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"THIS ‘INDIE’ PART OF THE BUSINESS"
With the demise of New Line — one of the two partners behind the creation of Picturehouse (HBO is the other) — speculation has arisen over what’s going to happen to the specialty shingle now that it, like New Line, has been absorbed into Warner Brothers. Warner, you remember, has Warner Independent already on its lot. Anne Thompson penned a piece in Variety stating that WIP head Polly Cohen and Picturehouse head Bob Berney “are likely to accept a bicoastal co-head arrangement.” Stu Van Airsdale at Defamer ran his own story, saying that there are rumors that Berney will be “starting fresh at a new company underwritten with hedge fund cash.” Now, at the end of the weekend, Jeffrey Welles at Hollywood Elsewhere posts his own piece on the rumor that Berney is leaving that contains the choice phraseology headlined above:
Now I’ve been told by someone very close to things that the latter scenario is not true. Berney has “been open to Warner Bros. proposals, but they actually haven’t made any real decisions yet on how much they want to be in this ‘indie’ part of the business.” They haven’t made any real decisions? In my experience that means they’ve made a decision but lack the character to express it…no? “So this thing may drag on for some time,” the insider comments.
