Caffeinated Clint
Warner Bros are axing their direct-to-DVD division, Warner Premiere.
With DVD libraries shutting their doors permanently week-after-week nowadays, and digital downloads the way of the future, WB decided to cut their losses.
The Warner Premiere label has produced such films as “Return to House on Haunted Hill”, “Lost Boys : The Tribe”, “Another Cinderella Story”, “Lost Boys : The Thirst”, “Free Willy : Escape from Pirate’s Cove”, “Ace Ventura Jr” and “The Dukes of Hazzard : The Beginning”. A range of DC comics-related films, including “Green Lantern : Emerald Knights”, “Batman : Under the Red Hood” and “Justice League : Crisis on Two Earths”, were also produced via the label. These superhero projects will still continue, just under a different WB label.
“The Animated DC films will continue”, a WB insider tells us, “And you’ll see more of the smaller, lower-budgeted projects that might otherwise have been made under the Warner Premiere label being produced for digital download.”
A fourth “Lost Boys”, a sequel to “New Jack City”, and an animated film based on ’80s fave “The Goonies” were all rumoured to be part of Warner Premiere’s upcoming projects. Sources say some of the properties may live on, but in different forms and for different platforms.
“Warner won’t just let these bigger-name properties like Lost Boys and Scooby Doo die. While it’s true the direct-to-video sequels will now stop, they’ll just do a bigger-budget Lost Boys movie for cinemas – maybe a reboot of the original film – and they’ll definitely be producing another live-action Scooby Doo sometime in the future.”
Spare a thought for the now redundant (Out of Control) colleagues of Maxwell Smart today; we won’t forget you Bruce and Lloyd. Wait.. that was their names, right?
