At one point very early on, the duo were talking about starting another New Line (and Ted Turner offered to put up some money), but I've since been assured they have given up on that dream/nightmare. Since they pocketed an extremely generous payout from [Jeff] Bewkes (unlike all those other axed NL'ers penny-pinched by Time Warner), that's what is being used to fund the new operation for the moment. But even though Bob and Michael are centi-millionaires, they're still intent on using that tried and true Hollywood formula to fund their new operation: Other People's Money.

OK, we're listening. But what's the catch?

They are looking for some outside financing so they can produce third party product. I hear Lynne is trying to raise the money through his "New York Cipriani" circuit. Tipsters tell me that he may even relocate to Los Angeles — for obvious reasons. As one insider explained to me, "Unless he's there watching the store, no one's giving him money to send out to Bob."

Yes, obviously! Anyway, to the extent any of this is actually true, here's a vital chance to be a part of history, like playing rhythm guitar with your favorite weekend-warrior bar band or — quite literally, perhaps — buying your very own John Waters movie, executive produced by [YOUR NAME HERE]. Don't expect anything in return, like a meeting with "Bob's pal" Peter Jackson or, you know, profit, but really, what price can you put on working with a pair of the industry's last true mavericks? Come to think of it, don't answer that — Shaye will have that figure for you when you meet. Just remember the magic words: Unmarked bills. Let's make a deal!

• Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne Set Up Shingle [DHD]

Shaye tended to trust his own instincts, sometimes for the best — being the only person in Hollywood willing to let Peter Jackson make his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy — and sometimes for the worse, hastening his demise by ducking out last year to direct a flop ("The Last Mimzy") at a time when New Line was in a downward spiral. [...]

Never blessed with the glad-handing skills of Harvey Weinstein, Shaye drove [Paul Thomas] Anderson away by trying to edit his last film, got sued by Jackson over profits from "Rings," alienated the Farrellys and lost most of his comedy stars to bigger studios who offered higher salaries and fewer blunt Shaye-style critiques of their work.

It's a testament to Shaye's passionate commitment to dirtying his hands with every level of production—hovering over Anderson's shoulder in the Punch-Drunk Love edit bay, for example, wondering if perhaps "the meet cute with Lena shouldn't happen a beat sooner, before the harmonium discovery? I don't know—what do you think? Hey, you mind if I finish that half of your Subway sandwich? Is this great or what—I think we're really slapping together something very special here!"—that he would eventually suffocate and drive away the emerging talent he gambled on when no one else would.

• Hollywood's endangered entrepreneurs [LAT]

THE EXECS ARE PACKING... In addition to Shaye and Lynne, production boss Toby Emmerich has one of the 600 jobs threatened by the New Line overhaul. New Line's indie label Picturehouse, fresh off hard-won Oscar victories for La Vie en Rose but stranded by HBO's recent divestment from the company, is on deathwatch as well; it will likely be absorbed by Warner's own boutique shingle Warner Independent.

... BUT THE HOBBIT IS SAFE! Sort of. Assuming Bewkes can square up with the J.R.R. Tolkien estate, which is suing for not only the $150 million it says its still owed from The Lord of the Rings franchise but also to reclaim film rights to other Tolkien work, the long-delayed, two-part Hobbit prequels will forge ahead for release in 2010 and 2011.

FEWER MOVIES, MORE BLOOD. Warner Bros. is expected to slash production by at least a third, maxing out around 20 releases per year. Harkening back to the label's early, sleazy John Waters/Wes Craven days, New Line will handle the low-budget horror and comedy portion of the slate. Expect less Be Kind Rewind, in other words, and more Semi-Pro.

BRETT RATNER IS SAD. The noted fauxteur, whose lowbrow excretions from Money Talks to the Rush Hour franchise puddled in the New Line supply chain for the last decade, told The Hollywood Reporter: "They are family, and it's like seeing your family fall apart. ... Bob [Shaye] is the guy who bought the first pencil for New Line Cinema." Alas, if only marketing $70 million studio releases was as easy as calling Staples.

INTERNATIONAL POTENTIAL. The Golden Compass was the most recent and most expensive example of New Line's practice of selling off foreign territories for upfront productions costs, costing the studio nearly 75 percent of the film's $330 million global box office. WB's international presence means it can keep those rights, though it's mostly too-little, too-late with New Line's output deals soon expiring and cheap genre films pledged for the future.

