New Line

[crippled_avenger]

New Line Cinema at 40 - The Ringleaders
Mike Goodridge
26 Oct 2007 00:00

 

Some 40 years after Bob Shaye formed New Line Cinema in his Greenwich Village apartment, the company is a bona fide Hollywood studio, sitting alongside Warner Bros in the Time Warner family. And it has some of the biggest franchise properties in the business under its belt - The Lord Of The Rings, Austin Powers and Rush Hour among them.

Bob Shaye was always crazy about movies. When he was 15, he made a training film for his father's supermarket and soon afterwards shared, with Martin Scorsese, the first prize in the prestigious Rosenthal Competition for best film by a US director under the age of 25.

While he was working at the Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in 1967, he started to explore the world of film distribution for the first time, and set up New Line. Early successes included Reefer Madness, which was a re-release of the 1936 educational film Tell Your Children, a 1978 re-release of Night Of The Living Dead, a host of foreign language titles from directors such as Werner Herzog, Eric Rohmer and Pier Paolo Pasolini and the early films of John Waters, starting out with Pink Flamingos in 1972.

Shaye first met Michael Lynne at Columbia University Law School in 1961. Although the two were acquainted, they did not get back in touch until many years later; Shaye had been running New Line for 15 years or so at this point and Lynne was a partner in the New York law firm Blumenthal & Lynne, specialising in entertainment and media clients.


Screen International: How did you reconnect?

Bob Shaye: I had heard that Michael was prospering extremely well in his chosen profession as a lawyer but he had a particular reputation, a commensurate skill for serving his clients well and I heard that, among other things, he was able to raise money for them. We ran into each other in Greenwich Village and that started the process again.

Michael Lynne: It was one of those fortuitous moments where New Line was in a mode where it needed to move on in order to grow, but in order to move on it needed to do some kind of corporate restructuring which was something I knew a little bit about. Through our two daughters, the gods threw us together because they were in the same class at a school in Manhattan. That's really how we reconnected more than anything else and it turns out there was something symbiotic about that moment - that I had something I knew how to do and Bob had something the company needed and we came together. That was 1984.

Bob, were you looking to raise money at the time?

BS: Well we started off with none, so any was a lot. What I should have known long before I took the leap into distribution was that financing was a very important part of film production and distribution. We had not produced anything, we were just distributors of almost exclusively foreign-made pictures but we certainly didn't have enough money to produce any ourselves and with the small bank financing that we had - which was somewhere around $200,000 or $300,000 - we actually had a prohibition against investing in any productions ourselves because banks were wary of profligate film producers.


So what changed?

BS: We decided to finance A Nightmare On Elm Street. It only cost $300,000 or $400,000 but it took a long time to get the financing together. Guy Collins actually backed out at the last minute of a very key part of the film financing to take the money he had raised and put it with some Australian science-fiction director. That put us into an incredible jam. We finally managed to put it together through a home-video deal and the final piece of the puzzle came from Smart Egg Pictures in London.


That film is generally seen as a turning point in New Line's history.

BS: Well of course every time you get a film financed, it's potentially a major turning point but that film ended up coming out very well, especially compared to the films we had been involved with before. I mean, we'd had our little successes but this was the biggest of those little successes and then we also had the possibility, really for the first time, to explore a franchise potential.

ML: In many respects, the film was the model for how franchises were developed at New Line specifically, but also elsewhere in the industry over the years, and was also a bellwether for how important that would be for film companies in our industry.


Were you already selling foreign rights on the films?

BS: The first film we sold rights on overseas was a film called Stunts (1977). I had been going to Cannes for several years and every time we could get a couple of rights that we could sell, we did so. But Stunts was the very first one we produced ourselves with letters of credit that we had gotten by showing storyboards to international distributors at Cannes the year before. Then we took Nightmare to Mifed when it was finished and had our very first screening. I was shocked and very happy to see the screening room was completely packed. Then we basically sold out in Milan. Our head of sales at the time was Stanley Dudelson.


Were you very ambitious to build the company in scale?

BS: Sure I was, but the first order of business was to keep our heads above water. We were betting on one of two circumstances occurring - either that we had a film or films which were strong enough to support us and give us enough cashflow that we didn't have to live from hand to mouth; the other possibility was to get some kind of investing resource that would give us the same capital.


Did that happen?

BS: It didn't happen as quickly as I hoped it would. A Nightmare On Elm Street really started the ball rolling in terms of getting capital together and when the second Elm Street got started, we began to get approached by real investment bankers such as EF Hutton and Bear Stearns and particularly Drexel Burnham, which was ironic because they were these big-shot financiers and had financed Cannon among other people with a lot of money, all with junk bonds. All we needed to do, and I didn't know that at the time, was to show a little bit of success above our standing to demonstrate that we really could turn entertainment product in to a profit.

ML: And during that period of time, the company was doing a few significant things strategically. One was being in a position through the financings to be able to create a slate of production as opposed to one film at a time, so that it could be in a position of developing and producing product on a predictable basis. Then in addition to that, Bob was augmenting the team at New Line. So for example, over that period of time, New Line established its own theatrical distribution organisation. Previously it had used sub-distributors. So at that time Mitch Goldman came in to set that up and Rolf Mittweg came in to make the international sales operation a more effective and sophisticated operation that could actually deal with a whole slate of films on an ongoing basis. Then, ultimately, Steve Einhorn came in to develop the home-video division.

1986

New Line successfully listed on the American Stock Exchange

When did you go public and was that a success?

ML: The company went public in 1986. I was still advising on the outside. The company really did prosper as an American Stock Exchange company. For one that had started out quite small in terms of market cap and grew from there, it had very significant institutional investment, more than a company that size would normally have. That was because the company maintained the philosophy that Bob created when it was originally founded. It was a company of fiscal prudence and creative risk-taking and that served it very well.

BS: Along the way, we had several financings including secondary stock offerings and convertible debenture offerings that helped nurture and fertilise the skills we had assembled.

1990-91

1990: Michael Lynne joins New Line as president and COO after a decade as chief legal counsel; New Line establishes Fine Line Features as a specialised arm under Ira Deutchman

1991: New Line has its first $100m-plus grosser in the US with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What were the key films in this period?

