Old ways pay off for New Line
If you want to win a bet in a bar full of industry insiders, you can stump ‘em with this question: What’s the hottest studio in town? The answer speaks volumes about the strange ways of Hollywood. It’s New Line Cinema, the studio Time Warner essentially put out of business earlier this year, firing hundreds of employees along with studio founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne. A small shell of the original New Line, headed by Toby Emmerich, has been absorbed into the Warners firmament, where it continues to make genre-oriented films that will be marketed and distributed by Warners.
However, as soon as New Line was shuttered, the studio rattled off a string of hits, all greenlighted by the Shaye-Emmerich-led administration that couldn’t buy a hit in the last couple of years. For two recent weeks, the No. 1 movie at the box office was “Four Christmases,” which has grossed nearly $88 million and will end up as the studio’s third $100-million U.S. box-office movie of the year. “Sex and the City: The Movie,” which came out this summer, has grossed more than $400 million worldwide. It was followed in July by “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” a co-production with Walden that’s made more than $200 million worldwide.
New Line has also had two more modest hits. “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” is a $14-million comedy that made nearly $40 million in the U.S. and has been a big winner in home video. “Appaloosa,” an Ed Harris film that the studio co-financed with Groundswell, earned a surprising $20 million, which already puts New Line in the black, since it sold the movie overseas for $18 million. The studio’s sole money loser is October’s “Pride and Glory.”
So how did New Line manage to make such a comeback? I called Emmerich, but he’s not talking, either because he’s the most modest executive in Hollywood or because he’s eager to be viewed by his new Warners bosses as a loyal team player, not a credit grabber. But other old New Line hands say it’s the result of New Line doing what it does best: taking relatively low-budget risks and marrying the right talent to the right material.
The back story of “Four Christmases” shows the value of risk taking. The project was developed by Spyglass, which originally set it up at Sony. When Sony put the script in turnaround, New Line jumped in, attaching Vince Vaughn and costar Reese Witherspoon. But instead of hiring one of the many lackluster comedy directors who make their living churning out Adam Sandler vehicles, New Line took a chance on a newcomer, Seth Gordon, who’d never even directed a feature film before, having been an editor, cinematographer and documentary filmmaker. (He did “The King of Kong,” a clever documentary that New Line had bought at Sundance.) Having hired unknowns in the past -- no one had heard of Jay Roach when he got the gig making the first “Austin Powers” film -- New Line knew that Gordon’s experience as an editor was particularly valuable, since many modern-day comedies find their pacing and rhythm in the editing room.
It’s only fair to give Warners’ marketing staff some credit here too. But as so many studios -- MGM, Universal, 20th Century Fox -- have struggled in the last six months to find consistent success, it seems ironic that New Line, the studio that saw hundreds of staffers tossed out of their jobs last spring, turns out to be the studio with the hottest hand of all.
It’s ‘Twilight’ time for Chris Weitz
Whenever I get a press release these days, I find myself reading between the lines, trying to figure out, once you get past the puffy official prose, what the statement really means. This goes double for Summit Entertainment’s announcement that it’s hired Chris Weitz (best known for co-helming “American Pie,” “About a Boy” and directing “The Golden Compass”) to take over its fantastically successful “Twilight” franchise, barely a week after Summit and “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke had a messy falling out over various “creative differences,” to use a popular press-release obfuscation phrase.
I’m not saying Weitz is a bad choice, even if I happen to be a bigger fan of his brother Paul Weitz’s films, which seem more quirky and personal (“In Good Company” and “American Dreamz”). But Chris is a talented writer-director and clearly can handle the popularization of a franchise property. But what’s fascinating, for the moment, is how Chris handled his first big assignment -- reaching out and reassuring “Twilight” fans who were upset over Hardwicke’s sudden departure, wanted a woman director to get the gig, or crave an absolutely faithful translation of the remaining books in the series, starting with “New Moon,” which Summit hopes to have in theaters by the end of next year. So here are a few excerpts from what Chris said in his letter to fans -- and what it really means:
What he said: “In the past few days I have been involved in a whirlwind romance with Stephenie Meyer’s extraordinary books.”
What it means: “It’s amazing how fast Amazon can rush an overnight shipment of books to your house.”
What he said: “Like many of you, I am a fan of Catherine Hardwicke’s work. I can’t really say much about why she is not doing ‘New Moon’ because I wasn’t involved in those decisions.”
What it means: “Don’t blame me for her getting the ax. It was those guys over there who fired her.”
What he said: “To those who doubt that as a male director I can capture Bella’s experience, I can only say that emotion is universal. . . .”
What it means: “It’s not like they hired Michael Bay, OK?”
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latimes.com/bigpicture
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