Mike De-Luca Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Industry veterans James Gunn and Peter Safran have been appointed to the new roles of Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of DC Studios, overseeing the overall creative direction of the DC Universe across film, TV, and animation under a single banner, the studio announced on Tuesday.Gunn and Safran will report to David Zaslav, Chief Executive Officer, Warner Bros. Discovery, and will work closely with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, Co-Chairpersons and CEOs of Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Li Jun Li (Babylon) is the newest addition to the cast of Ryan Coogler‘s untitled supernatural thriller, starring Michael B. Jordan, for Warner Bros.

Led by Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Warner Bros has crossed the $1B mark at the international box office, becoming the first studio to reach the milestone this year. Getting there in just 15 weeks, this also sets a new speed record for WB, besting the 17 weeks it took in 2018. The full international estimate through today is $1.04B.

EXCLUSIVE: Jayme Lawson (The Batman) is the newest addition to the cast of the untitled event film, starring Michael B. Jordan, that Ryan Coogler is directing for Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Jack O’Connell (Ferrari) is in talks to star opposite Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler‘s untitled event film for Warner Bros, sources tell Deadline.

In what is no surprise, Warner Bros Motion Picture Group is getting into business with its Dune and Wonka star Timothée Chalamet, and has hammered a multi-year first look feature film deal with the Oscar nominee as actor and producer.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Warner Bros. is doubling down on the business of Timothée Chalamet. The studio signed a multi-year feature film deal with the actor to collaborate on future projects as a star and producer.

Tatiana Siegel Hollywood loves a bare-knuckle brawl. And the town got a battle royal with “Road House.” The reboot of the 1989 cult favorite, which launches on Amazon Prime on March 8, sparked a fierce fight behind the scenes over its release. While studio-filmmaker standoffs are not uncommon, this one featured such subplots as the involvement of a notorious private investigator, a producer given the heave-ho, a cameo from Ari Emanuel and a director going scorched-earth.

Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group is making sure the producer of the studio’s highest grossing movie of all-time, Barbie, isn’t going anywhere.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Margot Robbie‘s production company is making it official with the studio that backed the Oscar-nominated blockbuster “Barbie.” LuckyChap signed a multi-year, first-look feature film deal with Warner Bros. to collaborate on future projects. The pact follows the smash success of “Barbie,” which was distributed by Warner Bros.

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Heyday Films’ Wonka continues its sweet run, crossing the $500M mark globally this weekend. The worldwide cume through Sunday is $505.3M including $329.1M from the international box office and with Korea, which has a fondness for Hollywood musicals, still to release at the end of the month.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Wonka” has crossed a sweet box office milestone. The fantasy musical, starring Timothée Chalamet as the eccentric chocolatier, surpassed $500 million in global ticket sales. After five weeks on the big screen, “Wonka” has generated $176.2 million domestically and $329.1 million internationally, bringing its global tally to $505.3 million.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a full slate of programming set for this year, as the classic movie home celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group has entered into a new co-financing pact with Domain Capital, a multi-year arrangement that will focus on bolstering the studio’s theatrical slate.

The 15th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 18-21, 2024 in its traditional Hollywood Boulevard location with a lineup exploring tales of conflict in cinema under the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group has appointed Katie Martin Kelley as executive VP of communications. Martin Kelley, who joins from MGM, will lead media relations and corporate communications for the film group, including Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and the newly rebranded Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. DC Studios will fall under the purview of Candice McDonough, who previously led communications for Warner Bros. Film Group and has been newly hired to oversee publicity efforts for the company’s comic book division. Martin Kelley will report to Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer In a display of pink visible from outer space, Greta Gerwig’s  “Barbie” held its lush world premiere on Sunday in Los Angeles. The Shrine Auditorum, located smack in the middle of the USC campus, was hosed down in colors of blush and bashful for the anticipated Warner Bros. release (as in, the security guards wore pink polo shirts), which drew the film’s stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.  One notable absence was Noah Baumbach, the film’s co-writer and Gerwig’s partner. “My co-writer and co-creator, my partner in love and art, Noah Baumbach is not here. He is passionately supporting the fight of the Writers Guild of America,” Gerwig said. “He is a Barbie girl. Nothing in ‘Barbie’ happened without him, and nothing in Hollywood happens without writers.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery has walked back its decision to cut longtime Turner Classic Movies programming exec Charles Tabesh following a PR black eye over dramatic cost-cutting changes at the beloved cable network, and announced a partnership with filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson to help curate content at TCM. Tabesh, a 25-year TCM executive who had been slated to leave as part of the downsizing of TCM staff, will now stay in his post and report to Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, who Variety previously reported were slated to take oversight of the operations at the network.

Over the past week, you’ve likely heard the outcry from filmmakers and film fans about the uncertain fate of TCM under the Warner Bros. Discovery regime.

The Flash hasn’t even opened to $100M this weekend –and may potentially not– but Warner Bros. is already popping champagne with the pic’s filmmaker Andy Muschietti.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav came to Las Vegas to put all of his chips on movie theaters. The executive made an appearance at CinemaCon, the annual convention of theatrical exhibitors, to reassure the crowd that the Warner Bros. Pictures Group was not interested in releasing its premium movies directly to streaming platform Max. “At Warner Bros., at DC Studios, we believe that everything is possible. This business could be bigger and stronger than its ever been,” Zaslav said on stage at Caesar’s Palace on Tuesday. “We believe in full windowing of the motion pictures. We do not want to do direct-to-streaming movies. We’re in no rush to bring the movie to Max.”

