• Today in Possibly Fake Protests: “An Islamic civil rights and advocacy group” wants Warner Brothers to change the title of Alan Ball’s Towelhead, because they find it offensive. When Towelhead, based on a novel called Towelhead, premiered at Toronto last year, it was called Nothing is Private; they changed it to Towelhead in the hopes of drawing more attention, That was eight months ago, and no one cared. Until now! Two weeks before the movie’s release!
• MGM released a statement denying reports that the studio is for sale. Earlier this month, rumors spread that Kirk Kerkorian had made an offer to buy the studio for the 17th time, and everyone kind of assumes that Paula Wagner’s recent exit from United Artists suggests that that wing of MGM is in trouble.
• Reservoir Dogs, The Bank Job, Gods and Monsters, Girl With a Pearl Earring and Requiem for a Dream are among the Lionsgate titles now available for online download via a deal between the studio and Jaman.com.

I’ve been in a really ominous mood all day. I thought it was just because the sky is grey and I’ve been been listening to this Belong EP, which basically sounds like a prolonged death rattle, but now that I’m reporting the second major story about people losing their jobs in the past couple of hours, I’m starting to feel like it’s not just me. The whole internet feels like the last scene of Madam Butterfly today––death now fills the air.

Anyway: the news. Warner Brothers has shut down its two remaining, dueling indie arms, Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse. Warner’s COO Alan Horn released a statement basically saying that the shell of New Line will handle all low budget fare going forward, and claimed to be “confident that the spirit of independent filmmaking and the opportunity to find and give a voice to new talent will continue to have a presence at Warner Bros.”

So. What about acquisitions? Will Warners be sending one of the ten New Line employees left standing to Cannes next week, or will they just cede that game to the other indie arms and focus on the cheap genre fare that the new New Line is allegedly committed to churning out? What about the WIP and Picturehouse movies already in the can and on the shelf––like Picturehouse’s remake of The Women, or WIP’s anti-climax waiting to happen, Towelhead? Your guesses are as good as mine. I’m just hung up on the fact that Funny Games was the last WIP release. Funny Games killed a studio!