Lemon of the Week: Paramount Vantage

The good news is they ain’t shutting down, The bads news is…

There is a changing of the guard in the Indiewood landscape. Studio’s Indie divisions are being either shut down or morphed, and a combo of hiring and firing is now the mainstay. We don’t need to list those that have bit the dust since the start of the year, but this week I was perplexed by an unexpected move from an indie-label that had a great year in 2007, at least in terms of critical acclaim. While they aren’t throwing in the towel (as wildly speculated), Paramount Vantage is officially changing their course, Paramount made the choice to cut costs by merging the marketing dept’s together and now, Amy Israel has been given her walking papers, being replaced by a former New Line exec who chaperoned some prestige specialty films, but genre flicks as well. The newly hired Guy Stodel will be taking orders from Nick Meyer.

What this means is that rather than supporting films like Into the Wild (which played great in France) There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men and a docu like Al Gore’s favorite subject matter, Paramount Vantage might turn into a Dimension Films type of label, focusing on high returns from bankable genre items. Though they probably wouldn’t admit to it, this is the scenario that will most likely play out.

2008 will still play out like 07 did, they’ve got doc American Teen lined up for a release next week and the fall will see a combo of the drama The Duchess, comedy The Goods: The Don Ready Story, and war drama Defiance to be released and to be will capped off with the best chance at making it two for two for Best Picture with Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road. So far the only two project on tap for 2009 are Phillip Noyce’s Mary Queen of Scots and a sequel in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11½. 

When can expect Israel (who helped Miramax find some great titles during about a decade-long stay before joining the crappy Paramount Classics division) to land a spot perhaps in one of the newly minted distribution companies eager to find instant prestige in the specialty film pool.