead property for all I care.

Also it appears the rumored Criterion of Crash appears to be off at least from CriterionForum's perspective.
post #9 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

At this point, WB will not attempt any more films from the 'His Dark Materials' series. The poor (domestic) box office performance of "The Golden Compass" pretty much killed any chance of the other two works from the trilogy making it to the big screen.

New Line Cinema is now pretty much a "name only" entity and everything will be handled by WB. The many lawsuits surrounding New Line's poor handling of the profit sharing on the LOTR trilogy, as well as many expensive flops since 2003, doomed the studio.

WB brass has made "The Hobbit" a high priority and are looking to move forward with the two films. The remaining lawsuits will end up being settled by the studio.
post #10 of 10

Re: New Line Cinema taken over by WB (!?!)

Sounds like Bob Shaye pretty much killed NL over the past few years: fighting with Peter Jackson and others over LOTR, endangering "The Hobbit," green-lighting a bunch of flops.
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