BreAnna Bell The horror of “The Conjuring” is getting the TV treatment. HBO Max is developing a TV series based on New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring” universe. The news was announced on Wednesday exclusively during Warner Bros. Discovery’s unveiling of the Max streaming service on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. According to Warner Bros., “The Conjuring” television series will continue the story established in the feature films. Producer Peter Safran is attached to executive produce the series via his Safran Company banner. James Wan, who also produced and directed several films within the franchise, is in talks to also executive produce. Wan’s Atomic Monster Productions is backing the project alongside Warner Bros. Television.

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.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director New “Lord of the Rings” movies are officially on the way from Warner Bros., and Andy Serkis is the first original cast member to say he’s ready to return to Middle-Earth. Serkis gave an iconic motion capture performance as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s original trilogy and reprised the role in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” “Look, [producers] Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens are sort of a second family that I have become part of and have gone on to make so many films with,” Serkis told BroBible’s Post-Credit Podcast. “And — let me tell you — they are the best and most incredible people to work with. I think that there are so many other potential Middle-Earth projects which could come about, and if they’re doing them, I would, of course, jump at the chance to have that relationship rekindled.”

Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke feels about Warner Bros. making competing projects based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” Salke, who has held the top content job at Amazon since 2018, walked a Monday red carpet for the premiere of Michael B. Jordan’s “Creed III” where she spoke with Variety about last week’s news that Warner Bros. had secured film rights to some of Tolkien’s books. One of Salke’s defining moves at Amazon was to secure television rights to the same literary works, which she achieved at great expense. The first season of Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” premiered in 2022 with a big global marketing push and critical acclaim — as well as a reported budget north of $450 million for the first batch of episodes. Previously, Warner Bros. pushed out two massively successful film franchises with auteur Peter Jackson beginning in 2001. Those films grossed over $5 billion at the worldwide box office and brought home a best picture Oscar for one of the entries.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Warner Bros. Pictures is revamping the “Lord of the Rings” film franchise. On a Thursday earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that newly-installed studio leaders Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have brokered a deal to make “multiple” films based on the beloved J. R. R. Tolkien series. The films will be developed through WB label New Line Cinema. The first series of films, helmed by Peter Jackson, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide. Embracer Group AB made the deal with he studio for adaptations of “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”

Leslie Grace has spoken at length for the first time about Batgirl‘s cancellation.The actress was due to star as the titular character Barbara Gordon in the DC film, which was shelved last year despite finishing production. It was claimed at the time that it received poor test screenings, and that the film was reportedly written off for tax purposes.Speaking to Variety about finding out about the axing, Grace revealed she learned the news when it broke in the media, recalling: “I found out like the rest of you.

Exhibition stocks were up today on news from Bloomberg that Amazon is going to commit a reported $1 billion to theatrical releases annually.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline hears that a global zoom meeting was held for Warner Discovery employees this morning, on which CEO David Zaslav introduced the new DC Studios Co-Chairmen and CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran. This was their first appearance together before the company since being named to their posts on Oct. 25.

Industry veterans James Gunn and Peter Safran have been appointed to the new roles of Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of DC Studios, overseeing the overall creative direction of the DC Universe across film, TV, and animation under a single banner. Gunn and Safran will report to David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer, Warner Bros. Discovery, and will work closely with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, Co-Chairpersons and CEOs of Warner Bros. Film Group. The appointments will be effective on November 1. 

Warner Bros Discovery’s film studio has been through a series of shake ups this year, most recently with the exit of Courtenay Valenti, the ascendance of Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy and the unsuccessful negotiations with Dan Lin to run DC. Despite the tumult, the studio has one very powerful ally as it tries to find its cadence.

HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys has a new title, Chairman and CEO, HBO and HBO Max Content.

Warner Bros., I feel extraordinary pride in what my colleagues and I have contributed to the studio andto the big screen. And tremendous gratitude for the time spent with them and some of the most dynamic and creative icons of cinema.

Ethan Shanfeld Courtenay Valenti, president of production and development for Warner Bros. Pictures, will depart from the studio after 33 years. Valenti will carry out her role until the end of October. “We’ve known Courtenay and been admirers of her work for many years,” said Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, in a joint statement provided to Variety. “She’s been an integral part of Warner Bros. Pictures’ success for over three decades and has had a hand in guiding some of the studio’s most popular and successful films. She’s well-respected across the creative community, she’s beloved here on the lot, and she will be greatly missed. We know that she’ll be hugely successful in her next endeavor and join all of her colleagues in wishing her the very best.”  

If there was one thing that the turbulent week at Warner Bros. Discovery displayed, it’s just how quickly conventional wisdom can change from one regime to the next, when each is trying to gin up the stock price for Wall Street.

Following the departure of Toby Emmerich as Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Boss, his fellow associate, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group COO Carolyn Blackwood is leaving. This is all ahead of Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy coming in to run the motion picture group under Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.