Hollywood Reporter guy Gregg Goldstein posted this Picturehouse-HBO divorce story hours ago, and I’m only just getting around to it. Bob Berney‘s Manhattan-based distributor, jointly ruled by Time Warner divisions HBO and New Line Cinema, “will break virtually all ties with the cable network in the next one to three months as legal details are finalized,” Goldstein has written.
But why? How did it all go down? “A New Line source said the desire for the change came from the new regime at HBO, which took over following chairman/ CEO Chris Albrecht’s departure in the spring,” the story reads. “Albrecht was replaced by Bill Nelson in June.”
So Nelson isn’t a Berney type of guy, or vice versa? I’d like some more detail, please. I’m feeling under-nourished by this story’s cautious composition. I’d like to hear, for example, that Nelson and Berney had some kind of There Will Be Blood bowling-alley confrontation without the bowling pin, or something equally colorful. I want to hear a good story. I want to hear about powerful men eyeballing each other with their neck veins bulging and throbbing.
Berney had reported to HBO Films president Colin Calendar along with New Line co-chairman/co-CEO Michael Lynne.