So the name Paramount Classics is more or less out (i.e., put on the back burner, relegated to a lower status, etc.) and a new jazzier-sounding moniker — Paramount Vantage, a creation of company honcho John Lesher (pictured below) — is in.

Does this mean the company is going to be making and/or releasing fewer esoteric, out-there films? One presumes as much. Is the idea to try and be successful like Fox Searchlight was in ’04 and ’05, or ultimately be more like the genre-milking Rogue or Screen Gems? Sounds like a mixture of the two, to judge by this statement in the Variety story, to wit: Par Vantage “is set to release a diverse slate of eight to 10 films a year, including “sophisticated films with a strong arthouse sensibility, as well as smaller-budgeted comedy and horror films.”