Date: 24th January 2001

Hung Out To Dry At "Lines"


New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features, which remained distinct entities insulated from the Warner Bros. monolith after being acquired by Time Warner in the Turner Broadcasting merger, began downsizing Tuesday as part of an overall retrenchment following the takeover by America Online.

The online magazine Inside reported that New Line alone will be forced to cut 20 percent of its overhead, resulting in deep staff cuts. More than 100 employees of the unit are expected to be pink slipped, the magazine noted, with 18 layoffs coming in the New Line Home Video operation alone. The firings occur even as the New York Daily News was reporting that Mike De Luca, ousted last week as New Line Cinema studio chief, was being offered a $100-million deal to set up a production company at the same studio that fired him. "Who would walk away from that?" an unnamed source remarked in an interview with the newspaper. "It's one of the most lucrative production deals ever, similar to what Peter Guber got when he left Sony or what Sid Sheinberg got from Universal."

Source: Studio Briefing