EXCLUSIVE: Elan Gale, the creator of FBoy Island and a long-time Bachelor producer, is getting into business with ITV America.
29.03.2023 - 19:43 / deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Doctor Sleep filmmaker Mike Flanagan has pitched a feature version of DC supervillain Clayface over at the studio several sources tell Deadline, however, no word on greenlight yet — and the studio has not said ‘No’. There are no offers and no deals.
Word is that Flanagan and his Intrepid Pictures partner Trevor Macy had a meeting with DC Bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran. Flangan, we understand, wasn’t pitching the character to be part of Matt Reeves’ DC elseworld, The Batman 2 set for an Oct. 3, 2025 release date.
That said, other sources are telling us that scripts are constantly changing, and that Clayface is a big addition to Matt Reeves’ The Batman 2. Let’s wait until the dust settles here and something moves forward. It remains to be seen whether Clayface is a connection between The Batman 2 elseworld and Gunn and Safran’s feature and series sprawling DC’s Gods and Monsters – Chapter One.
But Clayface got his DC introduction as part of Detective Comics #40 in June of 1940. While there would eventually be a number of shape-shifting DC antagonists using that alias, the original Clayface was a moderately successful actor who adopted the identity of a character he’d portrayed in a horror pic after turning to crime. He’s a frequent adversary of Batman with a body seemingly made out of clay who has appeared over the years in numerous films, television series, animated works, video games and other forms of media, being portrayed on the series Gotham (The CW) and Pennyworth (Epix/HBO Max) by Brian McManamon and Lorraine Burroughs, respectively. The rationale behind Clayface’s appearance emerged in comics of the 1970s, which evolved the character into a scientist with hormone irregularities.
Flanagan has
EXCLUSIVE: Elan Gale, the creator of FBoy Island and a long-time Bachelor producer, is getting into business with ITV America.
BreAnna Bell Warner Bros. TV has acquired the book rights to Jesse Q. Sutanto’s novel, “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers,” the studio announced on Monday. Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International, which is currently under an overall deal with WBTV, is attached to produce alongside Harpo Films. The novel follows Vera Wong, a lonely widow living in San Francisco’s Chinatown who wakes up one morning to find a dead body on the floor of her struggling tea shop. “No one is more curious than a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands, so Vera decides to start her own investigation,” reads the description. The book was published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and HQ, a division of HarperCollins UK.
the hit “Super Mario Bros.” film.The “Peaches” music video directed by Cole Bennett, watches Black climb through a hole in what looks like a mushroom or a turtle shell to tickle the ivories on a pink piano and belt out the ballad. A framed photo of Princess Peach sits atop the piano next to a bowl of — you guessed it — peaches, the fruit.
Jon Burlingame As part of its 100th anniversary celebration, Warner Bros. showcased its historic musical legacy with — of all things — a chamber-music concert Thursday night at its Steven J. Ross Theater on the WB lot in Burbank. An estimated 700 fans attended the two shows, in which a string quartet played famous movie and TV themes amid hundreds of artificial candles. Unlike most film-music concerts these days, there were no images screened. The music itself took center stage. Nearly half of the 16 pieces played were from post-2000 films, perhaps a nod to contemporary audiences expecting music they could easily recognize. But in terms of reflecting the rich Warner Bros. history of songs and scores, it was disappointing to find so few from the studio’s first 50 years.
Eva Longoria is welcoming Spring in the best possible way, cooking a delicious recipe. The Hollywood star, who is always showing her fans and followers her favorite dishes and new variations of traditional recipes, has now revealed all the steps to make her Spring salad.“Spring is here and this salad is one of my favorites to make on any sunny day! It’s so fresh, flavorful and is perfect as a side dish or for lunch,” the actress wrote, telling her fans to tag her on social media if they decide to recreate the dish.Eva posted the video on Instagram, joined by her son Santiago, who seemed to be curious about what she was preparing.
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large In the 1950s, the motion picture industry wanted nothing to do with the young medium of television — but Jack Warner soon realized that was a losing battle. Warner Bros. was among the first to dive into TV production, when ABC approached the studio about acquiring a theatrical film package. But instead of just running films on TV, the result was “Warner Bros. Presents,” an umbrella series that debuted in 1955 and comprised programs based on existing intellectual property including “Casablanca” and “Cheyenne.” The success of “Cheyenne” ush- ered the era of the Western to televi- sion, as Warner Bros. (initially under Warner’s son-in-law, William T. Orr) brought a movie studio approach to the small screen. “There’s a spirit of independence and innovation that’s so much a part of the legacy of the studio,” says Warner Bros. TV chairman Channing Dungey. Other early Warner Bros. TV hits included “Maverick” and crime dramas such as “Hawaiian Eye” and “77 Sunset Strip.” That legacy continued with “The F.B.I.” and in the 1970s, sitcoms like “Alice” and “Wel- come Back, Kotter,” the Lynda Car- ter-led genre hit “Wonder Woman,” actioner “The Dukes of Hazzard” and the landmark miniseries “Roots.”
Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The modern superhero movie would not exist without the version of Superman limned by Christopher Reeve in Warner Bros.’ 1978 smash “Superman.” First created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for Action Comics, the Man of Steel became a pop-culture mainstay with the syn- dicated “Adventures of Superman” TV series in the 1950s. But it wasn’t until DC Comics moved into the world of Warner Bros. and Reeve donned the last son of Krypton’s blue-and-red tights for the Richard Donner-directed “Superman” that bringing a comic book superhero to life on the big screen was seen as blockbuster business. And the spoils were considerable: In the moment, “Superman” ranked as WB’s highest-grossing movie ever.
