Paramount Vantage gone?
There’s a rumor floating around that Paramount Vantage is about to join other bygone major studio specialty divisions. Supposedly Nick Meyer, the outfit’s president is gone with other execs to follow. This is a company that co-produced No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, two of the most critically acclaimed movies in 2007. Other previous Paramount Vantage releases include Into the Wild, Babel and The Kite Runner. Upcoming movies include Defiance and Revolutionary Road.
The situation keeps getting darker and darker in the indie film world. Just as Sundance announced their 2009 slate of movies this week, the LA Times came out with an article titled “It’s Nervous-Making Time at Sundance.” The money (or lack of money) quote:
Specialized movies have suffered through a terrible year at the box office, and the toll was especially hard on movies that premiered in last January’s Sundance festival.
Several high-profile Sundance titles still have yet to come out (including “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” and “Sunshine Cleaning”), while the handful that did reach theaters mostly vanished swiftly: “American Teen” (domestic gross: $943,000), “Baghead” ($140,000) and “What Just Happened” ($1.1million) were among the biggest Sundance-launched washouts. One of this year’s best theatrical Sundance performers — the wine-tasting drama “Bottle Shock,” with ticket sales of more than $4 million — had to be distributed by its own makers.