In a tumultuous Hollywood age of corporate takeovers and executive turnovers, Richard Brener is a rarity of the business. The tall, soft-spoken president and CCO of New Line has been at company for 30, yes, you read that right, 30 years come May 1. He started as a temp in Los Angeles, working in every conceivable department. Then, when a story editor position opened up, applied for the job. That gig instead went to a woman named Donna Langley, now the chairman NBCU Entertainment & Studios, but then an executive’s assistant. “That was smart of them because she’s obviously done very, very well for herself,” Brener notes while sitting in New Line’s offices on the Burbank lot of Warner Bros. Discovery. “She’s now a dame and I’m just a mister.” But New Line execs were impressed enough with the Yale history grad that they created the position of staff reader just for him.
Brener got big break when he was installed to oversee an Adam Sandler movie titled The Wedding Singer, which proved to be a massive (and enduring) hit in 1998. The feature helped propel him into the upper ranks of New Line, where he has been one of the executives responsible for some of the biggest comedies and horror movies of the century, ranging from Wedding Crashers and Horrible Bosses to The Conjuring franchise and It movies. In fact, five of the top 10 horror movies of all time have been made during his tenure there.
This year, Brener, ably assisted by longtime executive Dave Neustadter and New Line’s spry lean team, is overseeing a slate that comprises nearly half of WBD’s film output, and that has taken an outsized importance. While Warner Bros. Motion Pictures heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have been under scrutiny for taking expensive swings with risky auteur-driven movies, WBD head David Zaslav and company insiders have pointed to New Line’s mostly horror-driven lineup of sequels (Mortal Kombat II, The Conjuring: Last Rites) and reboots (Final Destination: Bloodlines) as the surefire counterweight.
On the heels of WBD’s Cinemacon presentation, Brener peels back the curtain on his time as a reader, the stomach-churning anxiety of corporate mergers, and the future of Conjuring and Friday (and more!) franchises.
You started as a reader and story editor with Mike De Luca running the show. What was a script that got away from you guys?
We bid on American Pie and got outbid. That one hurt. This one is later, but Straight Outta Compton we developed for years and put the movie together only for the higher ups to let it go. That wouldn’t have happened if Mike and Pam were in charge of the studio then.
What was it like when you first read Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights?
I was a story editor at the time, and I had to make copies of that script. It was 180 pages or something like that. I will say that as a giant fan of the movie, I absolutely did not get it from the page. I remember thinking Mike was the best executive in the world. To see something that would eventually become one of my favorite movies and not see it on the page was very intimidating and humbling. It read like a hardcore porn script. It was pretty racy. I remember thinking, “this is going to be a movie of all unknowns and it’s going to be NC 17 and it is 180 pages. This is crazy.” And then I heard that they were interested in Drew Barrymore to play Roller Girl. It ended up obviously being Heather Graham, but the second I heard that, it kind of clicked in my head, and I got it. It didn’t even occur to me that it could be cast up. And to Mike’s credit, he obviously did see that.
New Line at that time was considered one the wildest and untamed studios of the ’90s.
And yet we’re the most stable in terms of how many leaders there have been. Isn’t that ironic?
Very. What is the wildest thing you saw that you shouldn’t recount but I’m going to ask you to anyway?
I wasn’t necessarily privy maybe to do the reputational “wild moments,” but I do remember our Christmas parties, which were public. They were a lot of fun. I remember walking by Quentin Tarantino, who was at one of our parties saying, “I want to make movies at this company!” just because our Christmas party was fun. And I think at all of the New Line premieres, the New Line executives were the last to leave usually. It was a very fun place.
New Line has gone through merger hell and restructuring several times. What’s been the closest you felt that the company would be shut down?
Pretty much whenever there was a change of ownership, the headline would say the new owner, and then the sub headline would say “New Line likely to be shuttered.” But scariest time was 2008 when the company got downsized from 600 to 40. We lost all of the international department, all the distribution, all of home video. Everybody but maybe one or two marketing people, one or two in some of the other divisions. We were in the Pacific Design Center and we were hearing from Jeff Bewkes coming live from the CNN Center to tell us that there were going to be a lot of big changes and a lot of people in that room weren’t going to be a part of ’em. And then we went on a crazy hot streak [Including He’s Just Not That Into You, 17 Again, Sex and the City 2, Four Christmases.] I think our first 14 movies were profitable. And then after the first one that didn’t work, they cut 30 percent of our overhead.
