As you've heard by now New Line Cinema has been absorbed into Warner Bros. The gargantuan corporate beast still thrives and grows. It will eventually own your very soul. Reel Fanatic has written a fine if measured eulogy, praising them for bringing us several John Waters classics and the neo classic Lord of the Rings trilogy, damning them for Brett Ratner and other blights. New Line's death undoubtedly kills off any His Dark Materials: Golden Compass sequels but they didn't really go for it anyway so no big loss. I realize that my initial review was a thumbs up ... but like Sweeney Todd, which I liked much more, it faded rapidly, replaced as it should be with memories of the superior source material. I'm only human and sometimes --well, all the time actually (and I think this is a universal truth though many people refuse to acknowledge it) what I bring into the theater affects how I respond to the movie.People will worry about the future of the troubled LotR prequel The Hobbit but if you ask me, we're better off without it ...though we won't be without it. Warner Bros won't be able to let it rest since Rings was a cash cow. Even if the property is entirely damaged it will one day walk the movie theaters like a miserable shuffling reanimated corpse. I say let it rest in peace with the Golden Compass sequels. It's sometimes best to quit while you're ahead. Every new morsel of info regarding the infinite lawsuits over Tolkien's material and Hollywood's profits or non-profits (hee, who are they trying to fool?) from the same... and every new idea -'let's make it two films since there's not enough material for one' (huh?) makes me say: no thank you. I'll always have 10+ hours of Frodo, Aragorn and Legolas and that's enough for me.
So New Line is dead. Long live Warner Bros. When it comes to the cannibalism of corporate Hollywood I stay very zen. Hollywood is immortal. In some way or another all of its severed heads regrow. I remember when Orion folded, I think around the time they won a Best Picture prize (for Silence of the Lambs), I was heartbroken. I had been conditioned to be excited when I saw their logo because they had delivered me many formative treasures. Other studios delivered goodies thereafter. All was well. I was a baby cinephile. I hadn't yet seen the way great studios (early Weinstein Miramax) can become embarrassments (Chocolat-pushing Weinstein Miramax) or even how they can be reborn and revitalized (the new Weinstein-free Miramax). Early this decade I became really fond of USA Films and then they were suddenly Focus Features (my current favorite) but they were even better. As long as there's a studio here or there and a mover and shaker behind the scenes that cares about quality, it's all good
.
*
