Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery Exploring Sale of Music Assets
Warner Bros. Discovery is exploring a sale of its music assets that could be worth upwards of $1 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter. The catalog is being shopped by famed entertainment attorney Allen Grubman. While the potential sale — which was first reported by The Financial Times — is still in the very early stages, some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s current music partners could be potential buyers. Universal Music Group (UMG) already administers the publishing assets, which are likely the largest part of the deal, and Warner Music Group (WMG) distributes WaterTower Music, Warner Bros. Discovery’s in-house record label. The assets being shopped, including music and production music from the company’s television and film projects, are not the kinds of music rights...
George R. R. Martin Says Game of Thrones Spinoffs Shelved After “Changes at HBO Max”
Warner Bros. Discovery has been enacting a content Red Wedding over at HBO Max, and it’s now come for the author behind the actual Red Wedding. George R. R. Martin revealed in a new blog post that some Game of Thrones spinoffs have been shelved due to “changes at HBO Max.” Martin didn’t elaborate on which projects have stalled out, though more than half a dozen were known to be in the works, including three series — The Sea Snake (previously Nine Voyages), 10,000 Ships, and a story set in Flea Bottom — as well as Tales of Dunk and Egg and multiple animated projects. “None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon,” Martin wrote on December 28th. “A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take somethi...
Cartoon Network Studios Swallowed by Warner Bros. Animation After Layoffs
Warner Bros. Television Group cut 26% of its workforce on Tuesday, October 11th as part of its parent company’s continued cost-cutting measures. Among the hardest-hit divisions was the animation department, which will consolidate Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) and Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) as part of a “strategic realignment.” “We are implementing a new streamlined structure in which the development and main production teams will now work across both Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios,” chairman Channing Dungey wrote in a company-wide memo (via Deadline). Both the development and production teams at WBA and CNS will be merged, with Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe operating independently from the other studios. As Cartoon Brew points out, the consolidation will likely make an...
Keanu Reeves to Return for Constantine Sequel
Keanu Reeves is set to return for Constantine 2, a sequel to the 2005 superhero film, from director Francis Lawrence. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Lawrence is also returning for the sequel, while Akiva Goldsman will serve pen the script. The first Constantine film was written by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello. Based on DC’s Hellblazer comic, Constantine centers Reeves as John Constantine, an exorcist who travels between Earth and Hell in his communications with half-angels and half-demons. Really, his character is more of an anti-hero than a superhero, as he’s pretty cynical about his abilities. Advertisement Related Video The release of Constantine 2 is another sign of Warner Bros. Discovery’s newfound preference for superhero films over ...
Unauthorized Queer Batman Movie The People’s Joker Pulled from TIFF “Due to Rights Issues”
The People’s Joker, an unauthorized queer coming-of-age movie set in the Batman universe, has been pulled from Toronto International Film Festival after a single screening “due to rights issues.” Helmed by and starring Los Angeles-based director Vera Drew, the film was scheduled for three more showings at TIFF following its premiere as part of the festival’s Midnight Madness programming on Tuesday, September 13th. Billed in the description of its trailer as “completely unlicensed by DC and Warner Bros.,” The People’s Joker was likely trying to operate under US fair use laws for parody. According to IndieWire, however, Warner Bros. Discovery informed the filmmaker of “a copyright issue” over the movie’s use of characters including Joker and “a Harlequin a la DC’s Harley Quinn...
Brendan Fraser Calls Batgirl Cancellation “The Canary in the Coal Mine”
Brendan Fraser is basking in a career renaissance led by his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, but his turn as the villain Firefly in Batgirl sadly won’t be part of his comeback after Warner Bros. Discovery canceled the project for tax write-down purposes. In an interview with Variety, the actor called the decision “disappointing” while commenting on how it serves as an early warning sign that the film industry is in big trouble. “It’s disappointing. The fans really wanted to see this film made,” Fraser said. “The movie itself was shot and conceived for a smaller screen. In this age that we’ve come out of now between streaming service versus theatrical release, it wound up being the canary in the coal mine. So, what can we learn from this? Work with trusted filmmakers,...
Warner Bros. Discovery Doesn’t Have the Money to Release Movies, Delays Aquaman and Shazam Sequels
The team at Warner Bros. Discovery has doubled down on a scorched-earth strategy to cut costs in recent months, but it doesn’t seem to be working. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the company is so low on money that it’s pushed back the release dates of two movies, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, in order to spread out the costs associated with marketing and distribution. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was originally slated to drop on March 17th, 2023, but it has now been delayed to December 25th, 2023. Fury of the Gods now has the former movie’s original March release date after initially being slated for a December 2022 release. The horror flick Salem’s Lot, meanwhile, has been taken off Warner Bros. Discovery’s calendar altogether, with n...
Warner Bros. Discovery Lost $20 Billion in Market Cap Trying to Cut $3 Billion in Costs
Since completing its April 8th merger, Warner Bros. Discovery has been on a cost-cutting frenzy, with an announced goal of finding $3 billion in savings. The process began when WBD axed CNN+ on April 21st, and since then the company has shelved Batgirl, removed over 200 classic episodes of Sesame Street, and iced dozens of upcoming projects — with a result that WBD has lost a total of $20 billion in market cap and counting. Importantly, this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. WBD is trying to save $3 billion in cash, while market cap is the stock market’s estimate of a company’s total value, found by taking the amount of stock in circulation and multiplying that by the stock’s price. And there are several other factors dragging down the stock, especial...
Ezra Miller Filmed New Scenes for The Flash After Arrests, Grooming Allegations: Report
Even as Warner Bros. Discovery tried to cool down spending, the newly merged media titan was shoveling more money onto human dumpster fire Ezra Miller. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the star of The Flash was called into “regularly scheduled additional photography over the summer, apparently without incident, before being charged with burglary — their third arrest this year — on Aug. 7 in Vermont.” This report suggests that WBD continued investing in Miller after their first and second arrests in Hawaii, while aware of allegations of grooming against the troubled star. Miller was booked for disorderly conduct and second-degree assault in March and April, and accused of inappropriate relationships with at least two different children in the first half of June. De...
Kevin Smith Suggests WBD Should Have Nixed Flash Instead of Batgirl: “Supervillain” in Real Life
Kevin Smith thinks Warner Bros. Discovery can’t tell the difference between a hero and a villain, saying it’s “an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina Batgirl movie,” while moving forward with The Flash, whose star Ezra Miller is acting like “the reverse Flash in real life.” The conversation came as part of his ongoing web series Hollywood Babble-On, which was recorded at Flapper’s Comedy Club in Burbank, CA. “I don’t give a shit how bad the Batgirl movie is,” Smith said. “Nobody in that movie [is] very complicated or [has] anything in their real life you have to market around. But in The Flash movie, we all know there’s a big problem.” “Yeah, Flash is a supervillain,” his co-host Ralph Garman quipped, referencing the multiple...
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