Warner Independent Pictures kicked off business over theweekend with the opening of its first picture Before Sunset, a Castle Rock production starring Ethan Hawke andJulie Delpy reprising their roles from the 1995 two-hander Before Sunrise.

Both films were directed by Richard Linklater. The movieopened well for the new studio division run by Mark Gill, taking $311,194 from20 screens for an average of $15,560.

With five films set for the rest of 2004, the division islooking to be fully up and running in 2005 with at least 12 releases includingJohn Maybury's The Jacket, LievSchreiber's Everything Is Illuminated,Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and thetriptych Eros from Steven Soderbergh,Wong Kar-wai and Michelangelo Antonioni.

WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES: 2004 RELEASE SLATE
Scheduled release date Film (Director)
July 23 A Home At The End Of The World (Michael Mayer)
Aug 13 We Don't Live Here Anymore (John Curran)
Sept 10 Criminal (Gregory Jacobs)
Oct 15 Around The Bend (Jordan Roberts)
Nov 26 A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)