Big Industry Changes: Picturehouse, Warner Indie Folds; Rainbow Media Buys Sundance Channel

Just arrived in New York City - for those of you who haven't seen the huge breaking news of the past 48 hours: Warner Bros. (as has been rumored for weeks) has shuttered both Picturehouse (which released THE KING OF KONG) and Warner Indie (which made a huge hit and Oscar winner out of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS).  Eric Kohn at indieWIRE has a full report.

Meanwhile, Cablevision's Rainbow Media, which owns the IFC TV network, has apparently bought the Sundance Channel, which is a big development for nonfiction filmmakers, since Sundance is perhaps the biggest TV outlet for documentary film and there is speculation as to whether Sundance might ultimately be folded into IFC.  Much more on this in the days to come....