BS: Critters, Nightmare 3 and 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There was still a significant genre aspect to the company, there's no doubt.

Why did you start Fine Line?

ML: Ira Deutchman was the initiator of Fine Line. He had been a consultant on Metropolitan, a film which New Line distributed but which was obviously an art film and that kind of catalysed the thinking around Fine Line.

BS: The Fine Line idea really came about because as our company evolved and we got more involved with bigger films, I felt that our whole organisation didn't really have the finesse to handle a smaller art film any more. I realised this particularly when we ended up not reaching out for sex, lies and videotape. And so we went back to the drawing board and said, "Look, New Line has given up that franchise, but it certainly is a business that we know and we probably should create another organisation to better further it."

1993

Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System buys New Line in a deal worth more than $500m

When was the first meeting with Ted Turner? Was it a good match?

BS: I had wanted to meet Ted Turner for a couple of years because he was kind of my role model. I was excited and envious of everything he was doing and I actually asked David Kirschner, who had produced a film for us, to try to introduce me, but nothing ever came out of it. Then one day our investment banker Roy Herman, right after one of our New Line shareholder meetings, came up to me and said, "Ted Turner would love to meet you," so we flew down to Atlanta.

ML: What we didn't know was that it wasn't just a meeting in Ted's mind. For him, it was a meeting to tell us he was going to buy New Line. And it was virtually the first thing he said when we sat down in his office. He said, "OK, we're going to buy New Line and now we just have to figure out the terms." I think Bob was shocked, I was shocked. I'm not sure (the company's investment banker) Roy (Herman) was shocked, I'll never really know.

BS: I just said, "I think we have to step out of the room for a second." And then I said to Roy, "What the fuck is going on?"

ML: And it turned out, that although nothing was literally resolved in that one meeting, we realised that if we were to do what Bob and I wanted to accomplish for the company in a time frame that was more realistic, one of the ways we could do that was through an affiliation with Turner Broadcasting because it certainly had the financial wherewithal. It had an entrepreneur at the head who was passionately interested in our business, and it was an ultimate user of our product through its networks. It was kind of a perfect fit, as we reflected on it.

Were you nervous that you would lose autonomy and independence?

ML: I think the answer is probably no, because if it wasn't Ted it probably never would have happened. I think the fact it was Ted gave us more comfort in the merger and the belief that we could maintain our autonomy.

BS: In fact we almost concluded a deal with Universal to sell them 20% and put one of their key financial executives on our board. But that would have been, in hindsight, a tremendously big mistake. We would have just been consumed and forgotten about. Ted wasn't interested in that. He really knows how to run a company the way (Time Warner's) Steve Ross used to know how. I totally gave him credit for diverting his entrepreneurial excitement and his great idea for a company into making several billion dollars, and I was hoping the same could happen to us.

He had tried his own movie company at the time but it wasn't very successful?

ML: It was kind of a mixed bag. In fairness, he did end up with the MGM library which enabled him to create TNT and to some degree TBS. And he had the Hanna-Barbera library which enabled him to create the Cartoon Network. So although neither one of those put him in the movie business, it gave him the library back-up for the movie business that then if he brought in a company that could create product, he would have all the necessary ingredients for a significant film company.

In 1996, you had a string of big-budget flops such as The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Island Of Dr Moreau. What did you learn from those films?

ML: We don't remember that year.

BS: You can easily make mistakes even though you are trying not to.

ML: I think you learn a little bit from any of those situations and everyone is going to have their share of films that don't work. Part of it was growing pains when we made the arrangement with Turner, because Ted was very ambitious for us to grow in a way maybe beyond our internal capability.

1996

Time Warner buys Turner Broadcasting - and New Line

What were your concerns at the Time Warner deal with Turner?

ML: We were concerned. Obviously Time Warner had one of the most prestigious film companies in the world already under its aegis and it was definitely a concern to Bob and I whether we would be able to maintain New Line's independence and gameplan in that context. We flirted with the idea of Time Warner selling New Line and although Ted was very resistant to the idea, we began to go through a process. I think at the end of the day, we got to know the people at Warner well enough to believe we did more or less complementary stuff and there was probably room for both of us under Time Warner - which turned out to be true.

Who were you going to sell to?

ML: We had a relationship during that period of time with a French company, Havas, which led to their interest in maybe doing this, and they were one of several companies, but, as I say, before the process came to a conclusion, we decided to stay with Time Warner.

2000-03

2001: Michael Lynne named co-chairman and co-CEO of New Line

2001-03: New Line unleashes The Lord Of The Rings trilogy in consecutive years, grossing $3bn from worldwide theatrical distribution alone, and winning 30 Oscar nominations and 17 Oscars in total

Had The Lord Of The Rings started rolling before Time Warner took over?

ML: It was almost exactly in the transition, 1997. More or less the same time.

Do you agree that the trilogy was the riskiest venture that any film company has tried to date?

BS: We had hedged somewhere between 70%-80% of our investment.

ML: If it had broken even, nobody would have been happy. The company wouldn't have gone out of business, but it definitely would have been a problematic issue for people who had invested with us, and for Time Warner itself.

BS: And then there was the spectre that if the first film broke even or was just mildly successful, then we had two more films that we had to go out and market. And who knows what would have happened? Because at current date, sequels have done better than the primary films, but at that point, sequels were on kind of a downhill curve, which could have presented a certain amount of risk.

What percentage of the trilogy did the international distributors take on?

ML: The foreign distribution rights alone were responsible for close to 70%.

BS: We're extremely proud and grateful that they demonstrated such confidence in us. It wasn't just us, of course. They knew the material and were all excited about the prospects.

2005

New Line winds down Fine Line and teams with HBO to form new specialised distribution outfit Picturehouse under Bob Berney

Even after The Lord Of The Rings, some say your position within Time Warner is still in jeopardy.

RS: We don't pay that much attention to public relations, and everybody's got to have some scapegoat in their lives, so we've had our share of criticism. Fortunately the successes have outnumbered the lack of successes.

ML: Jeff Bewkes (Time Warner president and COO) said the other night, at an event we were all at for New Line's 40th anniversary, that New Line Cinema made more than $1bn from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and it's more money probably than all the independent film companies have made in history, in the aggregate. That kind of says it all.

