Indie Picturehouse tries to stay in the big picture

Goodbye, "Pan's Labyrinth"? That's the question hanging over Indiewood, as Warner Bros. contemplates the future of Picturehouse, the stalwart independent division of New Line that in its three years of existence helped introduce Americans to unique foreign flavors, winning three Oscars for Guillermo del Toro's fantastical dream of Franco's Spain in "Pan's" and another Oscar this year for Marion Cotillard's performance as Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose."

Unlike the rest of the studios, Warner Bros. has been a Johnny-come-lately to the independent game. As recently as five years ago, the studio had no specialty division. Now it has two: Warner Independent Pictures, launched in 2004, and Picturehouse, which became part of the portfolio when Warners decided this year to absorb New Line, Picturehouse's parent company.

For the last few weeks, Warner Bros. has been in talks with Picturehouse head Bob Berney about taking over as co-president with Warner Independent President Polly Cohen of some merged entity, though talks appear to have bogged down over the exact parameters of such a venture, according to various inside sources.

Many in the community wonder about the seriousness of big Warners' commitment to a specialty division. For the past two years, the studio, home to such juggernauts as "Harry Potter" and the "Batman" franchise, has kept Warner Independent on low-grade life support, ever since its founding president, Mark Gill, resigned after repeated clashes with his boss, Jeff Robinov, president of the Warner Bros. Pictures group. Gill had released the Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins" (also a box-office champ) as well as the Oscar-nominated "Good Night, and Good Luck." Since his departure, the division hasn't green lighted any pictures and has slowed its acquisition rate to a trickle, releasing such nonperformers as "Snow Angels," "Introducing the Dwights" and "Funny Games."

Last year, its highest-profile entry was "In the Valley of Elah," which grossed only $7 million at the domestic box office, though it nabbed an Oscar nomination for star Tommy Lee Jones. Warner Independent's most notable upcoming project is Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant," starring Matt Damon. According to someone involved with the film, "The Informant" was developed by Warner Bros. proper but has been given to Warner Independent to release in part to prop up the division.