The Lord of the Rings, Austin Powers, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Rush Hour, The Mask and Boogie Nights – all Warner Brothers properties now.
New Line has ended and will be folded into Warner Brothers, putting nearly 600 New Line jobs at risk, including those of the founders Bob Shaye, who founded the company in his New York apartment, and Michael Lynne.
Reports the big V:
Time Warner said New Line would continue to have development, marketing, business affairs and some distribution operations but those will be cut severely. And New Line films will go out through Warner Bros. pipes after this weekend’s “Semi-Pro.”
Warner will likely make ample use of completed New Line pics since the usually prolific studio has dated only three pics for 2009.
In a message to New Line staffers, Shaye and Lynne warned New Line will be much smaller.
“This was a painful decision, because we love New Line, and the people who work here have been like our second families,” Shaye and Lynne said. “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.”
We saw this coming. New Line sold off the international rights to the Golden Compass, which turned out to be the only market where it performed at all. Not to mention the endless parade of Lord of the Rings lawsuits, all from those claiming they didn’t get paid and all get dismissed or settled when the New Line books get shipped out for review.
Now, we get The Hobbitt and all the 80s horror remakes (Friday, Nightmare) under the Warners banner. Usually, these films being taken out of the indie sphere would piss us off, but ever since Lord of the Rings rocked everyone’s world, New Line was just indie by name; all their problems and all their bad calls echoed a major studio.
But we’ll never forget you, New Line, for bringing us the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 90s.
We’ll always have Cowabunga.
