Screenhead

From respected Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke comes word that the contracts for Robert Shaye and Michael Lynn will not be renewed with Time Warner, the company that now owns New Line Cinema. Much of the blame is due to too many box office failures, and Robert Shaye’s alienation of talent, notably Peter Jackson. Shaye and Lynn founded the company in 1967. What began as a very small distribution company gained notice with films by novice filmmakers John Waters and Wes Craven. The company expanded with a selection of art house and drive-in movies, eventually financing their own productions. Nightmare on Elm Street became to company’s first significant box office hit, leading to more mainstream productions, and a buyout by Ted Turner. After Turner was bought out by Ted Turner, New Line was a somewhat independent division of that company. The surprise success of Austin Powers in turn allowed New Line to green light what seemed like a major gamble at the time, three films shot back-to-back, based on classic fantasy books by Tolkein. What appeared originally to follow in the success of Harry Potter turned out to be a huge box-office juggernaut eventually earning New Line its only Oscar winning production. That success probably is what has brought an end to New Line as Shaye and Lynn attempted to duplicate that success with The Golden Compass and the Shaye directed The Last Mimzy. It is expected that the planned production of The Hobbit will go to Warner Brothers.