LORD OF THE RINGS - NEW LINE'S SHAYE WAS NEAR DEATH, SAYS NY TIMES

New Line Cinema cofounder was felled in 2005 by a type of pneumonia similar to the type that took the life of Muppets creator Jim Henson in 1990, the New York Times disclosed today (Monday), noting that for six weeks Shaye lay in a medically-induced coma and spent months recovering. In an interview with the newspaper, Shaye said that he now intends to "act as more of an adversary or critic" in the greenlighting of movies by the studio following last year's overall poor performance of New Line releases. He also told the Times that he had denounced Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson "in a moment of emotion" during an interview with Sci-Fi wire last year but did not regret speaking his mind. He said that New Line still intends to go ahead with a film version of Rings prequel The Hobbit but that there is presently no screenplay for it. He said that he intends to release the movie in 2009.

19/02/2007