Posted on 02/28/2008 8:52:04 PM PST by BurbankKarl
Roll the credits on New Line Cinema, the 40-year-old studio behind such iconic movie franchises as "The Lord of the Rings," "Austin Powers" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
The company will lay off hundreds of employees and be merged into its corporate sibling, Warner Bros.
The consolidation marks the end of the line for the once scrappy producer that prided itself on taking creative risks that other studios wouldn't. But in recent years New Line strayed from its street-smart roots with a slew of costly flops that ended its role as a big-time player in the volatile movie business.
In a sign of retrenchment that is increasingly prevalent in Hollywood, the company will now focus on making fewer movies limited to the kind of smaller, low-cost "genre" horror and comedy pictures upon which it built its name.
New Line becomes the latest free-standing studio in Hollywood to abandon its ambitions as a full-fledged company in a market in which bloated overhead and soaring production and marketing costs have squeezed profits amid flat movie attendance and sagging DVD sales. It comes just as the studio is to release what could be one of its most promising comedies in a long time, the basketball spoof "Semi-Pro" starring Will Ferrell.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
>>But the hits were outnumbered by flops such as “The Last Mimzy,” a family sci-fi fantasy directed by Shaye himself; “Rendition,” a thriller with Reese Witherspoon; and “The Number 23,” a dark thriller starring Jim Carrey.
Its biggest miscalculation came in December with a failed attempt to launch a new movie franchise based on Philip Pullman’s literary trilogy “His Dark Materials.” New Line spent at least $180 million to produce and tens of millions more to market the first film, “The Golden Compass,” which only managed $70 million in domestic ticket sales.<<
The Golden Compass was the nail in the coffin.
The God hating libs didn't have enough unaborted kids to take to make this movie the success they wanted it to be.
They should’ve fired the exec who green lit the project, plus the geniuses who whorked on the prodn.
Too bad the many have to burden the stupidity of the moronic few.
Oh totally wonderful! Golden Compass brought down New Line!!!! Frickin awesome! Oh no, we can take an anti-religious story by a devout atheist, dilute it a bit, and pump the best CGI we have into it and spend enormous amounts of money, and release it AT CHRISTMAS and all the stupid Christians will come and see it.
Fork off, New Line. Hope it was worth it. Not like there was going to be a sequel to it as it has totally bombed, but this is icing on the sh1t cake New Line just ate.
It’s funny-in the sidebar article “New Line’s Hits and Misses” they try to say “The Golden Compass” was a hit for New Line because despite it’s mediocre domestic ticket sales, it made $250 million overseas. In the main article however, it says New Line didn’t share in that take because they had already sold the overseas distribution rights.
That’s the picture business, it’s a tough racket. <<<knocks back drink
On a more promising note, New Line has several potential hits in the wings, including a movie version of HBO's popular series "Sex and the City,"
They've got to be kidding. That film won't break $20 million domestically.
The Golden Compass was the nail in the coffin.
Wellllll....New Line allied itself with an author who wanted to "kill God," and it ended up dying.
I'm just sayin'... (chuckle)
“The house that Freddy built”
Unfortunately, there’s no word if WB will bring the same geniuses who green lit the Golden Compass to WB.
BUt knowing for a fact that the Golden Compass sequel which shouldve been in pre prodn right now has been cancelled, incld. the director...well, that’s our Christmas gift.
New Line also was being sued by the estate of J R Tolkien for not paying anything to them after the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. I also heard director of LOTR had sued New Line for same reason. The internet/writer’s strike/dvd counterfeiting problems for the business force Hollywood to either put out great product or none at all, and I pray they figure out how to do that.
Not quite--Jackson sued over SOME monies he didn't get. He earned a nice chunk, but he thought New Line owed him more.
When COMPASS tanked, New Line needed to get the word out that they were coming up with something big, and that lawsuit with Jackson was settled quickly, and it was announced that Jackson would be involved.
I have a feeling that he may not be after this.
The SFX guys got an Oscar. That'll help cushion the blow a little.
They are getting rid of the top two guys in New Line. So I am guessing that yes, they are getting rid of them.
>>They are getting rid of the top two guys in New Line. So I am guessing that yes, they are getting rid of them.<<
*****
Bravo then.
I guess we see who got the last laugh!
What a shame they had to try to punk us, I really liked the Lord of the Rings series.
Big Time.
Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Want to bet?
They’d be stupid not to have him on board for the Hobbit.
Ping
The Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™ crew had this one earlier yesterday. Sometimes BurbankKarl beats us, but not this time...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1977983/posts
Time Warner Consolidates Warner Bros., New Line (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 28, 2008 | KATHY SHWIFF and NICHOLAS HATCHER
Posted on 02/28/2008 6:39:35 PM CST by abb
The Lord of the Rings: Basic mythic story about good and evil.
U.S. Box Office for series: $1,030,181,320
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe: Simple allegorical tale about the central story of Christianity.
U.S. Box Office: $291,710,957
The Golden Compass: Story that tries to show shades of grey in every conflict and subverts religion in all of it's forms.
U.S. Box Office: $69,990,336
To take this beyond kid fantasy epics, let's look at
The Passion of the Christ: A brutal telling of the sacrifice central to the Christian experience.
U.S. Box Office: $370,274,604
The Day After Tomorrow: A brutal (at least to the laws of science) telling of the fear central to the Liberal experience.
U.S. Box Office: $186,740,799
Good versus evil sells.
A story that doesn't insult the beliefs of your target audience will put money in your pocket.
Giving respect to traditional story telling techniques will produce profits.
the folks at new line are a bunch of idiots anyhow.....
Not no more, they ain't. ROFLMAO!!!!
Fine Line uses the marker board/clapper/director's block theme, while New Line uses a single frame of film with skewed sprockets.
I wanted to scream when I heard a good friend talk about that film like it was a distinct future possibility. I would have told her it was written by claimed alien abductee Whitley Strieber and wacko radio host Art Bell, but I would have had to explain to her who they were first.
I wanted to scream when I heard a good friend talk about that film like it was a distinct future possibility. I would have told her it was written by claimed alien abductee Whitley Strieber and wacko radio host Art Bell, but I would have had to explain to her who they were first.
I liked that film and its B Science Fiction vibe. Global warming is a crock of course but..... still liked it
Sounds a little "Nietzschesque", doesn't it? : )
"God is dead" - New Line Cinema via "The Golden Compass"
"New Line Cinema is dead" - God
The Golden Compass killed the studio.
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