Seems as if all that cash and goodwill from the Lord of the Rings trilogy might be running out…?

Toby Emmerich, New Line’s production president, acknowledged the importance of “The Golden Compass” to the studio. “If it’s a huge hit, I think our stock goes up within the Time Warner empire, and there’s more opportunity,” Mr. Emmerich said. If the film is a disaster, he added, the company’s prospects would likely darken. But he pointed out that New Line, in keeping with past practices, has reduced its financial risk by pre-selling foreign rights to foreign distributors.

Not incidentally, New Line’s economy-minded corporate parent played with the notion of melding this mid-level studio with its much larger Warner Brothers unit before “The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” erupted six years ago. That idea could again prove attractive, if New Line, currently a distant seventh in terms of domestic box office receipts, doesn’t improve a record that has only lately perked up a bit with “Hairspray” and “Rush Hour 3.”

With “The Golden Compass” much still hangs in the balance. Its filmmakers completed a four-month shoot in England, Switzerland and Norway last January, and Mr. Weitz screened a cut for top New Line executives in May.

But as recently as last month Mr. Weitz, who wrote the script’s current version, following earlier drafts by the playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard, was revising scenes that set up the movie’s complicated story about a girl’s struggle against repressive authority.

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