No one’s really certain what’s going to happen to New Line or its upcoming projects now that it’s been absorbed by its parent company, Time Warner, but the fate for its employees is even scarier. Variety reports today that, while nothing is certain yet, 75% of New Line’s employees will probably be let go.
Yeah, everyone’s boo-hooing about the company’s founders, Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, leaving the studio, but they’re clearly set for life. How about those 75%, who have worked for the studio for God knows how long and now have to jump ship to look elsewhere? True, among these are probably the people who helped sink New Line to begin with, producing all sorts of money-sucking movies that never made any money. But being out of work along with most of your former colleagues is an ugly situation, and not one most people ever have to face.
Variety also notes that no one is sure what to do with New Line’s big upcoming projects, which include the Harold and Kumar sequel and the Sex and the City movie. I’m looking forward to both of those movies, against all reason, and I worry about what might happen if Warner just shoves them out to pasture with little fanfare, making room for its big deal projects (like a little movie called The Dark Knight). New Line was one of the few studios that recognized that there was room out there for little movies, and even though sometimes those little movies were terrible, it was great that they at least had a champion.
The entire implosion of New Line is depressing, and it’s even more depressing to think about the abandoned employees, not to mention the abandoned movies. I guess all we can do is clutch our box sets of Lord of the Rings and remember better days.