Where does New Line go after winning 11 out of 11 Academy Awards on a film?

BS: Well, the heads of New Line went out and had a few drinks, I'm telling you.

ML: You get such excitement and joy out of one of your films working. It's not just exciting if it's The Lord Of The Rings, it's also great if it's Wedding Crashers, Austin Powers or A Nightmare On Elm Street. These are exciting moments in our lives.


Top New Line films at the North American box office, 1986-2007
2007
Rush Hour 3
(Dir: Brett Ratner)
$137.7m to date
2006
Final Destination 3
(Dir: James Wong)
$54.1m
2005
Wedding Crashers
(Dir: David Dobkin)
$209.2m
2004
The Notebook
(Dir: Nick Cassavetes)
$81m
2003
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
(Dir: Peter Jackson)
$377m
2002
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
(Dir: Peter Jackson)
$341.8m
2001
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
(Dir: Peter Jackson)
$314.8m
2000
The Cell
(Dir: Tarsem Singh)
$61.3m
1999
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
(Dir: Jay Roach)
$205.4m
1998
Rush Hour
(Dir: Brett Ratner)
$141.2m
1997
Spawn
(Dir: Mark AZ Dippe)
$54.9m
1996
Michael
(Dir: Nora Ephron)
$95.3m
1995
Seven
(Dir: David Fincher)
$100.1m
1994
Dumb And Dumber
(Dir: Peter and Bobby Farrelly)
$127.1m
1993
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
(Dir: Stuart Gillard)
$42.3m
1992
The Lawnmower Man
(Dir: Brett Leonard)
- $32.1m
1991
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze
(Dir: Michael Pressman)
$78.7m
1990
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(Dir: Steve Barron)
$135.3m
1989
A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
(Dir: Stephen Hopkins)
$22.2m
1988
A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
(Dir: Renny Harlin)
$49.4m
1987
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
(Dir: Chuck Russell)
$44.8m
1986
A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge
(Dir: Jack Sholder)
$30m
NEW LINE TOP 10 FILMS AT THE INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE
1
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
(2003)
$741.9m
2
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
(2002)
$584.5m
3
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
(2001)
$556.6m
4
The Mask
(1994)
$231.6m
5
Seven
(1995)
$227.2m
6
Rush Hour 2
(2001)
$121.2m
7
Dumb And Dumber
(1994)
$120m
8
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
(1999)
$106m
9
Austin Powers In Goldmember
(2002)
$83.3m
10
Wedding Crashers
(2005)
$75.9m

[lenny]

Samo bedak sto je uz mamurluk od tih pica dosla i ozbiljna glavobolja zvana Golden Compass.

[crippled_avenger]

2007. je za New Line generalno bila slaba...

[lenny]

Oni su u sustini ti koji su postavili normu sa high profile serijalom kao vrhunskim studijskim projektom i glavnom kravom muzalicom.  Posle LOTR, svaki veliki studiji je poceo da traga, ako do tad vec nije, za svojom velikom fransizom, i uspesnost samog studija se meri upravo brojem i pouzdanoscu same fransize.
WB ima Potera i oziveo je Batmana, Disney ima Pirate, Narniju, Nacionalno Blago i Pixar, Sony Spidermana i Bonda, Universal Borna   itd.

Medjutim, kako to uvek biva, iako njihova igra, NL ne moze da ostane u njoj, jer su sada drugi igraci previse krupni.

Golden Compass je bio pokusaj da nastave igru, da se nekako vrate, ali izgleda da nisu imali dovoljno sluha da osete nova izmenjena pravila.

[lenny]

2007., kao i 2006.
A osim senzacionalnog uspeha Wedding Crashersa i u 2005. je bilo dosta promasaja.No ipak su to Crashersi pokrili.

Deluje nekako da se posle LOTR New Line negde pogubila, i sada se bezuspesno batrga.

[crippled_avenger]

De Lucin odlazak je bio prvi faktor destabilizacije New Linea, medjutim, ja mislim da ce se oni vratiti opet nekim left-field hitom.

[lenny]

Verovatno da hoce. Mislim, ozbiljni su oni igraci, ako vec nisu krupni.

Jedino je pitanje koliko bezbolno ce moci da podnesu propast Kompasa. Veliki lako mogu da prodju sa Posejdonom, Miami Viceom ili Islandom. NL, nasuprot toga nema takav production slate koji ce olako amortizovati neuspeh ovako velikog projekta.
   Koliko znam, oni su prava za svetsku distribuciju prodali i pokrili dobar deo budzeta. Sto su radili i sa Prstenovima. Tako da i to malo novca  sto ce film zaraditi, sirom sveta, nema veze sa njima. S druge strane, ako su pokrili produkciju, onda mozda uspeju da se finansijski jedva izvuku. Mada su ova dvojca sami rekli da bi bili u nezgodnoj situaciji da Prstenovi nisu prosli tako dobro kako jesu.

Onda Rush Hour 3 je takodje prosao dosta slabije nego sto se ocekivalo.

Sad imaju samo jos onog Austin Powersa, i ovo sto oce da rade Hobita.

Prosto, nisam siguran da je situacija trenutno takva, u samoj industriji, da taj neki left-field hit, kako kazes, moze mnogo da izvuce situaciju.

Kompas i RH3 su trebali da budu ti koji spasavaju dan, a izneverili su!

[crippled_avenger]

Pa da ali ancillary profit tog filma će biti enorman. To je takav tip filma. kao fantasy film on će imati stalno novu i obnovljenu publiku, tako da će kućna i televizijska prava za taj film biti izuzetno unosan posao. Američki B.O. u konačnom zbiru predstavlja samo petinu prihoda filma (ne u toj godini, već ukupno, gledajući savremene vidove eksploatacije filma) tako da ja mislim da je GOLDEN COMPASS samo fiskalni problem (u 2007. ne mogu da započnu sve videove ekploatacije filma) za ovu godinu ali da će in the long run biti isplativ. Oni naprosto ove godine neće moći da izvuku te troškove. S druge strane, oni su veliki sami po sebi kad im je Time Warner vlasnik i finansijer.

