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New Players Essay, Research Paper

As a companion piece to the articles outlining the histories of the eight major film studios, this survey examines four relative newcomers to production: New Line, Orion, Miramax, and TriStar. They aren't studios in the classic sense; none have their own big lots where their films are shot. However, they all produce original and important films as well as distribute independent and foreign works. They're the new players in the brave new post-studio world of American film.NEW LINEThe New Line Cinema Corporation was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye, its chairman and CEO. The company began releasing art films foreign and domestic, most notably Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy For The Devil (1968, aka One Plus One) and Wind From The East (1969). New Line struck gold when it released the notorious black comedy Pink Flamingos (1972), written and directed by John Waters and starring Divine. Besides then releasing Water's earlier features with Divine, Mondo Trasho (1969) and Multiple Maniacs (1970), New Line also financed Waters in new efforts: Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977). In the '70s, the company also distributed several noteworthy Italian imports: Pier Paolo Pasolini's Medea (1969) with Maria Callas; Lina Wertm?ller's political comedies The Seduction Of Mimi (1972) and All Screwed Up (1973); and Ettore Scola's classic black comedy about poverty, Down And Dirty (1976). New Line also released Wise Blood (1979), John Huston's adaptation of Flannery O'Connor. Cheap horror films for teenage audiences were a big source of income for New Line in the '80s, with such films as The Evil Dead (1983), written and directed by Sam Raimi; C.H.U.D. (1984), directed by Douglas Cheek; Critters (1986), directed by Stephen Herek; and above all, A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), written and directed by Wes Craven, which launched a highly lucrative series for New Line. The more-prestigious '80s releases included the punk-rock film Smithereens (1982), produced and directed by Susan Seidelman; the drama Corrupt (1983) with John Lydon and Harvey Keitel; John Waters' comedy of race relations in Baltimore during the '60s, Hairspray (1988); and writer/star Harvey Fierstein's comedy/drama of gay life and love, Torch Song Trilogy (1988) In the '90s New Line released many of its most important films. Writer/director Gus Van Sant made his landmark story of teenage hustlers, My Own Private Idaho (1991) with River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves; Abel Ferrara directed Christopher Walken in the crime film King Of New York (1990); and Allan Moyle wrote and directed his comedy/drama of teenage life, Pump Up The Volume (1990) with Christian Slater. The big profits, however, came with the children's action film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and its sequels. In 1991 the company formed the division Fine Line Features, releasing more-sophisticated fare such as Bitter Moon (1993) and Death And The Maiden (1994), both directed by Roman Polanski; the transgender western The Ballad Of Little Jo (1993), written and directed by Maggie Greenwald; and two films from director Robert Altman, the Hollywood send-up The Player (1992) and the Raymond Carver adaptation Short Cuts (1993). New Line continued to handle such important films as the David Mamet adaptation Glengarry Glen Ross (1992); the nightmare vision Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) by writer/director David Lynch; and the inner-city crime film Menace II Society (1993), directed by the Hughes Brothers. In 1993 the company became a subsidiary of the Turner Broadcasting System; both divisions have continued to operate impressively. Since its mega-hits with comic Jim Carrey, The Mask (1994) and Dumb and Dumber (1995), New Line has released director John Frankenheimer's horror film The Island Of Dr. Moreau (1996) with Marlon Brando; the Bruce Willis actioner Last Man Standing (1996), written and directed by Walter Hill; the angel comedy Michael (1996), directed by Nora Ephron and starring John Travolta; and the spy spoof Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (1997), written by and starring Mike Myers. Fine Line has scored with the David Helfgott biopic Shine (1996) and writer/director David Cronenberg's adaptation of J.G. Ballard, the erotic drama Crash (1996). ORION Named after the five-star constellation of Orion, the Orion Pictures Corporation was formed in 1978 by five former top execs from United Artists: Mike Medavoy, Robert S. Benjamin, William Bernstein, Eric Pleskow, and Arthur Krim. The company found success with its early releases, notably the farce 10 (1979), written, produced, and directed by Blake Edwards, and the comedy A Little Romance (1979) with Laurence Olivier. The company was initially involved with Warner Bros., and several of its early hits — the comedies Caddyshack (1980) and Arthur (1981), the police drama Prince Of The City (1981) — were co-productions between the two studios. In 1982, Orion merged with the film and television company Filmways, Inc. The 1980s saw numerous successful films from Orion. Woody Allen wrote, directed, and sometimes acted in such memorable Orion releases as the comedies Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985), Hannah And Her Sisters (1986), and Radio Days (1987); the dramas September (1987) and Another Woman (1988); and the comedy/drama Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989). The studio also scored with the Sylvester Stallone actioner First Blood (1982); the Mozart vs.Salieri drama Amadeus (1984), directed by Milos Forman; director James Cameron's The Terminator (1984) with Arnold Schwarzenegger; The Cotton Club (1984), directed by Francis Coppola; the Vietnam War film Platoon (1986), written and directed by Oliver Stone; the sequel-spawning RoboCop (1987); the satires Something Wild (1986) and Married To The Mob (1988), both directed by Jonathan Demme; and the Kevin Costner films No Way Out (1987) and Bull Durham (1988). Orion also released

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