New Line boss Richard Brener to stay on as Paramount-Warner Bros. deal closes
New Line's longest-serving executive is staying on as Warner Bros. changes owners.
Richard Brener, president and chief creative officer of New Line, is expected to move across to the new Skydance-owned Paramount Warner Bros. studio and keep steering New Line, according to an exclusive published by Deadline on 2 Oct 2026.
Brener is New Line's longest-running employee. His job title means he decides which films the label makes, and Deadline reported he will continue to run that operation after the change of ownership.
The new structure is taking shape quickly. Paramount production co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein will have all of the Warner Bros. labels report into them, Deadline reported. Labels are the separate film brands inside a studio, such as New Line, DC Studios and the main Warner Bros. banner.
Two other big names are also making the transition. DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran are moving to the new company, while Warner Bros. motion picture chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are departing, Deadline reported.
The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger was expected to close early next week, as of that 2 Oct report. New Line Cinema is a division of Warner Bros., so its future has been one of the open questions in the deal.
Brener's history with the company runs deep. He was first hired at New Line by production boss De Luca in 1995, starting as a temp before rising to story editor and then senior vice-president, Deadline reported. In December 2016, he and Carolyn Blackwood were set to take over running production at New Line, according to Deadline, and in June 2022 he was still reporting to Warner Bros. chief Toby Emmerich. In February 2026, Warner Bros. hired Mike Ireland as president of production to serve alongside Brener at New Line.
He arrives at the merger with a full diary. The next Lord of the Rings film, the Andy Serkis-directed The Hunt for Gollum, is dated for 17 Dec 2027. Final Destination 7 follows on 12 May 2028, then Evil Dead Wrath on 7 Aug 2028, Zach Cregger's original science-fiction title The Flood on 11 Aug 2028, and the Weapons prequel Gladys on 8 Sept 2028, Deadline reported.
That calendar builds on a strong run. Final Destination: Bloodlines, directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, took 317.8 million US dollars in worldwide ticket sales, which Deadline described in its 2 Oct report as the highest total in the franchise's history.
Warner Bros. had planned to release 20 films in 2027, including an untitled New Line horror film placeholder set for 12 March, according to TheWrap.
For fans, this means continuity. The same executive who oversaw Bloodlines and Cregger's run stays in charge of what comes next, even as the corporate name above the door changes.
