Tag: Warner Bros. Pictures

Philippa Boyens Confirms Second Live-Action 'Lord Of The Rings' Movie In Development Different From 'The Hunt For Gollum'
Posted on in Film News, News

Philippa Boyens Confirms Second Live-Action ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Movie In Development Different From ‘The Hunt For Gollum’

We’re months away from “The Lord of The Rings” making a grand return to the big screen with “The War of Rohirrim” galloping into theaters in December. But we’re now learning that “Lord of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum” from director Andy Serkis (who oversaw second-unit work on “The Hobbit” trilogy) not only won’t be a two-part story as previously suggested but producers/New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. Pictures are quietly developing a second but different live-action film as well.

The update hails from longtime franchise co-writer and producer Philippa Boyens, who explained recently to Empire Magazine that they’re not making two movies out of “The Hunt For Gollum.” Another film entirely is in the works and has yet to be officially announced by studio.

Boyens said, “I can tell you definitively it isn’t two films! “That was a genuine misunderstanding that happened because we’ve begun to work, conceptually, on two different live-action films. The first being ‘The Hunt For Gollum,’ the second one still to be confirmed.”

What that second film is going to be about and who will appear I’m sure is going to be speculated on until we get some concrete details from the studio and the producing team. We wouldn’t be all that surprised if Ian McKellen’s Gandalf would be involved, given the plausibility that his character will become the connective tissue for these next two films to the previous trilogies.

“The Hunt For Gollum” is expected to begin shooting next year with a tentative to-be-announced release date in 2026. The new film has a script penned by Boyens and Fran Walsh alongside Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou (the duo recently worked on “Rohirrim”).

“It’s quite an intense story, which falls after the birthday party of Bilbo and before the Mines Of Moria,” Boyens explained about where “The Hunt For Gollum” takes place in the timeline. “It’s a specific chunk of incredible untold story, told through the perspective of this incredible creature.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Photo Gallery

This likely means we’ll be seeing the return of the Nazgul as Gollum is tortured by Mordor’s faction, and it’s why the nine are led to the Shire to find the One Ring.

“Lord of The Rings: The War of Rohirrim” is heading to theaters on December 13.

SOURCE: EMPIRE MAGAZINE

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Hellraiser’ Director David Bruckner Tapped For New Version Of Horror Classic ‘The Blob’ At Warner Bros.

Horror has become not only big business for studios but a lot of feature films released in theaters have done exceedingly well with audiences leading to some impressive box office results, as long as the budgets are reasonable. While Universal Pictures is hellbent on making sure they’re making their presence known with a string of remakes from within their Universal Monsters franchise, another studio is getting into the remake game and tackling a classic horror character that hasn’t been touched since 1988.

The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. has selected David Bruckner (“The Ritual”), who was behind the recent “Hellraiser” reboot, for a reimagining of “The Blob.” Bruckner is set to both write and direct this new take on with David S. Goyer (“Foundation”) producing via his production company, Phantom Four. The beloved horror film was first released in 1958 with a fresh-faced Steve McQueen starring, a direct sequel in 1972 called “Beware! The Blob,” and the Chuck Russell remake in the 1980s from a script penned by Frank Darabont (“The Walking Dead,” “The Mist,” “Shawshank Redemption”).

In the original, the blob is an alien purple sentient ooze that consumes organic creatures and with each meal starts to grow in size, once big enough it starts to eat humans and gets to the point where the small town is at the mercy of this giant eating machine. The Darabont remake from 1988 tried to add its own spin on the mythology by hinting the blob’s origin was outer space in the first act of the film. Only to reveal it was, in fact, a secret U.S. government bio-weapon experiment gone wrong and the armed handlers don’t exactly care about the townspeople getting gobbled up by the blob if it means their new weapon is kept classified from the rest of the world.

While the original had inventive but outdated special effects the 1980s version has some of the best practical gore effects ever put on film and is criminally underrated given that the slasher sub-genre seemed to rule that decade. Given the amounts of practical effects and makeup used in his Bruckner’s “Hellraiser” remake at 20th Century Studios, there is a glimmer of hope he’ll attempt to use as many in-camera effects as possible.

