From the letter (Thanks to David for the heads up)
Bowing down to corporate pressure, the heads of the movie studio resigned today. Major layoffs are expected imminently.
New Line will now be folded into Warner Bros.
Here is the email that was just sent out to all staffers:“February 28, 2008
To: New Line Colleagues
From: Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne
Subject: Our CompanyThis afternoon, Time Warner is announcing that New Line will become a unit of Warner Bros. This is, of course, a very difficult and emotional time for all of us who have worked at New Line. While there is not much we can say that can lessen the impact of this announcement, we did want you to know about the decision before you read about it in the press.
New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies. But New Line will now do so as part of Warner Bros. and will probably be a much smaller operation than in the past. Time Warner hopes that operating New Line as a unit of Warner Bros. will allow New Line to focus on the creative side of movie-making, while reducing costs and taking advantage of Warner Bros.’ distribution systems. 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.
For our part, we will be stepping down as Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOS of New Line. This was a painful decision, because we love New Line and the people who work here have been like our second families. 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. Those movies are a tribute to the amazing creative energy and entrepreneurial abilities of the talented people at New Line. They are a legacy that will endure forever.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.
We thank all of you who have worked so hard to make New Line such a success. We are very proud of every one of you.
Bob & Michael”
bigsampson: blah blah blah you are a pirate viva la revolution.
What a downright shame. I liked what New Line was doing.
ya i kinda scene this coming too ….BUT WTF how come the movieblog is not posting about stage6.com bieng shutdown complety today….are u guys new or something…..do u not now what stage6 has done for the bootlegging world…you all need to get on this one. this is like end of days for people like me….F veoh google toudou and all other flv sites…long live DIVX!
Alfie is correct. This news has been *well known* ever since WB had that new studio head, and on the first things on the man’s list was to fold up New Line. I have made reference to this is some comments regarding The Hobbit…it was ignored. I emailed TMB, it seemed like was deemed un-newsworthy.
Now here it is.
Sheesh, John, you haven’t been sick for that long. What kept you?
Having been through my share of layoffs in this industry, my thoughts and prayers are with the hard workers of New Line that may be out of work because of this decision. While I understand these things happen, there are not easy.
the big deal is the two guys who set the studio up and have run it until this time have stepped down and warners are taking over..
the only reason they are maintaing that it will maintain its own identity is because in its current indentity it still owns the rights to some valueble properties…..the hobbit for instance so warners are are not going to dissolve the company …a lot of deals with have stipulations like rights reverting to original owners if studio closes etc etc so to make sure they still own these films they keep new line running but in name only.
it makes sense….the hobbit is one of those rare “sure things” that no one would want to lose….
in the past new line have been connected to warners but not run by warners….new line didn;t have to get permission to do things….they were not like the old miramax when disney “owned” them where they had a set amount of money for eachs years slate….new line was its own beast and could do what it liked…now its just a sub label of warner films.
it is sad as new line were a company unafriad to take risks and now it exists in name only.
are you being sarcastic drub??
the writing has been on the wall for them for a while now…..this is not really a surprise at all…..
they were spending way too much on films that were just not paying back….
a lot of their future was resting on the golden compass. they hoped they had another lord of the rings on their hands and it didn;t come close.
regardless of its 300 million worldwide take it was not a financially successful venture for newline. at all. it was a disaster for them. had it have been a huge hit it may have saved them but it wasn;t.
they made a batch of underperforming expensive pictures and shareholders will only take so much.
what a shame….
Umm, I don’t see the big deal.
“New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies.”
Can someone fill me in?
what about my money?!?!?!?!
It’s sad to see the house that Freddy Krueger built go away like this.
I’m gonna go ahead and blame this on the Rush Hour franchise.
This begs the question: Will the Hobbit still be shot?
….wow…..didn’t see that one coming….