Warner Bros Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Even though Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow once vowed to push forward with more “Matrix” projects with or without the involvement of The Wachowskis, we honestly thought the studios were done with “The Matrix” franchise following the only mildly-received “The Matrix Resurrections.” However, a surprising report from Deadline has announced that filmmaker Drew Goddard (“Cabin In The Woods”) is attached to write and direct a fifth “Matrix” film, which will continue the action-packed cyberpunk story.

Katcy Stephan “I, Tonya” director Craig Gillespie is in talks to direct “Supergirl” at Warner Bros. DC Studios.

Free TV Networks (FTN), the new company with a portfolio of national, ad-supported over-the-air networks and FAST channels, is launching another national broadcast network called Dare that will feature unscripted series from A+E Networks.

Director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan are continuing their collaborative streak with a new untitled period genre movie, which Warner Bros.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Warner Bros. is going back to the Matrix. The studio announced that a fifth “Matrix” movie is in development.

Warner Bros. has announced that a fifth Matrix movie is in the works!

Veteran communications executives Kristy Chan and Meghan Johnson have launched Trifecta PR, a new full-service agency with an expertise in building impactful public relations and awards campaigns and brand partnerships for clients in film, television and consumer brands.

Bachelor Nation is giving the franchise’s inaugural series the ratings rose.

The Martian Adapted Screenplay nominee and The Cabin in the Woods filmmaker Drew Goddard has been set to write and direct a new Matrix movie at Warner Bros. with the franchise’s original co-scribe and co-director Lana Wachowski executive producing.

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.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is poised to stomp all over the box office competition… again. After its better-than-expected debut, Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s monster tentpole has generated $95 million domestically and $210 worldwide to date.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Cinecittà Studios, which have been undergoing a radical overhaul since 2021, recently released their fiscal 2023 results, which saw the Rome-based facilities turn a profit for the second year in a row after bleeding red ink for years. The iconic studios are being managed by Nicola Maccanico, a former Warner Bros.

Selome Hailu Netflix has released a trailer for “Dead Boy Detectives,” the upcoming series following the Neil Gaiman-created comic book characters of the same name. The series centers Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), who helm the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts who solve mysteries.

The lineup for this spring’s NewFronts presentations to ad buyers has been finalized, with TikTok, Meta Platforms and Snap providing high-profile tech presence as Amazon and Peacock take a step back.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A group backed by many of the entertainment sector’s biggest traditional TV companies said it would back audience-measurement tools from Comscore and VideoAmp for use in national ad deals, the latest effort by media giants to create an alternative to Nielsen for tabulating viewership. Whether or not the new ad currencies will gain traction will depend on Madison Avenue.

Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips’ musical follow-up to his 2019 DC film, has landed an R rating from the Motion Picture Association (MPA). 

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Warner Bros. Television Group chairman/CEO Channing Dungey is returning to the Banff World Media Festival this June to serve as one of its keynote speakers, the event announced on Wednesday. Dungey joins a lineup that also includes Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade as a summit series keynote.

Banff, the Canadian television event set in the Rocky Mountains, continues to attract top U.S. execs with Channing Dungey the latest addition.

Apes are hot these days coming off of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and beast fever will spill over into the weekend of May 10-12 when 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is looking to open to $54M-$61M.

No dart gun, or First Omen, or Monkey Man will put Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to sleep this weekend. The pic, after an unexpected $80 million Easter weekend start, will continue to rumble with a 55%-60% second-weekend drop to between $32M-$36M. Through four days, the Adam Wingard-directed Monsterverse title stands at $87.7M, fueled by 57% of K-12 schools out Monday and another 14% colleges. Expect more cash today as, per Comscore, there are 28% of K-12 school out, and 5% universities.

EXCLUSIVE: Gracie Lawrence is heading to Essex College as a new series regular for the upcoming third season of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble‘s The Sex Lives of College Girls.

