New Line Cinema to Be Merged into Warner Bros.

According to the Los Angeles Times, New Line Cinema, owned by Time Warner Inc., will be scaled back into being a part of Warner Bros. studio.

In 1994, New Line's founder Bob Shaye sold the company to media mogul Ted Turner, and then in 1996, New Line changed hands again when Time Warner bought Turner's cable empire. Until now, however, New Line was able to keep its independence as a studio, producing 12 to 14 films a year.

With the merger, New Line's number of produced films will be cut in half, and the films distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. New Line executives may still oversee production and development of its own films, but Warner Bros. President Alan Horn will have final say on things. New Line will also have to cut back on its 600 employees since the studio can no longer greenlight, market or distribute its own movies. Even Shaye and his co-chairman, Michael Lynne, will be gone, as they learned on Thursday that they would be unable to stay on after their contracts expire at the end of 2008.

It seems like a difficult pill to swallow, especially since New Line, not without flops of its own, did give us The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Elf, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more.