Amazon Studios Boss Isn’t Worried About New ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Films Hurting ‘Rings Of Power’: “There’s Enough Fan Love to Sustain Ours”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Never fear, genre fans: Warner Bros. Discovery is intent on mining as much of its tentpole Warner Bros. IP as possible in the near future, whether that be through its upcoming revamped DC Universe, the newly announced “The Lord of the Rings” movies, or more projects based on J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” franchise amid the success of video game “Hogwarts Legacy.” “DC is an enormous opportunity and two important building blocks are in place now with the leadership team, Peter [Safran] and James [Gunn], and James has been breathing comics for as long as he’s been alive, essentially,” Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during a panel at Morgan Stanley’s investor conference Wednesday. “A great creative leader here. And the second building block that is in place is the one-company approach, because I think you can only manage a franchise if everything is coordinated and the team is working together extremely well. There’s an enormous level of collaboration and joint decision making around what should work hand in hand across the franchise.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Hasan Minhaj’s Riddler is coming back to your earbuds. The comedian-actor made a virtual appearance at Spotify’s Stream On event Wednesday, announcing “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark,” the next podcast series from Spotify, DC and Warner Bros. under their exclusive multiyear partnership. Minhaj had voiced The Riddler in 2022 hit Spotify podcast “Batman Unburied,” which starred Winston Duke in the title role. “Audiences are going to travel back to Gotham City with me in a story that leaves clues, puzzles and shines a spotlight on my personal favorite character, The Riddler,” Minhaj said in the video (watch the clip below).

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Paramount Global is unveiling today a corporate image campaign that builds on the sentiment of a popular self-help affirmation: You are loved, and you are enough. Just in time for media upfront season, the company’s “Popular is Paramount” marketing push is designed to burnish its image within Hollywood and on Wall Street. Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish wants the town and the Street to know that the company is fielding a new generation of hits – from “Top Gun: Maverick” to “Yellowstone” to “Paw Patrol” — and is not intimidated by having to compete against larger rivals such as Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast. The campaign will include with outdoor advertising in highly trafficked corridors of New York and Los Angeles, as well as on digital and TV platforms, both on and off Paramount’s own air.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s ties with Malaysian financier turned fugitive, Jho Low, have been detailed in new FBI documents.According to a report on Bloomberg, DiCaprio was interviewed as a potential witness by the FBI in 2018 about his relationship with Low, who is accused of embezzling $4.5billion from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhard (1MDB).DiCaprio is said to have first met Low at a New York nightclub in 2010 and went on to establish a close relationship.Low is said to have showered the actor with gifts – including a first edition of The Great Gatsby and Marlon Brando’s Oscar for On The Waterfront – and helped finance 2013 film The Wolf Of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring DiCaprio.“I was working for him… and that business also translates into being social,” DiCaprio told a grand jury, according to the report. “And so we saw each other more, and there was more interaction.”According to the FBI documents, Low called DiCaprio “L-Dogg”.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Marc Guggenheim has been a staple of DC Entertainment on television for over a decade as the co-creator of The CW’s Arrowverse, which launched in 2012 with “Arrow” (Guggenheim developed the series with Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg) and continued through “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and more. In a February 2023 blog post that’s now circulating online (via Entertainment Weekly), Guggenheim lamented over not being included in the new DC Universe that’s taking shape at Warner Bros. under DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran. Guggenheim admitted in his blog post that friends had told him Hollywood would come calling after he pulled off The CW’s ambitious “Crisis On Infinite Earths” storyline. That crossover event, which aired in December 2019 and January 2020, brought together six different superhero series for a story that ran through five hours of television. It was no easy feat, and Guggenheim said he even put up thousands of dollars of his own money to pull it off.

The power of a wide theatrical release was realized this weekend by streamer Amazon in its pivot back to the big screen with MGM/United Artists Releasing’s Creed III. It easily minted the best opening ever for the Seattle-based parent, as well as for the Rocky franchise, with $58.6M domestic, $100.4M worldwide.

