New Line merging into WB??

James

Following a planned meeting this week with new Time Warner Chairman Jeff Bewkes, New Line Cinema founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are expected to be terminated and New Line's projects, including The Hobbit, folded into Warner Bros., L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke reported on her Deadline Hollywood Daily blog Monday, citing no sources. With the exception of last year's Hairspray, New Line has had a nearly uninterrupted string of financial failures since its Lord of the Rings franchise ran out.

EXCLUSIVE: I'm told that New Line Cinema founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are meeting with Jeff Bewkes this week to talk about their contracts which expire this year. Sources say it's virtually certain that the studio pair will be shown the door. I hear this isn't coming as a surprise to Shaye or Lynne, either: they're expecting the new Time Warner chief to end their tenure at the studio they founded in 1967, sold to Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System in 1994, and brought under Time Warner's control in 1996 (when the Big Media conglomerate merged with the Atlanta company). While fellow Turner-owned studio Castle Rock eventually became absorbed into Warner Bros, New Line was kept a separate entity where Shaye/Lynne had considerable autonomy. This was always a sore point inside the media giant, less so when New Line was making gobs of money with its Austin Powers and Lord Of The Rings film franchises, more so in recent years because of a steady stream of budget busters and box office losers (including 2007's bomb The Last Mimzy which Shaye foolishly directed himself and costly over-marketed).
I can't pinpoint just when the formal announcement of Shaye's and Lynne's departures will come, but it's a safe bet that New Line will be folded into Warner Bros as a result, moving such premium projects as the long anticipated back-to-back feature films of that beloved book The Hobbit. Well, it's about time! Kudos to Bewkes for having the brass balls to make this bold move. I've found Bastard Bob's behavior over this past year to be abhorrent, from his studio's legal shenanigans with Peter Jackson to his own "Lord Of The Rants" attacks on director after director who's made money for New Line. Good thing Shaye will be leaving sooner rather than later: I was running out of pejoratives (like "prick" and "idiot") to describe him.

Pretty big news if this happens. Will have consequences for tons of upcoming movies, and of course movie rights previously owned.

New Line has played a huge role in the horror genre. Also distributed tons of the great foreign films I get off of Netflix.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out, and Elm Street fans are probably shitting their pants because New Line owns that.

James

Also, Friday the 13th is under the New Line umbrella. That franchise has been cursed with rights issues for decades. Its why there have been so few F13 films the past 18 years.

I could easily see the F13 remake getting scrapped, or it gets finished and gets shelved for years.

Von

I hope it does get scrapped. I love Friday the 13th, but was underwhelmed by The Texas Chainsaw Redux and Marcus Nispel's music video direction. Fuck the remakes. Zombie's Halloween being an exception because it's Zombie, a horror filmmaker, not a hired shooter like Nispel and the others. Sad about New Line though. To me, it'll always be the House That Freddy Built. Maybe Bob Shaye can buy some of the horror properties for a new company a la the Weinsteins. If this happens, Warners will shit all over New Line's horror. Warners treats horror like ass and aside from "more artistic" fare like The Exorcist and The Shining, always has.

Neemo

i think newline has the rights to the hobbit now which is a prequel to lord of the rings...so if they have both LOTR and Harry potter they pretty much have that genre locked up yikes

James

I'm not looking forward to the next F13 installment either, but would have watched it out of curiosity. The thing is that it was pretty much depending on the horror remake boom plaguing Hollywood at the moment. If it misses that boat(and it probably will considering the boom will likely only last another year or two), the world might not see another F13 for many, many years.

Nothing concrete, but ideas were apparently being tossed around for an Elm Street remake. Haven't read about it in awhile, but some wanted a fresh start while others wanted Englund to reprise the role in the remake.

I guess the best scenario is like you mention and Shaye gets some of the rights to these films, and Friday somehow goes back to Paramount(not a chance, and if it happened, would take years to sort out).

Von

On that note, what are your feelings on Englund's role as Freddy if there ever was an "updated" Elm Street? To me, no one else can ever put on the glove, he's embodied the role so much over the years it's beyond putting a big guy like Tyler Mane behind a mask. The prequel idea never really appealed to me because I feel, over the course of the last few installments especially, we've really covered all there is to cover about Freddy's pre-burned demon days. Purely as a fan, I'd have loved to see one more, before he gets too too old (which he probably already is but I won't admit that), and have it been a sequel to the regular series, not New Nightmare (which I loved) or Freddy vs. Jason (which I didn't).

James

I wouldn't mind Englund coming back, but I do NOT want to see stand up comedian Freddy or Englund playing the role tongue in cheek. If it looks like its heading in that direction, I would rather see new blood brought in. I want to see a serious Elm Street like the first one. The way they took the franchise in a comedy direction was extremely lame.

Englund would be hard to replace, because he doesn't wear a mask, speaks, and cant be an anonymous killer like Jason, Michael, etc.

Prequel might be a bit intriguing, but I know they would fuck it up so they probably shouldn't even go that direction.

He is too old, but if it doesn't go the prequel route he could play the role believably if its done in the next couple years.

monkeychow

I really loved new nightmare...i like to watch the original and then it back to back...

Re: New Line merging into WB??

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Re: New Line merging into WB??

Re: New Line merging into WB??

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Re: New Line merging into WB??

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