Već iduće godine oni imaju jak slate, i par sigurnih hitova.

[lenny]

To si potpuno u pravu, za tu petinu prihoda. Cak je i verovatno da je danas taj procenat i manji. Zapravo box office cifre, odnosno njihova laka dostupnost, ili ti nametljivost, imaju prevashodnu funkciju u stvaranju pompe o uspesnosti produkta, i njegovom pozicioniranju za dalju distribuciju. U tom kontekstu uspeh filma na samim blagajnama je bitan samo za predstavu o filmu, odnosno, njegovoj uspesnosti. Prakticno, vecina holivudskih filmova uvek pokrije svoje troskove.    

Medjutim, to ima i drugu stranu. Ta ista percepcija, u ovom slucaju o neuspesnosti filma, diskredituje isti film, ili jos vaznije ljude koji stoje iza njega.  Profit koji taj film eventualno  i donese, ostace u senci ovog prvobitnog neuspeha. Pogotovo kada se radi o ovako velikom projektu, ciji je budzet, kako se navodi, oko 180 mila.

Takodje je cinjenica da ove epic fantazije cak udvostrucuju svoju zaradu na svetskom bioskopskom trzistu. Ovde, NL nece uzeti nikakav prihod. Pri tom, film ni na tom trzistu ne ostvaruje ocekivani profit.

Tako da mislim da je neuspeh ovog filma i veci nego sto deluje.
S druge strane, moguce da potcenjujem sam studio. Time Warner jesu njihova ledja, ali to ima i cenu, za njih same, ono o cemu pricaju njih dvojca. Moguce da bi se,  posle ovoga, njihova  pozicija, u okviru konglomerata, mogla osetno smanjiti.

 Ove godine izaslo je jos par tih fantasyja koji su katastrofalno prosli. Onaj seeker:the dark is rising, ili Stardust. Tako da ni fantasy, sam po sebi, vise nije tako ekskluzivan produkt.

Posledice ovoga ce se najbolje videti tek za pola godine, ili godinu dana.

[crippled_avenger]

Certain films always play significantly better outside America than they do domestically and vice versa. US audiences love superhero movies and teen comedies, but neither translate particularly well overseas. They also love Jason Bourne far more than anyone else, but overseas even the weaker James Bond incarnations have kicked Bourne's ass.

On the flipside, fantasy films and historical epics rarely do well within the US but often do gangbusters overseas. Famously "Troy" took in only about 80% of its $175 million budget domestically, but it more than doubled that amount from foreign grosses alone for example.

Now, New Line Cinema's "The Golden Compass" which many had written of as one of the biggest flops of last year, has found its salvation in foreign audiences. The $180 million-budgeted family film has made just $67 million in its six-week run so far domestically, but its more than quadrupled that amount overseas with a still growing $234 million haul that shows no sign of slowing.

Adding them together, the project has crossed the $300 million mark in global ticket sales. The film has proven particular popular in the United Kingdom, Spain, South Korea and Australia whilst it still has yet to open in Japan. The take certainly closes the wounds that the underwhelming domestic haul had caused, but aren't enough to ensure a sequel.

[crippled_avenger]

New Line Cinema is officially being absorbed into Time Warner, a move that has long been expected and many say is overdue. The company will now serve as a genre arm of Warner Bros. Pictures (much like Screen Gems at Sony) with a focus on horror, comedy and urban features.

In a move designed mostly to cut ballooning overhead costs, its expected that many of the 600 staffers working for the studio in its LA and NYC branches will be let go - amongst them the studio's creator Bob Shaye and topper Michael Lynne. Production President Toby Emmerich and Distribution Head Rolf Mittweg will stay on but will now serve under Alan Horn and Barry Meyer at Warners.

New Line will continue to have development, marketing and some distribution operations but those will be severely limited. The move also means that Warner's specialty film divisions Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures will also undergo some major restructuring.

New Line will also stop its longstanding practice of selling off international rights to finance films - a move that came significantly after "The Golden Compass" underperformed domestically but grossed big overseas. The project's failure was the last in a long line of problems that have plagued the company since the success of the 'Rings' trilogy. The move is not expected to affect the production of both "The Hobbit" films which will both got out under the label. The projects are targeting a Christmas 2011 and 2012 release.

In its time New Line has handled some of the more famous film franchises of the last few decades, most notably "The Lord of the Rings". They've also released the "Austin Powers," "Rush Hour," "Blade," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Final Destination" and "Friday the 13th" film series as well as notable one-off pics like "Se7en," "Boogie Nights," "Wedding Crashers," "American History X," "Magnolia," "A History of Violence," "The Notebook," "Snakes on a Plane," "Mortal Kombat," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Dumb and Dumber"" and "The Mask".

Their last official film as a full company is Will Ferrell comedy "Semi-Pro" opening today, other upcoming Summer releases of theirs including the "Sex and the City" movie, the "Harold and Kumar" sequel, and "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" will be handled by the new division.

[crippled_avenger]

Shaye & Lynne quit as New Line is folded into Warner Bros
28 Feb 2008 22:29

 

New Line's run as an autonomous production, marketing and distribution entity came to an end today as Time Warner announced that going forward the studio would operate as a slimmed down unit of Warner Bros and that New Line's co-chairmen and co-CEOs Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne were leaving the company.

The move follows months of speculation following the relatively poor performance of New Line's films since the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. New Line will now "focus on genres that have been its strength" - ie horror, comedy and urban films like its Nightmare On Elm Street and House Party franchises. Even though it will maintain separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations, it will be a severely reduced operation and hundreds of redundancies are expected.

New Line will from now on retain international rights, which will be handled through Warner Bros Pictures International's existing infrastructure. A pioneer in the international sales business, New Line has shared its successes with independent output partners such as Entertainment in the UK, Metropolitan in France and Alliance in Canada. Those arrangements will presumably come to an end in the near future and their disappearence changes the face of the international sales market.

Official word from Time Warner headquarters said New Line would "closely integrate and coordinate those functions with Warner Bros to maximise film performance and operating efficiencies, achieve significant cost savings, and improve margins." There was no word yet on the anticipated number of lay-offs or when New Line would stop distributing movies outside Warner Bros.

