New Line production studio loses 450 jobs
Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros. in Burbank, is planning to cut 450 jobs from its New Line movie production studio, according to reports.
The staff reductions will leave New Line, which is based in West Hollywood, with 40 to 50 employees. Some of those employees may be offered jobs within Warner Bros., according to news reports.
New Line will maintain its own independent development and production teams, and Time Warner will take over distributions of completed films, reports said.
In other Warner Bros.-related news, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution has signed a multiyear deal with Home Box Office, or HBO, to provide pay-per-view programming to France Telecom Orange, a broadband Internet provider in Europe and four other continents.
Orange has rights to a wide variety of programming from both companies, including upcoming Warner Bros. films “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Ocean’s 13,” “I Am Legend” and “The Dark Knight.”
The deal is a first for HBO — which, like Warner Bros., is a Time Warner company — in distributing its material in France.
The pay-per-view program will be available near the end of the year.