Naman Ramachandran A rerelease of “Superman the Movie” will kick off a year-long 100th anniversary celebration of Warner Bros. Studios across the U.K. and Ireland, Warner Bros. Discovery has revealed. Warner Bros. was founded by Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack Warner and incorporated on Apr. 4, 1923. The “Superman” rerelease at BFI Southbank and BFI Imax in April will coincide with the 85th anniversary of the character. The rerelease of “The Exorcist” in September will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the horror classic. An Imax version of “Elf” will be released in November. In Ireland, a restored “Cool Hand Luke” screening kicked off the celebrations on Feb. 27, in partnership with the Dublin International Film Festival. The event also featured a Q&A with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lenny Abramson, discussing the impact of the film as a key influence on his career. 

EXCLUSIVE: After playing Juliet in 20th Century’s Romeo & Juliet spin-off Rosaline, Isabela Merced and 20th Century are teaming up again on one of the studios iconic IPs. Sources tell Deadline, Merced is set to co-star opposite Cailee Spaeny in 20th Century’s new Alien movie.

DGA Award winner and 5x Emmy nominee Paul Feig has found a stellar trio to lead his new action-comedy Grand Death Lotto for Amazon Studios in John Cena (Peacemaker), Awkwafina (Renfield) and Simu Liu (Barbie).

MultiChoice, NBCUniversal and Sky have set a new partnership to bring content and technology to streaming customers across MultiChoice’s 50-market footprint in sub-Saharan Africa. MultiChoice launched Showmax as the first African streaming service in 2015 and via the deal announced today, the new Showmax group, which will be 70% owned by MultiChoice and 30% by NBCU, will build on Showmax’s success to date and aim to create the leading streaming service in Africa. It will be powered by Peacock’s technology and combine MultiChoice’s accelerating investment in local productions with international content licensed from NBCU and Sky, as well as third party content from HBO, Warner Bros International, Sony and others, and include live English Premier League football. Launch details about the new Showmax service will be announced at a later date.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fox has named John Hesling its new head of Alternative Entertainment, the broadcast network’s in-house unscripted studio. Responsible for overseeing the development and production of all unscripted series owned by Fox Entertainment (FAE), as well as programs FAE produces for third-party buyers in the U.S. and abroad, Hesling will be based in Los Angeles and report to Allison Wallach, president of unscripted programming at Fox Entertainment. “I am so excited for John to join FAE and lead the incredible team we have assembled,” Wallach said. “His creative vision and vast experience as both a producer and an executive working on a global scale will be key to our strategy of building FAE as a leading provider of innovative series and formats for Fox and third-party platforms throughout the world.”

proved to be a very ironic title for director Olivia Wilde's sophomore directorial effort, as quite a bit of drama worth worrying about unfolded over the course of production and the subsequent promotional blitz ahead of the Warner Bros. film's release.From the film's early casting shakeups — with Harry Styles taking over for Shia LaBeouf — to Wilde's high-profile split from her long-time partner, Jason Sudeikis, and subsequent romance with her new leading man, drama, rumors and mild scandals have permeated every facet of the film's production.While the drama had largely been between Wilde, LaBeouf and Florence Pugh, Styles and co-star Chris Pine were dragged into the rumor mill over «spitgate» (it never happened!) at the Venice Film Festival — which has been filled with drama for the film on all fronts.With the tensions between Wilde and LaBeouf coming to a head in September as the actor accused the filmmaker of misrepresenting his exit from the film — and rumors swirling over Pugh's alleged feud with Wilde supposedly due to her romance with Styles and split from Sudeikis — it certainly felt like risked being overshadowed by the controversy.Amid the back-and-forth allegations and fan-fueled rumors, ET is breaking down all the drama and examining the behind-the-scenes in-fighting and how the headline-grabbing feuds first formed. In April 2020, news broke that Pugh and LaBeouf — as well as Chris Pine — had been cast as the leads of Wilde's forthcoming drama, which is set in the 1950s.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Most of the nation’s biggest TV companies are planning to gather under one roof next week and discuss something that has little to do with traditional boob-tube economics but is likely to play a critical role in them in weeks to come. When Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Walt Disney speak Tuesday morning at an event convened by The Trade Desk, they will give a tacit nod to the growing importance of so-called “programmatic” advertising to their many TV networks. In the not-too-distant past, programmatic sales were an add-on to mainstay TV commercials — and the networks were wary of ceding control to a technology that gave advertisers the ability to essentially use a software algorithm to insert an ad during a particular household’s streaming session or FAST watch, all according to the type of customer seen as most likely to be interested.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer After months of speculation, Amazon Studios has made it official with seasoned movie executive Courtenay Valenti. While many expected her to take the top film job at MGM, acquired by Amazon for $8.5 billion last year, Valenti has hammered out a hulked-up role that will give her considerable influence in feature programming. Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke told staff on Tuesday that Valenti has been named head of film, streaming and theatrical at both Amazon Studios and MGM. She will report directly to Salke, and be responsible for delivering “a well-rounded selection of tentpoles, prestige films and genre fare,” according to a memo.

The Overlook Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 edition, taking place in New Orleans from March 30-April 2, naming the world premiering Universal horror-comedy Renfield as its opening night film, and Warner Bros’ Evil Dead Rise as its closer.

BreAnna Bell CultureCon returns for its sixth annual tour, Variety has learned. Going coast to coast, the convention will first stop in Los Angeles (June 17) before closing its run in New York City (October 7, 8). Presented by HBO Max, CultureCon was built by The Creative Collective NYC, a community dedicated to creating brave spaces for creatives and young professionals of color. “The growth and impact CultureCon has had among creatives of color continues to inspire us at HBO Max,” said Jackie Gagne, Warner Bros. Discovery’s SVP of multicultural marketing. “Heading into our fifth year as sponsors of the conference, and second as the presenting sponsors, we are excited to create spaces and provide invaluable resources for emerging creatives and young professionals of color.”

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.

Emily Longeretta From the start, Courteney Cox was different. She was from Alabama — a place where, she recalls, people were steelworkers or doctors — and didn’t know anything about show business. So, she sought it out. Never in her wildest dreams did she think it’d lead her to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, to be unveiled Feb. 27. The summer after she graduated high school, Cox moved to New York City and began modelling. “I got a job right away and I thought, that was easy,” she recalls. Then the changes came. “It was a makeover. They took the Alabama fresh face and made a little funky style and it was really fun. They changed everything about me — they said I was Kentucky-born and they changed my last name to Myles. I don’t know why! But I never thought that when I was 18 it would lead to a career that I love and have really learned so much … I just kept doing things that led me to something else and I just kept learning and learning and learning.”

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Celebrated actor Nigel Havers and French journalist Sophie Davant will join Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) and ZDF Studios to celebrate 10 years and a now 10 territory roll-out of antique auction show “Cash or Trash.”  The property is produced by WBITVP and distributed internationally by ZDF Studios. Celebrations will take place as part of WBITVP’s Formats Showcase, held March 2 at BAFTA during this year’s London TV Screenings.  Havers (“Chariots of Fire,” “Finding Alice”) and Davant host the adaptations of “Cash or Trash,” on BBC One (“The Bidding Room”) and French public TV channel France 2 (“Affair Conclue”).

Seven months after landing the highly coveted top jobs at Warner Bros. Motion Picture studios, Co-Chairpersons Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were bestowed with the PGA Milestone award tonight and paid respect for their mega industry mentors, remembered emotionally their cinematic NYC and New Jersey youths, and gave a huge shoutout to their new boss, Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is suing Paramount Global, saying its competitor aired new episodes of the popular animated comedy series “South Park” after Warner paid for exclusive rights.