New Line has a strong theatrical lineup this year including Sex And The City, Journey-3D, He's Just Not That Into You, The Time Traveler's Wife, Inkheart and Four Christmases. Will Ferrell comedy Semi-Pro opens this weekend.

Also unclear is the fate of Picturehouse, the specialised distribution company which was formed by New Line and HBO under Bob Berney. Picturehouse has enjoyed Oscar winning hits such as Pan's Labyrinth and La Vie En Rose, but its future is now bound to that of Warner specialised label Warner Independent Pictures.

"We are moving quickly to improve our business performance and financial returns," Time Warner's president and chief executive officer Jeff Bewkes said. "New Line has built a strong franchise of cutting-edge entertainment. We can enhance its value by combining it with Warner Bros. 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.

"We can also take better advantage of digital distribution platforms by combining our studios. These changes will enhance our revenue opportunities and drive dramatic cost efficiencies and higher margins at New Line."

Bewkes paid tribute to Shaye and Lynne and hinted at a possible future working relationship with Time Warner. "Bob and Michael have a unique partnership that is noteworthy not only for its stability and longevity, but for its record of innovation and success.

"They have guided New Line's growth from a privately held art film distributor to the world's leading independent film studio that is home to some of the most popular films in entertainment history, including The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, The Mask, Austin Powers, Blade, Rush Hour, Elf, Wedding Crashers and Hairspray.

"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 and worked with so many dedicated and talented colleagues. New Line represents innovation, creativity, and independent success. We hope that the company can continue to be a leader in creating entertainment that resonates around the world. We will now focus our efforts on exploring new entrepreneurial opportunities."

In an internal memo sent out to New Line staff, Shaye and Lynne said: "This is, of course, a very difficult and emotional time for all of us who have worked at New Line."

They continued: "The company will be holding group meeting with New Line employees tomorrow in Los Angeles and New York to discuss this announcement, and is committed to letting employees know as soon as possible about how this change affects them individually."

Meanwhile they hinted that they would set up their own company. "Although we are stepping out of New Line, we intend to remain actively involved in the industry in an entrepreneurial capacity, and will keep you advised of developments," said the memo.

[lenny]

Eh!
A jos i semi-pro bombnuo na otvaranju!
Bumer

[crippled_avenger]

The annual New Line party chez Shaye was a popular stop on the pre-Oscars festivity circuit, and to an outsider the scene seemed to fit every stereotype of Hollywood power and the aspiration to it. There was the blue-chip contemporary art on the walls ("Is that a real Francis Bacon?" I heard someone ask); the panoramic views of the Los Angeles basin and the San Fernando Valley; the Wolfgang Puck-catered dinner; the endless parade of agents, executives, movie stars and aspirants to influence and fame.

Wasn't that Richard Parsons of Time Warner? Is she Paris Hilton? Is that the guy who used to be on that TV show? And that must be his agent. It was like something from "The Player," speaking of New Line releases.

This impression, however, was a bit misleading. Yes, it's true that in February 2004, New Line Cinema was on top of the world, and Mr. Shaye and his colleagues, including his co-chairman, Michael Lynne, were riding high. The night after the party, to no one's particular surprise, "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" swept every category in which it was nominated, collecting 11 Oscars, among them best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay. But New Line was hardly a typical blockbuster factory, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was not a typical franchise, and Bob Shaye was far from a standard studio boss.

And that is why New Line — which ceased to operate as a full-fledged studio on Thursday, when Time Warner announced that it would be folded into Warner Brothers and Mr. Shaye and Mr. Lynne would depart — will be missed. New Line was not a specialty division or a genre label. It went highbrow and low, sometimes playing for the niches and sometimes for the mass audience. It was an oddity and an anomaly.

Last year, in commemoration of its 40th anniversary, New Line put together a DVD sampler of some of its more memorable productions. It was handsomely bound and presented, but the impression was less of a catalog of masterpieces than a collection of betting slips, a compendium of gambles, hunches and long shots. "The Lord of the Rings" was the most successful of these. (Others included "Elf," "Blow" and the "Austin Powers" trilogy.)

No other studio was willing to sink several hundred million dollars into the simultaneous production of three movies directed by an obscure New Zealander named Peter Jackson. And when New Line did just that, there were a lot of smirks and raised eyebrows in Hollywood.

As perhaps there are now, since schadenfreude is as essential to the health of the Hollywood body politic as Diet Coke. The triumph of the "Rings" was followed by a long losing streak, exacerbated by messy litigation over the spoils and the future of the Tolkien franchise. Mr. Shaye decided to dabble in directing, turning out a ghastly kiddie- magic movie called "The Last Mimzy." It began to seem as if New Line's days were numbered.

It's not for me to argue the merits of the decision to snuff out New Line's independence. The dissolution of one corporate entity by another is rarely an occasion for sentiment, except perhaps among stockholders. But New Line Cinema was a link between the smooth, conglomerated present and a gamier, more entrepreneurial past. Mr. Shaye may live like Hollywood royalty, but his roots are in New York retail and in the nervy, disreputable world of grindhouses and exploitation pictures.

He was the man who made the 1930s drug-scare propaganda movie "Reefer Madness" into a staple of the late-'60s campus counterculture. He picked up, on the cheap, North American rights to Bruce Lee movies, and he helped turn John Waters's "Pink Flamingos" into a cult classic. And let's not forget Freddy Krueger of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Not a bad art collection, after all.

[lenny]

focus on horror, comedy and urban features

nadam se da nece prekinutu sa izbacivanjem krimica pucacina poput shoot em up, running scared ili domino.

[mac]

It was an oddity and an anomaly.

A onda ih je pojeo Matrix... Ali bez brige, jer pojaviće se novi New Line, samo s drugim imenom, i istorija će se ponoviti...

[crippled_avenger]

Lord Of The Rings
Screen analysis - The end of the Line
Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles
07 Mar 2008 00:00

 

When Time Warner issued a brief statement last Thursday (March 28) announcing New Line Cinema would be absorbed into Warner Bros Entertainment as a genre unit, it was made very clear New Line's international sales activities would be terminated.