What the movie that broke the hot streak?
Going the Distance. But, the best part of that movie, it was the first movie we worked with Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. Whatever we lost on that movie, we made tenfold from making Horrible Bosses. So even that frown can be turned upside down.
Speaking of turning things around, the testing process is big at New Line. What’s been the movie that’s tested the worst that you’ve managed to save?
I’m definitely not answering that. I’ll just say that in the beginning of my career, if something didn’t test well early, I would panic. And now, I cannot be phased by low scores. Post is a magical place. Some of our biggest successful movies at one point weren’t testing well. I feel for the filmmakers we work with — a lot of first timers who probably feel like it’s life or death, but it’s a really fun process.
How has New Line evolved over the years?
It’s not been a huge change in the sense that we’ve kind of been making the same kinds of movies, whether it’s horror, comedy, female-driven films. The budgets haven’t changed, the expectations don’t change and the pressure doesn’t change. There’s an ebb and flow in the sense that we probably are making less comedies today and more horror movies, because horror movies have been working more and there are people who are nervous about comedies, I think unjustifiably.
You guys have a slate with a majority of sequels. And companies get knocked for that.
We take our sequels very seriously and try to make them feel as fresh as possible. I think we have a really great track record on sequels. We are on the sixth Final Destination, the ninth Conjuring film and the fourth Mortal Kombat this year. I think a lot of companies probably run out of steam by two and three. So the hope is that none of the sequels feel like stale and familiar. But we also have Companion and Weapons this year as kind of original movies. I’d love to get credit for having a super big plan, but a lot of movies, you kind of have to react to how they come in and when they’re ready.
Let’s talk about the slate for a bit. Companion came out earlier in the year. Why didn’t that work at the box office?
I am confounded about that. To be honest. I think it’s very rare to find a movie that scores as well with the audience and critics. There may be some things in the concept that were hard to get through in short form in marketing, but we’re super proud of the movie and would love to work with (writer-director) Drew (Hancock) again. He’s an amazing talent. The movie will be profitable for us.
For Final Destination, I heard directors Zack Lipovsky and Adam Stein made a crazy video when pitching for the gig. Can you tell me about that?
The basically Final Destination-ed themselves in the middle of their pitch. So they died while pitching it, and it very shocking, very surprising, and really clever. Also the way they storyboarded everything and explained all the scenes was very unique. They were incredible, very clever with the way they used technology on top of just great filmmaking.
How much more gas is there in the Conjuring tank?
It’s testing through the roof and we’re only at the director’s cut, the 10-week part of the movie where you’re normally very, very scared about the status of your film. We’re very early in the process, have very preliminary visual effects, but it’s already through the roof. So while this is last of what we call phase one, we are hopeful that we can make more.
Oh, so you guys are MCU-ing this? What’s phase two?
Phase two is TBD.
Where is the next Conjuring coming from?
We have a lot of great stuff in the works, and we’re also making our second Evil Dead movie with plans for a third as well. But there’s also new fresh ones that you haven’t heard of that we believe, in success, we’ll have multiple installments.
Like Weapons?
We’ll see. It’s a very unique movie and I don’t want to say too much about, it because it’s going to blow people’s minds.
Lightning round on New Line titles! Is there a new Nightmare on Elm Street on the Horizon?
We hope so. It’s complicated because of the rights.
Would you remake The Mask?
Under the right circumstances, the right filmmakers, the right talent? Yes. It’s a great idea for a movie.
Any new Friday movies?
We are making another Friday. We just closed a deal with Ice Cube to write and star. It’s going to be called Last Friday.
Sequel to Seven?
No.
You could call it Eight.
No. I mean, if David Fincher wanted to do it, sure.
What about Snakes on a Plane? Snakes on Train, Planes and Automobiles?
There have been conversations about those kinds of things or other things on a plane. But no current plans.
You guys made three Blade movies. Marvel hasn’t made any. Do you have any advice for them?
I am not giving Marvel any advice. But I’m happy to take some if they are so willing.
What are the three most important lessons you’ve learned about the movie business?
First, the problems in the script will become problems in the movie. If you think that someone can fix it, or the audience won’t see it, whatever — not true. Second, I would say the audience is always right. Which means never under or overestimate them. If you build it, they will come, if you make it for them. We love the testing process, so fix your movies because that investment in your time and money will pay off during the giant life cycle of a film. Movies are forever, so make sure you make the best ones. And third, don’t give interviews.
This story appeared in the April 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