AQUAMAN & THE LOST KINGDOM moves from 12/25/23 to 12/20/23
EXCLUSIVE: Prior to the global debut of the AGBO spy series Citadel, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is getting into business with Amazon Studios again, this time with the John Cena and Idris Elba movie, Heads of State. Cameras roll in May.
reported that insiders at Warner said the studio hadn’t ruled out more theatrical films and HBO Max projects for the “Harry Potter” universe, even as the “Fantastic Beasts” films came to a close.“‘Fantastic Beasts’ was always meant to be one piece of a larger plan to build the Wizarding World,” Warner Bros. domestic distribution head Jeff Goldstein told TheWrap at the time.
J. Kim Murphy Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to close a deal to produce a “Harry Potter” television series. According to Bloomberg, which was first to report news of recent talks surrounding the project, the project would be directly based on J.K. Rowling’s best-selling book series, rather than an in-universe spinoff such as the “Fantastic Beasts” film series. Each season would reportedly draw from one of the books, suggesting an ongoing franchise that would stretch for years for the studio. Sources close to the situation suggest that talks between Warner Bros. Discovery and Rowling’s camp remain in a preliminary state. The studio is looking to house the series under its streaming banner HBO Max, soon to be combined with Discovery+ and rebranded under a new name.
EXCLUSIVE: It’s been nearly three decades since Michael Mann’s crime classic hit theaters and it now feels like Mann and Warner Bros. are finally feeling more heat around the corner for a sequel to Heat. While rumors have been swirling for weeks, Deadline is hearing Warner Bros. is now in negotiations to come on to develop Heat 2, the sequel to the 1995 classic that Mann recently turned into a novel that became a New York Time #1 best-seller when it was published last August. On top of Warner Bros. in talks to return, insiders add that Adam Driver, who recently starred in Mann’s Ferrari pic, is in discussions with Mann to play young Neil McCauley in the movie.
From graduating college, to saving the world.
Back in late January, new DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran announced the first chapter of their new DCEU. Entitled “Gods And Monsters,” the new slate includes films like Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy,” a Batman film in “The Brave And The Bold,” and even a “Booster Gold” movie.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav received $39.3 million as compensation for his work overseeing the newly merged Discovery-Warner Media empire last year. That’s the pay package disclosed in a regulatory filing, which also disclosed 2022 salaries for other top executives.Then-Discovery CEO Zaslav was given a package worth $246 million in 2021, a massive upswing from $37.7 million in 2020 and $45.8 million in 2019.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav’s pay package topped $39 million in 2022, down considerably from the staggering figure he hit in the year prior, thanks to a massive $203 million stock option. In a Wednesday Securities and Exchange Commission filing, WBD stated that president and CEO Zaslav’s exec comp package totaled $39.3 million last year. $3.1 million of that sum was his salary, with the rest being stock awards ($12 million), stock option awards ($1.4 million), non-equity incentive plan comp ($21.8 million) and “all other” compensation ($925,489). While Zaslav’s pay is down considerably from 2021, it’s important to note the reason behind this major dip is an unprecedented $203 million stock option grant that inflated his total 2021 compensation package to a staggering $246.6 million. (To give you a more reasonable idea of what Zaslav’s pay has been in recent years, his 2020 haul was a mere $37.7 million.)
EXCLUSIVE: Smokehouse Pictures partner George Clooney and Grant Heslov have signed an overall film deal with the Warner Bros. Pictures Group and its Co-Chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. It amounts to a homecoming for the filmmakers, who named their company for the Smoke House steak joint right off the Warner Bros lot, where they used to eat all the time. Clooney’s history with the studio goes back to his breakthrough starring role in the Warner Bros Television drama ER. They made their first deal at Warner Bros when they formed Smokehouse in 2006.
Todd Gilchrist editor Warner Bros. will commemorate its 100th anniversary with a block of programming on Turner Classic Movies starting April 1. TCM will broadcast remastered and newly restored versions of 10 classic Warner Bros. films, each featuring an introduction from a filmmaker or film expert culled from the network’s ongoing partnership with the Film Foundation, a non-profit preservation and exhibition organization. The program coincides with the April 13-16 run of the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. On April 13, a new 4K restoration of 1959’s “Rio Bravo,” Howard Hawks’ classic western starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Angie Dickinson, will premiere on TCM and serve as the opening night film of the festival. Dickinson will attend the in-person event, while Martin Scorsese will introduce the film on TCM’s small-screen presentation. Similarly, Warner Bros. will premiere a new 4K restoration of Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden,” starring James Dean, on both the big screen and the network, the latter featuring an introduction by filmmakers Wes Anderson and Joanna Hogg.
What’s David Robert Mitchell been up to lately? Well, since “Under The Silver Lake,” not much, but that’s about to change. Deadline reports that Mitchell has his next project lined up at Warner Bros., and the director is teaming up with Anne Hathaway and the Bad Robot crew for a new mystery project.
Anne Hathaway (Eileen) has signed on to star in a mysterious new film that David Robert Mitchell (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake) will direct for Warner Bros. Pictures, Bad Robot and Jackson Pictures.