Warners specialty division, Picturehouse, has been responsible for some of the highest profile foreign film releases in the US in recent years including LA VIE EN ROSE, PAN'S LABYRINTH and THE ORPHANAGE, so it seemed like a good idea that they were handling the belated US release of Tadanobu Asano's Genghis Khan flick, MONGOL. Well, that's not such a good thing anymore because Picturehouse was just shuttered by Warners and MONGOL is going to be the last foreign film they release.

But how much will they release it? It's slated for a June 6 opening and while they've been doing some marketing for it I would imagine that this is now a low, low, low priority for all 43 employees at Picturehouse as opposed to, say, job hunting. Expect it to come and go like an tiny mouse in the night. I'll bet the release will be radically scaled back and I'd give it about a week in theaters.

(In other news, Warner Independent Pictures was also shuttered. They were the distributors of THE PROMISE and THE PAINTED VEIL)