michael lynne Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Pack Ratner Heads to Paramount
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Casting », Deals », New Releases », Executive shifts », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Box Office », Scripts », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Love him or hate him, you've got to hand it to Brett Ratner for keeping his career in motion. Variety brings word that the hustling filmmaker plans to take his Rat Entertainment company from New Line, where it first settled in 1996, to a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. Ratner says the departure of New Line execs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne in February convinced him it was time to move on. At Paramount, Ratner will probably get bigger budgets and executives more receptive to his blockbuster-ready concepts. Stating the obvious, Ratner told Variety he "will not be pitching art films. I want to make major tentpole movies." You don't say?Unless you're Scott Foundas, you probably balk at the idea of more Ratner movies populating the mainstream film scene, but the guy does fit the proper archetype of the classic Hollywood powerhouse. A modern day Sammy Glick, he knows how to make movies that bring out the audiences, whether or not they're any good. But maybe that determination means that, one day, Ratner will make a lot of great movies. His planned Hugh Hefner biopic sounds promising -- or at least, appropriate.
Still, that's a little ways off. Encouraged by his experience with X-Men: The Last Stand, Ratner decided he wanted to work on a new superhero franchise, so he's adapting Valiant Comics' Harbinger. Also in his queue: Beverly Hills Cop 4, The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Boys From Brazil. Do these projects get anyone excited? Anyone at all?
BREAKING: New Line Cinema Says Goodbye!
Filed under: Newsstand », Politics »
There's been lots of talk behind the scenes regarding trouble with New Line Cinema, who took a massive hit late last year with The Golden Compass, and haven't had much luck at the box office throughout the past year. This afternoon, it was officially announced that New Line will now become part of Warner Bros., with New Line chiefs, Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, officially stepping down. There are two announcements floating around: One is a press release, and the other is a note to New Line employees from Bob and Michael which just dropped into my inbox.
According to the internal letter, "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."
We here at Cinematical have some good friends over at New Line, and we wish them well in their future endeavors. For more on this, read the official press release here, and the internal letter after the jump ...
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