What happens when Paramount Pictures and Paramount Vantage combine their operations? Will we still get a ‘Babel’ or ‘There Will be Blood’? I’m not sure. They’re combining marketing, distribution and physical production. Vantage will still use their own creative development and acquisition team. It will take away a part of the unique stamp, that’s for sure. It’s purely a choice of money. Just like Time Warner ditched Picturehouse and Warner Independent last month.

Of course Warner is spinning this into something like the ‘best of both worlds.’ They say it’s “to leverage the strengths and resources of a combined talent base, while minimizing redundancies and optimizing efficiencies.” But it will also save them several million in expenses. The reason studios are shutting down independent units is because of rising budgets, marketing costs and the crowded market. It’s probably just a cycle. In a couple of years they’ll just as easily start new ones.

We didn’t expect the box office record breaking ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ to take this long to get a sequel. Actually, Weinstein Co., the original production company, made the announcement at the end of 2004, but nothing came out of it. Now Overture Films and Paramount Vantage have picked up the rights to what is currently called ‘Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2.’

The original $6 million ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ was wildly popular for a documentary, making over $220 million worldwide. But the sequel won’t be a sequel in the traditional sense. “This is going to tackle what’s going on in the world, and America’s place in it,” Vantage chief Nick Meyer said. “Fahrenheit 9/11 was really about one event — what led up it and what the consequences were. This is much broader,” Danny Rosett of Overture Films said.

Michael Moore’s new movie is expected to hit theaters in the second half of 2009.