From TORn

[serai]

.
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.


Shit. This is not good news. The advantage to having The Hobbit at New Line would have been the support that Shaye and Co. always showed during production and promotion of LOTR. Warners is not exactly a hands-off operation.

*sigh* Oh well. At least we can be glad Wingnut is halfway around the world in New Zealand. That'll give them some protection from meddling suits, at least. That is, if the film gets a go. Everything's up in the air now until the dust settles.


ETA: Turns out to be a false rumor. SEE ICON.

Comments

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Oh, crap! WB is an outfit I loathe, especially given their stance on women. I'm giving serious thought to boycotting everything they make until they reverse that position, including now (unfortunately) The Hobbit.

Catherine

Things that make you go "hmmmm"...

[marigold6.livejournal.com]

Except they are the ones that brokered the "ceasefire" between PJ and Bob and got them to "play nice". I was wondering why they were involved when I saw their name attached - they also were noted as the distributors for TH.

Re: Things that make you go "hmmmm"...

[serai1.livejournal.com]

True. I'm not saying they don't make good movies. They've made plenty of great stuff over the years, although they do tend to focus on action films. I'm just not sanguine about a big studio taking over, though it's not surprising, really. As the article says, LOTR was the last big money-maker they had, and it ended five years ago. (!!!!!) That's an eternity in Hollywood terms. It was kind of inevitable that Shaye and Co. would get sacked after losing so much money.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

TORN is now reporting the rumor is false.

*whew*

[serai1.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks!

Re: *whew*

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

Yeah it kinda startled me at first. I went to TORN to see the original article and saw their correction.

I think if Shaye hadn't made up with PJ & Co, he would have gotten the ax!