"With the growing importance of international revenues, it makes sense for New Line to retain its international film rights and to exploit them through Warner Bros' global distribution infrastructure," said Time Warner's president and CEO Jeff Bewkes in the announcement.

It might seem curious that international rights management should be addressed so centrally in the first announcement of a studio's demise, but then for New Line Cinema, international sales has always been a core part of its business model.

In an interview with Screen last October, New Line founder Bob Shaye explained the company first sold foreign rights at Cannes on a 1977 film called Stunts. A Nightmare On Elm Street sold out at Mifed in November 1984 when Stanley Dudelson was heading sales for the company. When Rolf Mittweg came into New Line in the late 1980s, he was charged with building a more sophisticated sales operation and putting in place ongoing output partners for the studio's product.

Entertainment Film Distributors in the UK became a firm fixture in the New Line distribution patchwork as did Metropolitan Filmexport in France; Kinowelt in Germany; Alliance in Canada; Svensk in Sweden; Village Roadshow in Australia, New Zealand and Greece; and alternatively Aurum and Tri Pictures in Spain.

The relationships were conducted either on a package basis where the distributor would pay minimum guarantees, or output deals where the foreign distributors committed to annual slates and paid a percentage of the budget of each film according to a mutually agreed formula.

When New Line was bought by Time Warner in 1996, Warner Bros stepped in for Latin American rights and, following the collapse of the Kinowelt arrangement in 2001, took over German-speaking Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe.

The distribution partners had good years and bad with New Line. None were thrilled with The Long Kiss Goodnight or The Island Of Dr Moreau but for every flop, there was a Seven or Austin Powers, a Mask or Rush Hour. Cam Galano stepped in for Mittweg in 2001 when Mittweg assumed a larger role at the studio.

Mittweg and Galano worked together on the financing and distribution puzzle for The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Some 70% of the $270m production budget was covered by international distribution partners.

In addition to Entertainment, Metropolitan and the usual suspects, they sealed mega-deals for the trilogy with Nippon Herald in Japan and Taewon in Korea at Cannes 2000.

The success of the three films for the international partners cannot be overestimated. Nor can the fact they, more than anybody involved, took a huge risk on the trilogy.

The risk paid off. The Greens at Entertainment, the Hadidas at Metropolitan and others genuinely shared in the profits of one of the box-office phenomenons of the last 20 years. It was the international buyers' dream. Instead of losing money on studio cast-offs, they had a hefty piece of a trilogy which grossed nearly $2bn outside North America.

The run of success continued with the first of what could have been another trilogy, this time based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books.



The Golden Compass cost $180m to produce and was considered a flop in North America with its paltry $70m gross late last year. Overseas, however, was a different story. Entertainment took $53m in the UK, Metropolitan took $25.5m in France, Taewon took $22.5m in Korea, Tri took $18.5m in Spain, Roadshow took $14.8m in Australia and New Zealand, RAI took $13.8m in Italy and Gussi took $10.4m in Mexico.

Gaga has just opened the film in Japan last weekend on a powerful $7.7m, bringing the international total to $264.3m and counting. Should the film hit $300m - highly likely in the next few weeks now that Japan has opened - Warner Bros will be hard-pressed to deny production of a sequel.

With many of the international deals expiring after this year's production cycle, the elimination of New Line product from the independent market brings a dramatic sea change to the complexion of the global business.

While Warner Bros Pictures International (Wbpi) will relish new genre product to power its distribution machine, independents will be competing for an increasingly small number of tentpole pictures available to them. Witness the numbers paid for Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island in a handful of territories at Berlin as proof of the hunger for star-driven Hollywood movies as locomotives for independent distribution slates.

"If it means that Nigel (Green, boss of Entertainment) has to go out into the open market to source projects, that means there will be another powerful, massive buyer out there to compete with," says one rival UK distributor, who did not want to be named. He predicted the fight among independent distributors for studio-level product will now become more ferocious than ever.

"Warner Bros has taken one competitor out of the marketplace on the distribution side... the downside is that the competition now comes in the buying arena rather than the distribution arena," the UK distributor adds.

Entertainment, for one, never relied entirely on its New Line partnership and has a host of other films and relationships up its sleeve, dealing with all major sales companies and securing regular product lines from companies such as Initial Entertainment Group, Gold Circle Pictures and Hyde Park International.

But the success enjoyed by companies such as Entertainment with Time Warner films must have been galling to top brass at Time Warner.

"It's a natural process that happens all the time," comments Dutch producer-distributor San Fu Maltha, who helped Netherlands-based A-Film secure a deal with New Line for The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. "Big major companies, if their specialist arm is becoming too commercial, too successful, will fold it in again when they have a reason to.

"It was quite clear from the moment of The Lord Of The Rings that (the folding in of New Line at Warner Bros) would be the price of success."

Maltha predicts that distributors will become "more dependent on the fewer sales agents that bring the big product. New Line was one of the suppliers of major films. For (the distributors), it was, if not a lifeline, an important source."

In some major territories, namely Italy and Japan, New Line preferred to seal deals with different distributors rather than tie down its product with one partner.

In Italy, Rai Cinema's distribution arm, 01 Distribution recently handled the Italian roll-out of The Golden Compass and, at AFM, secured the remaining pictures in the 2008 cycle - namely Sex And The City, He's Just Not That Into You, Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D, Appaloosa and The Time Traveler's Wife. Rai Cinema's chief of acquisitions, Paola Malanga, says she expects existing contracts to remain intact.

Medusa handled The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, smaller distributor Moviemax recently handled the Italian roll-out of Hairspray and Ernesto di Sarro's Nexo distributed The Cell, Final Destination, Frequency, Blow, Town & Country and Fur.

In Japan, the studio worked with most of the major companies - Shochiku, Gaga and Nippon Herald among them.

Much of the international fallout of the announcement has yet to be established.

It is yet to be understood what impact the clipping of New Line's wings will have on Material Entertainment, Robert Jones' London-based production company backed by New Line and Entertainment which had a huge 2007 hit with Run, Fat Boy, Run.

Whether there will be sequels to The Golden Compass based on the film's international popularity and, if so, who will own the rights to distribute them is also unclear. Perhaps Warner Bros with its streamlined distribution system and global marketing capability could drive the grosses even higher than the New Line independents could.