This wouldn’t be the first time that someone has attempted a fourth incarnation of “The Blob” as directors Rob Zombie (“House of 1,000 Corpses,” “Halloween”) and Simon West (“Con Air”) had tried to make their own versions of the film with the latter being able to coax Samuel L. Jackson into a leading role. However, it doesn’t sound like the same people are going to be involved in this more recent project and it’s not clear how this remake at Warners differs from the other three films.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Posted on in News

Robert Pattinson Signs Overall First-Look Deal With Warner Bros. – Will Include Future Film & Television Projects

British actor Robert Pattinson has been having a huge career resurgence lately with a large role in Christopher Nolan’s time-bending action film Tenet that was released last summer and landed the titular role in Matt Reeves new Batman movie, The Batman.

It sounds like Warner Bros. wants to continue to work with Robert Pattinson for the foreseeable future as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the actor has singed a first-look deal that will allow him to be considered for projects at Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Television/HBO, and the streaming service HBO Max.

The deal could allow Pattinson to appear on the HBO Max spinoff series Gotham PD, a prequel that will take place during the first year of Bruce Wayne acting as the vigilante known as The Batman. However, they might be more interested in having the British actor leading other original projects other than things connected to the DC Comics franchise because his Batman contract likely has him attached to sequels and Matt Reeves has talked-up his plans to make a trilogy.

Most people first noticed Pattinson when he appeared as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire back in 2005 and led the popular Twilight films. Since then, he’s developed as an actor working with filmmakers such as David Cronenberg, The Safie Brothers, Robert Eggers, Christopher Nolan, James Gray, Claire Denis, and David Michod.

Having Robert Pattinson has the face of WarnerMedia could help them after heavy-weights such as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve signaled their frustration after the day-and-date announcement, Nolan has been signaling that he won’t work with the studio again and might already be looking for a new home.

The WarnerMedia-Discovery merger has led to rumblings within the business news community that this could be the beginning of a sale, although, this is unconfirmed as potential buyers haven’t been mentioned.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Christopher Nolan Has Spoken To Netflix About Working With Them But Global Theatrical Distribution Is A Concern – Signal He Is Searching For A New Studio Home?

You might remember how heated things got when WarnerMedia announced their day-and-date release model, something depending on where you look for numbers didn’t seem to make a huge impact on subscriber growth for HBO Max in Q1. Filmmakers Christopher Nolan (Tenet) and Denis Villeneuve (Dune) came out swinging with public comments denouncing the company.

There was even a report that Nolan was unlikely to work with WarnerMedia again.

Netflix’s film chief Steve Stuber has mentioned to The Wall Street Journal (via Coming Soon) that he has spoke with Christopher Nolan about his desire to see them expand into global distribution of their original films. Nolan has been a huge champion of traditional theatrical windows and audiences having access to the theatrical experience. Apparently, he’s also talked about potentially working with them but the cinematic distribution would be a huge sticking point for that to happen.

STUBER: “I think there are aspects of global distribution in the cinema that are still appealing. Chris Nolan and I have spoken quite a bit…and that’s still something he wants deeply. If we can’t provide that, it will still be an issue for him.”

“I think we have a model that works and we’ve done well with the theaters that have played us. As these things change, we’re all having these conversations to see where it all lands and what the landscape on the other side of all of this is.”

There have been plenty of calls for Netflix to get into the theater chain business as some companies have been struggling and now that studios can legally buy-up theaters it would allow Netflix to fully embrace a hybrid model of distribution with their original films that could allow their tent to expand with more high-profile filmmakers looking to work with them, like a Christopher Nolan. Netflix has been able to convince Martin Scorsese to bring The Irishman to the streaming giant and they’ve been able to win multiple Academy Awards with their originals.

It does feel like Nolan could be directly courting studios to find a new home and making sure his movies will be released in theaters worldwide is going to be part of whatever deal he attempts to secure. At this point in his career, any place would likely welcome him with open arms alongside blank checks for future projects.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Posted on in Film News

AT&T CEO Suggests New Release Model For WB Films Will Extend Beyond 2021

Yesterday, WarnerMedia announced that they would be releasing their 2021 slate with a new day-and-date model releasing their films the same day on HBO Max (for one month) and theatrically. Those 17 films will include The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, In The Heights, Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence, Malignant, Dune, The Many Saints of Newark, King Richard, Cry Macho, and Matrix 4.

