Panel vague on specialties

Exex mum on studio turmoil

By ZACHARY PINCUS-ROTH

Paramount Classics' Ruth Vitale and Newmarket's Bob Berney discuss the changing landscape of specialty divisions.

NEW YORK -- A panel of execs grappled with the changing landscape of studio specialty divisions and mulled the past and future of midsize pics like "Lost in Translation" and "Sideways" Tuesday morning at the Tribeca Film Festival.

But if those gathered to listen to the execs expected some definitive answers about the future amid the seismic shifts ongoing at so many studio subsids, they were sorely disappointed.

Amid heated anticipation, former Newmarket topper Bob Berney gave few clues about the shape of his new company, a joint venture between New Line and HBO that is only about a week old.

"We haven't really figured out what we're going to do," Berney said. "The intent is to really be a straightforward distribution company."

Is Newmarket looking to acquire pics at Tribeca?

"We're covering all the films here," he said. "Maybe by the end of the festival."

Much of the discussion centered on Fox Searchlight and its recent breakout midsize pic "Sideways."

Ruth Vitale, co-prexy of Paramount Classics, implied that her company was moving away from smaller pics like "The Virgin Suicides" and toward the midsize pics of Fox Searchlight, which has "changed the way other people are looking at the classics business" by spending $15 million on pics and $15 million-$25 million more for P&A costs.

"They've made these small independent films much broader in their appeal because of the way they've marketed" and budgeted them, Vitale added.

Sony Classics co-prexy Tom Bernard was more dubious of the Searchlight program. He called midsize pics "a questionable venture," noting, "If a movie like 'Sideways,' which I think cost a lot of money to promote, doesn't work, it's an incredible loss." Fox Searchlight's "Kinsey," for example, didn't catch on.

"They cancel each other out," he said of the two pics.

"Our goal is to have singles and doubles," Bernard added. "We'd rather release 22 movies a year, and, you know, spending a little money on each one, and if one happens to pop, then all the better for us."

Berney replied, "Everyone goes, 'Well, we want to use the Fox Searchlight model,' and you're sort of like, 'What is that model?' and they go, 'Well, the model is, some of their films are really working.'"