NIKKI FINKE GETS TO BE EXTRA-ANNOYING. Yet another foregone conclusion appearing on Deadline Hollywood Daily begins with Finke shouting "TOLDJA!", thus terminating Gary Busey's all-too-short reign as Scariest Hollywood Trendsetter.

• Tolkien Estate Sues New Line Cinema [AP]
• Bewkes Nukes New Line [Hollywood Reporter]
• New Line in Warner's Corner [Variety]
• TOLDJA! New Line Folds Into Warner Bros [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

"We'd always been a very script-driven company," Emmerich says. "But now, with so much competitive pressure in the marketplace, we have to focus as much on marketing as on the script. If we'd had a vision of the one-sheet when we were hearing a pitch, not just after we've made the movie, maybe we wouldn't have suffered through so many of our mistakes."

Emmerich not only invited OTX market research guru Kevin Goetz to speak to the troops, he had him do a market test of some of the films they had in development. "He's the guy who's there when the rubber meets the road, so having him assess the marketability of our casting ideas was a lot better litmus test than a bunch of development execs sitting around talking about whether the third act worked or not."

But embracing this marketing-driven approach doesn't mean that Shaye and Emmerich will completely abandon the instincts that have brought them so much success in the past; going forward, their billion-dollar guts will collaborate with focus groups to produce an unstoppable, hybrid "Fuck yeah, that's just crazy enough to work!"/"We've run the numbers and they seem to bear out that this is just crazy enough to initially bomb, but then turn a tidy profit in the home video market!" approach to moviemaking:

When it comes to counterintuitive thinking, nothing beats making a sequel to "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," a 2004 stoner comedy that was a box-office dud. "Everyone said, 'Are you out of your mind?' Why would you want to do a sequel for a movie that lost money!' " recounts Emmerich. However, the original film was a DVD smash, much like the first installments in the "Austin Powers" series that spawned hit sequels for the studio. Emmerich believes the "Kumar" sequel, due next spring, is more outrageous than the original, citing a plot twist in which its heroes escape from Guantanamo Bay and end up getting high with the president.

"At our test screening," he explains, "George Bush was the highest-rated character in the whole film."

Of course, once they start counting the receipts from this weekend's Rush Hour 3 debut, they may succumb to the temptation to scrap this ambitious overhaul and just have an assistant follow around Brett Ratner with a tape recorder, greenlighting every one of the semi-coherent ideas ("It'll be like my Rush flicks, but with a Mexican cop and Larry the Cable Guy. Also, they're in Iraq.") they're later able to transcribe, so let's not get too attached to the idea of a White Castle spin-off series starring a bong-toting President's attempt to eat at every Chick-Fil-A in America in just a week.

• THE BIG PICTURE: New Line's midlife crisis [LAT]

Shaye has been especially unhappy with the progress of "Rush Hour," which is over-budget and behind schedule. Shaye's biggest issue is with Ratner, who has been the key to keeping the "Rush Hour" franchise together but is famously glib, sociable and media friendly — in other words, the opposite of Shaye. During filming Ratner has spent so much time on the phone that New Line first tried to ban cellphones, then investigated jamming cell signals to the set, all to no avail.

"I take it personally with Bret," he says. "It's still going to be a great movie, but going over budget is a betrayal of the trust New Line has put into him."

Ratner responds: "Whenever a movie falls behind, Bob takes it personally. But the numbers are really so minuscule — it's like my grandfather eating at IHOP to save money."

Despite Ratner's predictable dismissiveness (he's adorably incorrigible, that one! Somebody go muss his hair, right now!) of any kind of budgetary oversight that might slow down the Rush Hour 3 party train, the old-school Shaye certainly has a point: If he's going to lay out $120 million or so for another incomprehensible mess that nonetheless goes on to make a shitload of money, Ratner can at least pay his boss the respect of spending less time engaged in the frivolous grabassery of chasing extras tail and devoting more of his legendary energy engaged in the important work of pointing at things and asking the nearest crew member, "Hey, can we blow that shit up?"

• Bob Shaye: thin skin, thick hide, tough sell [LAT]