Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne

Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne

From deadlinehollywooddaily.com So the two New Line founders bounced from their studio by Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes are finally getting closer to starting their own company. I hear Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are setting up offices on the 9th floor of their old building on Robertson Blvd in Los Angeles. Tipsters tell me that the L.A. head of production is probably Mark Kaufman, responsible for such memorable un-hits as The Man, Martian Child, Codename: Cleaner, Secondhand Lions, but also one legitimate moneymaker, Hairspray. Ever since Shaye and Lynne found out they were being fired (which I reported exclusively back in January), the pair have been talking about this setting up of a production entity fueled by some projects from New Line development that they could make for their ex-underling Toby Emmerich and that would go through Warner Bros. Also, I hear Warner Bros may give them some films to produce and develop. Bob Shaye & Michael Lynne Set Shingle

glumPuddle sends this along: Narnia Producer Mark Johnson is asked why they didn’t do multiple films at once, like LOTR. He says: ‘What New Line and Bob Shea did with Lord of the Rings, basically green-lighting three movies at once, is unheard of. And in todays Hollywood, it will never happen again. I just cannot imagine it. Its too much of a financial commitment, and everybody will say, Lets just see if the first ones successful first.’ Narnia Producer Doubts Any Studio will ‘Triple-Produce’ Anymore

J.R.R. TolkienRinger Diedye points us to a Telegraph.co.uk story about Play.com’s top 50 Novels of all time. The top 5 are as follows:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
2. Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S Lewis
4. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
5. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

For the complete article, check out the Telegraph Online. [Full List]

New Zealand Flag MIDDLE EARTH and the Hobbits recast New Zealand as a nature lover’s paradise and helped propel the islands’ share of global tourism to record levels. Now Australia’s tourism leaders are turning to another celluloid extravaganza, the movie Australia , to attract a new wave of international visitors keen to experience the real thing. Tourism chiefs are to unveil a deal between the film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, its director, Baz Luhrmann and the federal tourism body, Tourism Australia, at a tourism conference in Perth today. High hopes the Hobbit effect will hit home

CR-ROTKAfter months of being listed as “Not Available”, the 4 disc set of the Complete Recordings of the Return of the King is again listed as “In Stock” at the Warner Brother’s site and Amazon.com. Warner Brothers only ships to the US. Doug Adams, (author of the upcoming book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films) is offering additional information to non-US residents at his blog.