Naman Ramachandran Honors were even atop the U.K. and Ireland box office as Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” and Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” battled for top spot during the Easter holiday weekend. While “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” won the three-day weekend, “Kung Fu Panda 4” had the higher gross including previews.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix‘s film division has preemptively acquired a pitch for an untitled law school thriller from Holland, Michigan‘s Andrew Sodroski, sources tell Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television have acquired the rights to Matthew Blake‘s debut crime thriller novel Anna O. The series adaptation is in the process of being set up at Netflix for development, sources tell Deadline.

Warner Bros. Discovery said today that directors Steven A. Miron and Steven O. Newhouse, both of have both notified the board that they have resigned after the U.S. Department of Justice informed them that it was investigating whether their service on the company’s board of directors violated Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act on overlapping boards.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse resigned from the Warner Bros. Discovery board after the Justice Department informed them it was investigating “whether their service on the Board of Directors violated Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act,” the company announced Monday. Miron, CEO of media company Advance/Newhouse Partnership and a senior executive officer at the Newhouse family’s investment business Advance, and Newhouse, co-president of Advance, were both independent directors of Warner Bros.

At one point, Warner Bros.’ “Wonder Woman” was arguably the most successful and beloved of the DC properties, and the studio was going to move forward with franchise director Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 3” and lead actress Gal Gadot. Of course, all that changed when James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios and made a hard creative reset of the DC Universe instead.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Lynda Carter, who became a television icon as the star of the live-action “Wonder Woman” series from 1975 to 1979, delighted comic book fans when she popped up at the end of Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 1984” as Asteria, a legendary Amazonian warrior previously thought to be dead. The tease led many to believe a third “Wonder Woman” movie would unite Carter and Gal Gadot on the big screen, but the sequel was announced as dead in August 2023. In a new interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Carter heavily suggested that she would’ve been back as Asteria had Jenkins and Gadot’s “Wonder Woman 3” taken flight at Warner Bros.

Godzilla-King Kong combo stomped on expectations as “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” roared to an $80 million opening on 3,861 North American screens, according to Sunday studio estimates.The monster mash-up from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures starring Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry brought the second-highest opening in what has been a robust year, falling just short of the the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part 2.”Projections had put the the opening weekend of “Godzilla x Kong: Frozen Empire” at closer to $50 million.Last week’s No.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After three days of release, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” stands as the third-highest-grossing movie of the year. It has collected a mighty $194 million globally in its opening weekend, ranking behind only “Dune: Part Two” ($626 million after five weeks of release) and “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($347 million after four weeks of release) in terms of overall ticket sales. The monster mashup, from Warner Bros.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” stomped to the top of box office charts, collecting a better-than-expected $80 million from 3,861 North American theaters in its debut. Heading into the weekend, the monster mashup was projected to earn $50 million to $55 million to start. But “Godzilla x Kong,” which sees the two otherworldly beasts team up to save the planet, trounced those projections after benefitting from several factors, including audience enthusiasm (it landed an “A-” CinemaScore”) and premium large formats (accounting for 48% of ticket sales).

J. Kim Murphy Some movie stars don’t lose their luster. A 90-year-old ape and a 69-year-old reptile are taking over domestic charts this weekend, as Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: NBC‘s Found is adding Dionne Gipson (Dream Girls) to its Season 2 cast. She will recur as a character who is close to Gabi (Shanola Hampton).

Warner Bros. Pictures and Bad Robot on Friday revealed Flowervale Street to be the title of David Robert Mitchell‘s new film, starring Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, and Christian Convery, announcing that it will open in IMAX on May 16, 2025.

Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out and roaring at the international box office, generating $15.9M from 49 markets through its first two days overseas (Wed/Thurs). Not included in that total is the strong China opening day today which came in at an estimated RMB 96.9M ($13.4M).

EXCLUSIVE: Apple’s Invasion is rounding out its Season 3 cast with Ashton Sanders (Moonlight, Wu-Tang: An American Saga) and Eric Lange (Perry Mason, Escape at Dannemora) who will tackle major recurring roles.