While speaking with Deadline, WarnerMedia’s Jason Kilar dodged their question about what 2022 would look like moving forward.

KILNAR: “As to what the world looks like after 2021, I have no grand proclamations to make. Our focus, candidly, is on the here and now. We’re focused on getting through this pandemic like any business is, and we’re putting a lot of brain cells against what the right thing is to do to serve fans and to serve partners and to server ourselves. And all those things are important to do and that’s what our focus is, obviously that is what we announced today.”

However, AT&T CEO John Stankey seemingly jumped into future when asked by The Washington Post if they’d return to normal business practices including severing the day-and-date model they announced yesterday once the pandemic recedes. Stating the following which sounds a lot like they’re keen to keep this model.

STANKEY: “In March, we unleashed a new normal in society. That horse left the barn. I don’t think any of us are going to change that dynamic.”

Stankey did highlight the importance of movie theaters but didn’t really go into extensive detail what that relationship will look like post-pandemic. It’ll be interesting to see the reactions of domestic theaters who are going to be the most impacted if this model becomes a permanent thing as they’ll be in direct competition with HBO Max (a domestic streaming service).

You can watch that exchange below they start talking about the announcement around the 43 minute mark.

It was also mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter that WarnerMedia partners like Legendary Entertainment weren’t even told about the day-and-date model prior to the announcement and were just as blindsided as theaters. Legendary is behind WB’s massive upcoming releases such as Dune and Godzilla vs Kong.

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST

Posted on in News

Massive Layoffs At WarnerMedia Will Directly Impact Warner Bros., DC Comics, and DC Universe

Another blow to the entertainment industry is on the way. 

On Monday, it was revealed that WarnerMedia would be moving forward with massive layoffs with the “first wave” said to be around 600 according to a report from THR. 

The layoffs are being attributed to the damage inflicted by the Coronavirus pandemic. 

The laid-off employees include Warner Bros. CFO Kim Williams, Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution president Jeff Schlesinger and Ron Sanders, Warner Bros. president, Worldwide Theatrical Distribution & Home Entertainment and Executive Vice President, International Business Operations.

Yesterday, news hit that the comics side of the company would be taking a huge hit as well. 

The Hollywood Reporter included a list of people at DC Comics publishing that are expected to go as well such as editor-in-chief Bob Harris, Hank Kanalz, Jonah Weiland, Bobbie Chase, Brian Cunningham, and Mark Doyle. 

Among those said to be losing their positions are editor-in-chief Bob Harris, senior VP of publishing strategy and support services Hank Kanalz, VP of marketing and creative services Jonah Weiland, VP global publishing initiatives and digital strategy Bobbie Chase, senior story editor Brian Cunningham, and executive editor Mark Doyle, who oversaw the rollout of the Black Label graphic novels. Jim Lee remains the CCO.

They also point out that a “majority” of people at the DC Comics centric streaming service DC Universe will also see layoffs. 

There had been plenty of signs recently that DC Universe was on borrowed time after their talk show The Daily DC was canceled and multiple shows moved to other WarnerMedia services slowly making the streaming service less relevant. 

This news comes days before WarnerMedia’s big star-studded DC Fandome event on August 22nd is likely going to leave fans a little sour given the state DC Comics and DC Universe will be in. 

We had previously seen a bunch of layoffs at 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox) because of some job redundancies post-merger with the Walt Disney Company, which regularly happens when media companies combine. Equally as sad but that was slightly more expected in the wake of the merger and was one of the reasons many Fox employees were quitting before the merger had even completed. 

WarnerMedia recently launched HBO Max back on May 27th and seemingly hasn’t seen the growth they expected alongside the pandemic essentially stalling a majority of their various productions around the globe making. 

I’m sure everyone is interested to see if AT&T/WarnerMedia will keep divisions after the cuts to staffing or instead attempt to sell them off. There had been reports that they were trying to offload Warner Bros. Interactive, their profitable video games division, but some have had the assumption that these layoffs may delay that sale. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER