Bewkes
Time Warner topper
Jeff Bewkes has declared that he no longer wants to split rights on New Line movies. But if Warners wants to make the sequels to "The Golden Compass," it may have no choice.
Many of the key foreign distribs of "Compass" also have a first option to acquire "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass," the next installments in
Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.
This significantly complicates Warner's decision whether to greenlight the two sequels at all. After grossing just $70 million via New Line in the U.S., "Golden Compass" proved its value in the international market, where it is heading for $300 million via indie distribs and local Warner arms.
Bewkes wants to keep all the foreign upside of future New Line pics by distributing them via Warner Intl. But all the distribs who got "Compass" through output deals also have the right to any sequels -- Entertainment in the U.K., Metropolitan in France, Tripictures in Spain, Village Roadshow in Australia, New Zealand and Greece, Svensk in Scandinavia, Gussi in Mexico and Nu Metro in South Africa. Gaga in Japan, which bought "Compass" as part of a New Line package, also reportedly has a similar claim.
Warner's lawyers will doubtless be scouring the fine print of those deals. If the studio does decide that it wants to continue with the franchise -- and that's a big if -- it faces a tricky calculation and negotiation over how much of the world it is prepared to give up in order to do so.
The rest of New Line's current slate won't be heading out through Warner Intl. in most territories, either. Most of New Line's 2008 releases and productions -- from "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D" and "Sex and the City" to "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," "Final Destination 4" and "My Sister's Keeper" -- are already presold via the output deals, which effectively run to the end of 2009.
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