UPDATE: New Line Cinema bye-bye confirmed.

By George 'El Guapo' Roush on February 28, 2008

Hollywood Reporter confirmed the rumor:

New Line Cinema co-chairmen and co-CEOs Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne will leave the studio as part of a consolidation of Time Warner's film operations unveiled Thursday afternoon.

They are, however, "in discussions about possible future business relationships with the company," TW said.

As expected, the conglomerate announced the consolidation of its filmed entertainment businesses, Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line, with the latter being operated as a unit of Warner Bros.

New Line will maintain separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations. However, it will "closely integrate and coordinate those functions with Warner Bros. to maximize film performance and operating efficiencies, achieve significant cost savings, and improve margins," TW said.

"We are moving quickly to improve our business performance and financial returns," TW CEO Jeff Bewkes said. "Given the trend toward fewer movie releases, New Line and Warner Bros. will now have more complementary release slates, with New Line focusing on genres that have been its strength.

"New Line has been our respective life's work as well as our second family," Shaye and Lynne said. "While we're sad to be leaving, we're enormously proud to have overseen its extraordinary growth." They added that they "will now focus our efforts on exploring new entrepreneurial opportunities."

Throw this one on the rumor grill and make sure to flip it over after ten minutes or it won't cook evenly. From the blog at Judao comes an interesting rumor:

A unexpected rumor grows stronger in Hollywood since last week. Close sources to top executives and stars such as Nicole Kidman reports that box office failure in US theaters with Golden Compass was the last drop concerning the future of New Line Cinema. Although the movie grossed fortunes throughout the world and won a Special Effects Oscar, besting favorite Transformers, sounds like that nothing can save the company from being dissolved. The last chapter on this story was written after the publicity stunts for the Golden Compass in Japan, the last major market to premiere the fantasy flick. A person related to Nicole Kidman said that “even worldwide gross won’t be enough to save them”.

If it proves true, New Line line up will probably be taken over by Warner Bros. This year will be big in terms of anticipated movies, especially when it comes to Sex & The City – The Movie, the first big screen feature on the most famous New Yorker quartet, InkHeart and Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, both featuring Brendan Frasier. Not to mention the announced The Hobbit feature, a guaranteed golden pot at box offices after the smashing success of Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Too many great movies, too much money and too less information to take it for granted, but, still, a strong possibility according to the sources.

Without any intention to generate any conspiracy theory, recent news on a law issue involving New Line Cinema and Tolkien Estate, over the royalty rights for the multimillionaire movie franchise that, according to Tolkien representatives, “haven’t being paid at all “, corroborates to the idea that something is not right within New Line’s ranks. Was the ring’s burden to unbearable?

Let’s wait and see.

When I worked for MGM we heard rumors of being bought out at least a year before the rumor actually became a truth, so this news could have some sort of foundation to it. Update: Guess it has foundation after all!

I like mine medium rare. Send your rumor steak recipes to: george@latinoreview.com

Source:Judao

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