• Los Angeles Times, Friday, May 9, 2008 10:15 AM

Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse--the art-house film division of Warner Bros. and the indie movie arm of New Line Cinema--are closing. Warner Bros. CEO Alan Horn says it's more a decision to cut costs--and shed duplicate production, marketing and distribution infrastructure--than to cut independent films.

"We'll still be looking for movies that interest us creatively," Horn says. "But when we make the movie or acquire the movie, we'll hand it over to our existing marketing and distribution group."

Launched in 2004, WIP had early successes with the Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." But in the last two years, WIP has not greenlighted any films and has acquired only a handful, all of which fizzled at the box office. By contrast, Picturehouse, founded in 2005, was proving to be a tastemaker, launching such Oscar-winning foreign-language films as "Pan's Labyrinth" and "La Vie en Rose."

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