Warner Bros. Discovery Shoots First Spanish Series for Max, ‘When Nobody Sees Us’

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced a renewal of their multi-year content and platform agreement in New Zealand, securing Sky as the continuing home of HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros. and Discovery. WBD says that the deal keeps open its options on how and when to launch the HBO Max streaming service in the country. The agreement includes a continuation of Warner Bros. Discovery’s eight channel portfolio (Discovery, Discovery Turbo, Living Channel, TLC, ID, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network and CNN International); current and future seasons of HBO series such as “House of The Dragon,” “The Last of Us” and The White Lotus; returning series “True Detective: Night Country,” “Euphoria” “Game of Thrones,” “Sex & The City,” “Chernobyl”; Max Original series including “Peacemaker” and “The Flight Attendant,” future Warner Bros. blockbuster movies and a library titles including the “Harry Potter,” “Lord of the Rings” and “DC Universe” movies.

GQ magazine has removed a profile of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company objected to the article.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Carmen Machi (“Piggy,” “30 Coins”), one of the foremost performers of her generation in Spain, is attached to play legendary Barcelona agent Carmen Balcells, prime architect of the Latin American Boom and a key figure in the break out of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa to worldwide renown.  Chile’s Invercine, producer of “News of a Kidnapping” which swept April’s Platino Awards, is teaming with Spain’s Abacus, Pausoka and Grupo Lavinia to develop and produce “Boom Agency” (“La Agencia del Boom”) which turns on Balcells extraordinary life, achievement and personality. The deal was confirmed to Variety at Conecta Fiction.

BreAnna Bell Karen Horne has exited her post as Senior V.P. of North America Diversity Equity and Inclusion for Warner Bros. Discovery as part of the company’s restructuring. A WBD memo from Chief Global DEI Officer Asif Sadiq to staffers, which Variety has obtained, revealed the news on Friday. Horne oversaw the DEI efforts for creative talent development pipeline programs, workforce, content and production while working closely with Sadiq to craft a global strategy for the company. She joined the company in March of 2020, and was responsible for creating and implementing multiple pipeline programs that aim to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities. Prior to her appointment, Horne was at NBC Entertainment and Universal Television Studios as Senior Vice President, Programming Talent Development and Inclusion where she was responsible for overseeing in-front-of and behind-the-camera primetime diversity efforts for NBC and Universal Television. While there, she started the Late-Night Writers Workshop in 2013.

Karen Horne, who led led Warner Bros. Discovery Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for North America, is leaving the company amid a raft of layoffs and major restructuring since the merger. Executive said Horne’s departure was not part of the broader staff retrenchment but a rethinking of the DEI division.

two-volume book published by Taschen, “Arnold.” The centerpiece of the sold-out evening was a wide-ranging conversation between he and the book’s editor, Dian Hanson, followed by a 3D screening of the film. Today, the actor, activists and former California governor credits Cameron with coming up with the “brilliant idea” of having his Terminator be a protector instead of an assassin in his 1991 sequel. But he corroborated Wednesday previous interviews with Cameron (and expanded on revelations he shared in his Netflix documentary, “Arnold”), saying that at first, he was frustrated with the plot twist.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Japan’s Hiroshi Teshigahara, who seemed on track for greatness after winning two Oscar nominations for “Woman in the Sands,” will be the subject of a San Sebastian Festival retrospective.  Nominated for best foreign-language film in 1964, and winning Teshigahara a best director Academy Award nomination a year later, “Woman in the Sands” was just Teshigahara’s second feature, a social and erotic allegory which yoked the political convictions of Teshigahara and screenwriter Kobo Abe, both members of Japan’s communist party in their youth, with Abe’s penchant for the darkly surreal.  Turning on an entomologist from Tokyo who discovers a young widow living at the bottom of an enormous sandpit on a deserted beach, it also won a Cannes Special Jury prize. Hailed as a masterpiece, and building on 1961’s “The Pitfall,” a political allegory which won Teshigahara fans, with Abe adapting his TV play, it looked like Teshigahara would find a niche on the same pantheon as contemporaries Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura. 

Gogglebox star Ellie Warner has shared an update on life as a new mum after the Channel 4 show's latest series came to an end. Earlier this month, the hairdresser was seen introducing her newborn son to the world on the programme for the first time.

Jesse Armstrong and Danny McBride will have some individual independence to celebrate this holiday weekend.

CNN is exploring ways to put more of its news offerings on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, with a report that plans are in the works to offer live programming on the platform outside the U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor After spending months keeping CNN from expanding into streaming, parent company Warner Bros. Discovery appears to have changed its mind. Warner Bros. Discovery is exploring ways to get more CNN programing on to its Max streaming service, according to a person familiar with the matter, looking at the news outlet’s broader portfolio to see what content might work. Executives will have to navigate agreements with CNN’s traditional distributors that often require cable and satellite companies get first access to CNN’s live broadcasts. Yet CNN’s rivals have grappled with similar obstacles and found ways to repurpose the news and opinion shows they run. The Fox Nation streaming outlet runs Fox News Channel’s opinion programs a day later. Fox News in 2020 unveiled a new international service that puts its programs in countries such as Mexico and Spain. MSBNC in March of last year unveiled a plan to offer episodes of “Morning Joe,” “Deadline: White House,” “The Beat with Ari Melber,” “The ReidOut,” “All In with Chris Hayes” and MSNBC’s opinion programs on the Peacock streaming hub on-demand the day after they air on cable.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Top editors are rallying behind Poland’s independent media as it comes under increased scrutiny from the country’s right-wing, nationalist government. In a joint statement, the editors in chief of local outlets such as Fakt, Polityka and Gazeta Radomszczańska as well as international media such as Forbes and Canal+, have said they “declare our unwavering dedication to stand firm and defend the independence of Polish journalism.” “Newsrooms under our leadership will exhibit solidarity and resolutely inform the public about any attempts by the ruling party to exert influence over the media,” reads the statement.

Max has made its first series order in Spain.

News kept on churning this week — from Sunday morning until end of Friday — on the Warner Bros. Discovery front.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating to sell around half of the storied Warner studio’s film and TV music-publishing assets for approximately $500 million, three sources confirm to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits. While it is unclear exactly which assets are on the table, one source says that the rights to “slightly less than half” of the catalog, with a price of around $500 million, are likely to go to a major label, with Sony said to be in the lead. The catalog is believed to include music from such films as “Purple Rain,” “Evita,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Rent” several “Batman” films and many more titles, as well as songs included in iconic films such as “As Time Goes By” from “Casablanca” — iconic titles to be sure, but again, it is unclear exactly which rights are in play. Top attorney Allen Grubman is said to be overseeing the deal for Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) insiders in Poland have reacted with alarm after a group of European regulators said they plan to meet to discuss what the insiders believe could lead to the closure of the U.S. media giant’s operation in the nation.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a CEO in the film and TV industry to have such an immediate impact as David Zaslav over at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Jordan Moreau In a turnaround for the streaming wars, Warner Bros. Discovery is in negotiations to license a package of library HBO titles to Netflix. If a deal were to go through, it would cement the sea-change in content distribution strategy afoot at Warner Bros. Discovery under the David Zaslav regime. HBO has licensed library content in the past — a deal with Netflix would not be groundbreaking per se, but it is notable in the era of pitched competition among the largest media companies to build direct-to-consumer streaming platforms. Netflix, the upstart outsider from Los Gatos, has been the pace car for television’s transition over the past decade.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO’s streaming walled garden is coming down, it seems.

Pola Changnon, who runs Turner Classic Movies (TCM), is the latest executive to leave as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery shakeup.