And where will the New Line International executives land? Mittweg and Galano are among the most well-known executives in the international world, so their options are wide.

As for the other hundreds of existing New Line staff, rumours in Los Angeles already suggest many will be absorbed by emerging domestic outfits such as Summit and Overture.

One thing is certain. International buyers will be looking to Summit and Overture to bring increasingly high-level product to the marketplace and fill the gap left by New Line Cinema. Because it is a very big gap indeed.

Additional reporting by Geoffrey Macnab, Theodore Schwinke, Jean Noh, Sheri Jennings and Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte.

NEW LINE DOMESTIC GROSSES 2007
Release Total
date Title gross
Jan 5 Code Name: The Cleaner* $8.13m
Feb 23 The Number 23 $35.2m
Mar 23 The Last Mimzy $21.5m
April 20 Fracture $39m
July 20 Hairspray $118.9m
Aug 10 Rush Hour 3 $140.1m
Sept 7 Shoot 'Em Up $12.8m
Sept 14 Mr Woodcock $25.8m
Oct 19 Rendition $9.7m
Nov 2 Martian Child $7.5m
Nov 16 Love In The Time Of Cholera* $4.6m
Dec 7 The Golden Compass $70.1m
* domestic only

NEW LINE INT'L GROSSES 2007*

Title Total gross
The Number 23 $41.4m
The Last Mimzy $5.2m
Fracture $50.3m
Hairspray $81.5m
Rush Hour 3 $112.9m
Shoot 'Em Up $12m
Mr Woodcock $6.5m
Rendition $13.8m
Martian Child $0.92m
The Golden Compass $264.3m
* as of March 3

NEW LINE's ALL-TIME BOX OFFICE TOP 20 DOMESTIC

Film (Year, director) Total BO gross
1 The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003, Peter Jackson) $377m
2 The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002, Peter Jackson) $341.8m
3 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001, Peter Jackson) $314.8m
4 Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002, Jay Roach) $213.1m
5 Wedding Crashers (2005, David Dobkin) $209.2m
6 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999, Jay Roach) $205.4m
7 Elf (2003, Jon Favreau) $173.4m
8 Rush Hour (1998, Brett Ratner) $141.2m
9 Rush Hour 3 (2007, Brett Ratner) $140.3m
10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990, Steve Barron) $135.3m
11 Dumb And Dumber (1994, Peter and Bobby Farrelly) $127.1m
12 The Mask (1994, Chuck Russell) $119.9m
13 Hairspray (2007, Adam Shankman) $118.9m
14 Seven (1995, David Fincher) $100.1m
15 Michael (1996, Nora Ephron) $95.6m
16 Freddy Vs Jason (2003, Ronny Yu) $82.2m
17 Blade II (2002, Guillermo del Toro) $81.7m
18 The Wedding Singer (1998, Frank Coraci) $80.2m
19 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003, Marcus Nispel) $80.2m
20 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze (1991, Michael Pressman) $78.7m

[crippled_avenger]

Hollywood accounting
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It has been suggested that Monkey points be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

In accountancy, Hollywood accounting is the practice of distributing the profit earned by a large project to corporate entities which, though technically distinct from the one responsible for the project itself, are typically owned by the same people. This has the net result of reducing the project's reported profit by a substantial margin, sometimes even eliminating it altogether. This may be for income tax reasons, but more often it is to reduce the amount which the corporation must pay in royalties or other profit-sharing agreements.

Contents [hide]
1 Creative accountants
2 How it works
3 Examples
4 Production accounting
5 See also
6 References



[edit] Creative accountants
Hollywood accounting gets its name from the frequency with which it is alleged to be practiced in the entertainment industry — that is, in the movie studios of Hollywood. Stereotypically, the creators of material which is adapted into screenplays fall victim to Hollywood accounting.

In John D. MacDonald's novel Free Fall in Crimson (1981), an actress says to hero Travis McGee:

"Darling! This is the Industry! The really creative people are the accountants. A big studio got over half the profit, after setting breakeven at about three times the cost, taking twenty-five percent of income as an overhead charge, and taking thirty percent of income as a distribution charge, plus rental fees, and prime interest on what they advanced."[1]


[edit] How it works
Hollywood accounting can take several forms. In one form, a subsidiary is formed to perform a given activity and the parent entity will extract money out of the subsidiary not in terms of profits but in the form of charges for certain "services". The specific schemes can range from the simple and obvious to the extremely complex.

Three main factors in Hollywood accounting reduce the reported profit of a movie, and all have to do with the calculation of overhead:

Production overhead. Studios, on average, calculate production overhead by using a figure around 15% of total production costs.
Distribution overhead. Film distributors typically keep 30% of what they receive from movie theaters ("gross rentals").
Marketing overhead. To determine this number, studios usually determine about 10% of all advertising costs.
All of the above means of calculating overhead are highly controversial, even within the accounting industry. Namely, these percentages are assigned without much regard to how, in reality, these estimates relate to actual overhead costs. In short, this method does not, by any rational standard, attempt to adequately trace overhead costs.

Due to Hollywood accounting, it has been estimated that only about 5% of movies officially show a net profit[citation needed], and the "losers" include such blockbuster films as Rain Man, Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Batman.

All of this shows why so many big-name actors insist on "gross points" (a percentage of some definition of gross revenue) rather than net profit participation. The saying in Hollywood is "a percentage of the net is a percentage of nothing." This practice also reduces the likelihood of a project showing a profit, as a production company will claim a portion of the reported box-office revenue was diverted directly to gross point participants.


[edit] Examples
Winston Groom's price for the screenplay rights to his novel Forrest Gump included a share of the profits; however, due to Hollywood accounting, the film's commercial success was converted into a net loss, and Groom received nothing. That being so, he has refused to sell the screenplay rights to the novel's sequel, stating that he cannot in good conscience allow money to be wasted on a failure.

