Lemon of the Week: Warner Bros.

[Editor’s Note: One of our new voices (Catie Nastovici) here on IONCINEMA.com, will be dishing out some freshly squeezed opinions on headliner subjects of the week with a vitamin packed double piece appropriately called “Lemon of the Week” and “Orange of the Week”. Catie sees lemons as (bad, though lemonade is good) and oranges as (good, though she prefers orangina. Up this week! An assault on indie film houses…really just a practice in redundancy? And on the orange side, Josh Brolin…the new 40ish actor to watch for.]

Lemon Sucker:

Err, wrong!? Warner Independant Pictures and Picturehouse, the indie film arm of Warner’s recent aquisition New Line Cinema, will go to
the independent filmhouse graveyard alongside “Sling Blade” distributor
The Shooting Gallery. 

Looking to streamline their business, i.e. cut costs and focus on the bottom line, Warner saw that they now had two similar art house production companies under one roof – and decided to get rid of both, citing duplicate marketing and promotional departments. Smart move? Indie powerhouses Miramax and Fox Searchlight seem to be successful mostly because they have distinguishable marketers for mainstream films and indie pictures. So the question remains: Do Warner’s promo teams have what it takes to make more millions with charming indies involving pregnant teenagers and marching penguins, or will they be streched thin with “Jazz Hands IV: The Legend of Happy Feet?”