Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery cable warrior Kathleen Finch is heading into her Super Bowl: the holiday season at Food Network.
14.11.2023 - 22:12 / deadline.com
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group and investment firm Domain Capital announced that they have inked a multi-year, co-financing agreement spanning multiple years that “reflects Warner Bros. expanded focus of theatrical films as the company continues to grow its diverse slate of movies across every genre for audiences across the globe.”
The new arrangement included Barbie — released in July — and will continue with the studio’s major tentpoles including Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Wonka and The Color Purple. The time frame of the deal wasn’t released.
The news comes after WBD reported mixed quarterly earnings last week with a glum advertising outlook, and as the company led by David Zazlav is making headlines over Coyote Vs Acme. WBD planned to axe the finished Looney Tunes film but after an uproar from the filmmakers and creative community it decided instead to shop it around and is holding screenings. The studio could have taken a $30-$40 million write-down on the circa $70-million budgeted pic apparently. That story continued today as Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro slammed WBD on X saying its “tactic of scrapping fully made films for tax breaks is predatory and anti-competitive.”
The situation may well be different but it recalled WBD’s axing of Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt in the summer 2022 as it wrestled with its financials after the Discovery-Warner Media merger. The combination with its ensuing high debt has been complicated give the costs of streaming and decline in linear television. The Domain deal is WBD looking to save some cash.
Domain in 2022 announced the closing of more than $700 million of equity commitments for an entertainment fund and co-investment vehicle for film, television and music. As
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery cable warrior Kathleen Finch is heading into her Super Bowl: the holiday season at Food Network.
David Zaslav has been preaching the gospel of Tinseltown labor peace since the SAG-AFTRA strike ended, and now the Warner Bros Discovery CEO is putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to his own backyard.
EXCLUSIVE: Actor-comedian and writer Jamie Lee (Crashing) and actor-comedian Nikki Glaser (FBoy Island) are set to star in and executive produce Unsettling, a half-hour, single-camera comedy, which is in development for Prime Video, from Warner Bros. TV, Bill Lawrence‘s studio-based Doozer Productions, and Amazon MGM Studios.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery China is launching reality TV show “Glow Up China” in mainland China later this month. Delving into the universe and talents of Chinese make-up artists, the series will launch on leading streaming platform Tencent Video in December at a yet-to-be-specified date. The 6×60 minute show is a Warner Bros.
EXCLUSIVE: We hear on good authority that Max Peacemaker star Danielle Brooks and Sebastian Eugene Hansen are joining the cast of Warner Bros. and Legendary‘s Minecraft movie.
Phil Quartararo, a record executive for five decades at A&M, RCA, Island, EMI, Warner Bros. and Virgin Records, died today of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles. He was 67.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Phil Quartararo, the veteran record executive who played a major role in the success of the Spice Girls, Linkin Park and many others, has died, Variety has confirmed. Billboard reported that the cause of death was pancreatic cancer; he was 67. A familiar and friendly presence at countless concerts across the decades, “Phil Q.” — pictured above with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks in 2001 — was renowned for his warm personality and firm handshake.
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.
Jaden Thompson Congressman Joaquin Castro has taken to X/Twitter to call out Warner Bros. Discovery for planning to shelve the completed film “Coyote vs. Acme” for the sake of receiving a $30 million tax break.
Texas congressman Joaquin Castro has taken to X to slam Warner Bros Discovery for axing the $70M Coyote vs. Acme for a reported $30M tax writeoff. That said, as we first reported, the studio is changing course this week and screening the film for potential buyers, i.e. Amazon Prime (a leading contender), Apple and Netflix. This pivot by studio brass was made after a weekend in which the studio’s phone rang off the hook by the creative community over the cancelling of the finished film, as well as an outcry by the pic’s composer Steven Price among others online.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Coyote vs. Acme” is officially on the market. Days after Warner Bros.
EXCLUSIVE: Screenings are being set up this week for streamers Amazon Prime, Apple and Netflix to check out and potentially acquire Warner Bros‘ axed Looney Tunes movie Coyote Vs. Acme after the studio’s phone ran off the hook the entire weekend from angry filmmakers and talent reps over their third feature film kill after Batgirl and Scoob Holiday Haunt! The more egregious Hollywood sin here with Coyote vs. Acme is that it’s a finished film, that was intended for a theatrical release, while the other two movies were still in the works.
Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Warner Bros. will be juggling a lot in the Oscar race for best original song. As confirmed by an FYC advertisement sent to Critics Choice Association members, along with the multiple tracks from “Barbie” by Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, the studio will also handle several numbers from their two upcoming holiday movie musicals: “The Color Purple” and “Wonka.” The upcoming adaptation of the musical “The Color Purple” will screen in front of its first official audience of industry voters and journalists next week.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Another Warner Bros. movie bites the dust. The studio no longer plans to release “Coyote vs.
Warner Bros Discovery is reteaming with Taiwanese production company DaMou Entertainment to produce HBO Asia original Fired Up! (working title), an adaptation of hit Kakao webtoon Itaewon Class.
Christopher Nolan is freaking me out. “There’s a pretty simple argument mathematically for saying the world will end in nuclear Armageddon simply because that’s a possibility,” he’s calmly explaining. “Over an infinite timeline, it’s going to happen at some point.” It’s hard to dispute Nolan’s logic that civilization will one day vaporize, but as he tops off his mug of Earl Grey tea from a small kettle on the table in front of him, he hits a slightly more hopeful note.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav opened the company’s quarterly earnings presentation with remarks on the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, remaining “hopeful” that the work stoppage will end “soon” following the Hollywood studios’ move to adjust AI language in its “last, best and final offer” to the actors union. “We are hopeful we will reach a resolution to the SAG-AFTRA strike soon,” Zaslav said during WBD’s third-quarter earnings call Wednesday.
Free TV Networks, a new programming entity with a presence in both over-the-air broadcast and streaming, has enlisted Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate and Gray Television as partners and suppliers.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery, Taiwan Mobile and the Taiwan Creative Content Agency have signed a multi-year memorandum of understanding to create and distribute Taiwanese original content locally and across international markets. The MOU, signed in advance of next week’s TCCF event, combines the expertise and reach of the three companies to develop, produce and distribute local IP and content for both local and global audiences.
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and producer Amy Pascal have emerged victorious in a spirited book-rights auction for How to Rule the World: Yacht Parties, Culture Wars and the Downfall of a President at Stanford. Written by Theo Baker, book tells his story of being an 18-year-old freshman at Stanford who wrote a series of reports for the university’s newspaper skeptical of the questionable research practices of the school’s president Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a neuroscientist who was on the short list for the Nobel Prize.