Stan Lee filed and won a lawsuit after the producers of the movie Spider-Man cheated him out of his share of the profits of the movie. [2]

The estate of Jim Garrison sued Warner Bros. for their share of the profits from the movie JFK, which was based on Garrison's book On the Trail of the Assassins. [3]

Art Buchwald received a settlement after his lawsuit Buchwald v. Paramount over Paramount's use of Hollywood accounting. The court found Paramount's actions "unconscionable," noting that it was impossible to believe that a movie (1988's Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America) which grossed US$350 million failed to make a profit, especially since the actual production costs were less than a tenth of that. Paramount settled for an undisclosed sum, rather than have its accounting methods closely scrutinized.

The film My Big Fat Greek Wedding was considered hugely successful for an independent film, yet according to the studio, the film lost money. Accordingly, the cast, with the exception of Nia Vardalos who had a separate deal, sued the studio for their part of the profits. The original producers of the film have also sued Playtone, HBO and Gold Circle Films due to Hollywood accounting practices because the studios have claimed that the film had actually lost $20 million. [4]

According to his publisher's website [5], fantasy novelist Peter S. Beagle is owed a substantial amount of money by Granada Media International, the current owner of the animated movie based on Beagle's book The Last Unicorn. Beagle's contract entitles him to 5% of the net profits in the animated property, and 5% of the gross revenues from any film-related merchandising. Granada apparently claims that the movie cost more to make than it took in, that it earned no money between 1986 and their acquisition of it in 1999, and the compounded interest on the loss adds up to several times what it cost to make. Beagle is currently attempting to raise sufficient funds to challenge Granada in court.

Hollywood accounting is not limited to movies. An example is the Warner Bros. television series Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski, who wrote 90% of the episodes in addition to producing the show, would receive a generous cut of profits if not for Hollywood accounting.[citation needed] The series, which was profitable in each of its five seasons from 1993–1998, has garnered more than US$1 billion for Warner Bros., most recently US$500 million in DVD sales alone. But in the last profit statement given to Straczynski, Warner Bros. claimed the property was $80 million in debt. "Basically," says Straczynski, "by the terms of my contract, if a set on a WB movie burns down in Botswana, they can charge it against B5's profits." [6]

Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, and his studio Wingnut Films, brought a lawsuit against New Line Cinema after "an audit... on part of the income of The Fellowship of the Ring". Jackson has stated this is regarding "certain accounting practices", which may be a reference to Hollywood accounting. In response, New Line stated that their rights to a film of The Hobbit were time-limited, and since Jackson would not work with them again until the suit was settled, he would not be asked to direct The Hobbit, as had been anticipated.[7] Fifteen actors also are suing New Line Cinema claiming that they have never received their 5% of revenue from merchandise sold in relation to the movie, which contains their likeness.[8] Similarly, the Tolkien estate has sued New Line, claiming that while their contract entitled them to 7.5% of the gross receipts, the film studio has refused to pay them any share at all of the $6 billion dollar hit.[9]


[edit] Production accounting
Production accounting is a filmmaking term, used especially in Hollywood, referring to the project accounting of the cost of a film project. As with construction accounting, salient issues are the accurate allocation of workers' time to specific projects (usually requiring each worker to fill out a weekly timesheet), and the correct assessment of indirect costs such as employee benefits.

Specialized software to support production accounting has been developed

[crippled_avenger]

Warner Bros. Pictures have revealed at ShoWest that they will immediately be taking over distribution of New Line's upcoming film slate reports the trades.

Two weeks ago when it was announced that the mini-major was being absorbed into Warners to help cut costs, many began to wonder what the move meant for the fate of several projects New Line had in production and/or set for release.

Now its been revealed that Warner will kick into gear on New Line's slate starting with "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" which is still scheduled for April 25th. The studio also plans to still release "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" on July 11th, despite the fact their big Summer tentpole film "The Dark Knight" opens the week after.

The fate of Gavin O'Connor's police drama "Pride and Glory" remains up in the air. After being delayed almost a full year by New Line, it's unsure what will happen to the film now. Same goes for other films completed but not yet slotted in such as "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "Four Christmases".

It's expected the new incarnation of New Line will be a distribution label that will churn out six to eight sub-$50 million budget flicks per year - what that means for most costly projects in the pipeline such as proposed "Austin Powers" and "Wedding Crashers" sequels along with "The Hobbit" is unsure.

[crippled_avenger]

As expected, Toby Emmerich has been named president and chief operating officer of New Line Cinema as it segues into its new incarnation as a production label of Warrner Bros Entertainment.

The dramatically downsized New Line will continue to maintain its own development, creative and production teams but its marketing distribution, business and legal affairs and physical production operations, while reporting to Emmerich, will closely enmesh with Warner Bros counterparts.

He will report directly to Alan Horn, president and COO of Warner Bros and work closely with Jeff Robinov, president of Warner Bros Pictures Group (WBPG) since New Line will access WBPG's existing infrastructure to reduce costs.

"There isn't a better person than Toby to help us keep New Line vibrant, relevant and a key asset for Warner Bros.," said Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros Entertainment, in a statement. "We are thrilled that he and New Line are now part of our family."

"Toby has played a major part in New Line's success over the last decade and helped define the company's taste and style in movies," said Horn. "Quite simply, he's a great film executive. He's highly respected, and he has solid relationships across the industry. Toby and New Line are both great additions to our Studio."

"I'm very excited to lead the next chapter in New Line's history and am looking forward to the new challenges that lie ahead," said Emmerich. "This change is bittersweet, as so much of the company I've worked at for the past 16 years is being reconceived, but I'm committed to maintaining New Line's corporate DNA as a creative, aggressive entity. I plan to continue New Line's long and productive history as a company that can create hits in new niches—whether it's expanding the horror genre with films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Freddy vs. Jason, or turning an R-rated comedy like Wedding Crashers into a blockbuster. I want to thank Bob [Shaye] and Michael [Lynne] for the opportunities and support they generously provided through the years, and I'd also like to thank Barry, Alan and Jeff for their collaboration and already making me feel welcome."

New Line's upcoming films include Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay which will be released on April 25, Sex and the City (May 30), Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (July 11) and Four Christmases (November 26).

Emmerich most recently served as New Line's president of production, a post he has held since January 2001 and in which he oversaw production of films including The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Wedding Crashers, Monster-in-Law, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Elf, The Notebook, Hairspray and About Schmidt.

Emmerich joined the company in 1992 as both development executive and president of music.