Bob Iger: Last News

Marvel will be cutting back on the amount of content released per year after seeing a dip in interest.

Disney’s efforts to have an antitrust class action from streaming subscribers dismissed has been denied one more time, but the company will now not be on the hook for any cash.

Disney‘s now-abandoned Florida relocation plan for staffers has created some pretty dark legal skies.

Marvel‘s troubled Blade film starring Mahershala Ali has hit yet another bump in the road with director Yann Demange exiting the project.Per a report from Variety, sources with inside information have claimed that Demange – who has helmed Top Boy and Lovecraft Country – departed from the film “weeks ago” amicably, as the film’s development cycle dragged on.This marks the second director to leave the film. Mogul Mowgli director Bassam Tariq, who was originally tapped to direct, departed from the film in 2022, just weeks before it was due to begin filming.Variety also noted that screenwriter Eric Pearson, who has co-written next year’s The Fantastic Four, is the latest writer to take a stab at Blade‘s script.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Another one bites the dust. Filmmaker Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) is no longer set to direct “Blade,” Marvel Studios’ long-in-the-works reboot of the vampire superhero franchise set to star Mahershala Ali.

After years of acrimony between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the two sides are working on a new development agreement that would provide assurances and guardrails for the Bob Iger-run behemoth as it plans to expand near Orlando. In exchange, the State of Florida would see up to $17 billion in investment from Disney over “the next ten to twenty years.” It also sets the stage for a fifth park at the resort.

Disney CEO Bob Iger was presented with an honorary knighthood.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Nelson Peltz cashed out his shares of Disney shortly after the activist investor lost his bid to win seats on the Mouse House’s board, according to a CNBC report Wednesday. Peltz sold all of his Disney stock at “close to $120 dollars a share,” making about $1 billion on the sale, CNBC reported, citing an anonymous source.

Diego Ramos Bechara editor The line where the sky meets the sea is calling Moana once again, as Disney has released the first trailer for its highly-anticipated “Moana” sequel. The trailer sees the return of Moana and Maui, voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, respectively, on another oceanic adventure. According to its official description, “Moana 2” reunites “Moana and Maui three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers.

Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book, has died at the age of 95.Richard and his brother Robert B. Sherman served as the in-house songwriters at Disney in the 1960s and won two Oscars for their work.

Disney Legend Richard M. Sherman, half of the Academy Award-winning songwriting team of the Sherman Brothers with his late brother, fellow Legend Robert B. Sherman, died today at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills at 95 from age-related illness.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor New technology is friend not foe to Hollywood’s creative community. That was the message delivered Thursday morning by Disney CEO Bob Iger during his keynote conversation at the Canva Create showcase event held at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. Iger, who is an investor and board member of the privately held online design platform, commended Canva for embracing the potential of generative AI tools and other cutting-edge technologies to make high-end visual media design tools readily available to everyday users.

Disney director James Gorman, who retired as CEO of Morgan Stanley in January after a smooth succession process, will also be stepping down as executive chairman of the financial giant.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Canva, the online service that offers a host of easy-to-use design tools, is targeting large companies in general and Hollywood in particular as growth initiatives as the DIY platform plots its next 10 years. Canva, launched in Janaury 2013, has been one of the biggest and buzziest digital media startups to emerge from Australia’s increasingly busy tech, venture capital and startup sector over the past decade. Disney CEO Bob Iger made a personal investment in the Sydney-based company in 2022 when it was valued at $40 billion.

Marvel Studios’ Vision in a newly greenlit Disney+ series.Variety reported yesterday (May 23) that the as-yet-titled series will be helmed by showrunner Terry Matalas, who led the recent seasons of Star Trek: Picard as executive producer. It is currently earmarked for a 2026 release.The report states that Matalas was brought in by Marvel after being impressed by his work on Star Trek: Picard, which has seen Marvel alumni Patrick Stewart heading his first Star Trek outing since 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis.Bettany last played Vision in the 2021 Disney+ series WandaVision, where the character was resurrected and revamped into White Vision following his death in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.That year, Bettany revealed in an interview that his contract with Marvel had expired, stating: “I guess it would be difficult to introduce White Vision and not deal with him in some way, but we have not discussed that.”In 2022, Variety reported that a Vision spinoff series was in development by WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer, who is currently preparing the September 2024 release of Disney+ series – and fellow WandaVision spin-off – Agatha All Along.Earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that there will be fewer new entries in the near future for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Did you know it’s been nearly two years since there were reports that Marvel Studios was developing a series surrounding the return of Vision, played by Paul Bettany. At the time, it was another series from “WandaVision” head writer, Jac Shaeffer, and seemed to be on the fast track to happening.

upfronts on a mission to get advertisers excited about a handful of new series coming in the fall. This year, TV’s big players took a T-shirt cannon approach. Every one of the major presentations during the May 13-15 sprint in midtown Manhattan — NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros.

Now that the upfronts are over, it’s time to hand out much-deserved accolades to those who made this year’s presentations truly unforgettable.

In July of 2023, recently returned Disney CEO Bob Iger shocked the media industry by indicating he might be open to divesting the company’s declining  linear assets. By last fall, he’d changed his mind, declaring them not for sale. On interviews and earnings calls since, he’s explained why — most recently at the MoffettNathanson media conference, and in the midst of annual upfront presentations to advertisers.

Walt Disney will cut its investment in programming for traditional television networks “pretty dramatically” as the company navigates the consumer shift to streaming, Chief Executive Bob Iger said Wednesday.Iger said linear channels such as ABC still serve as an important marketing tool and reach older viewers who are not watching series such as “Abbott Elementary” on Disney’s streaming platforms.Still, the goal is to “reduce pretty dramatically our investment in content specifically aimed at those traditional networks,” Iger said at the MoffettNathanson’s 2024 Media, Internet and Communications Conference in New York.On Disney’s theme parks business, Iger said he expected continued growth but perhaps not at the same rate as in recent years.“We’ve had double-digit revenue growth in that business for quite some time, and that’s extraordinary,” he said.

Over the past several months, on more than one occasion, we’ve heard from Disney executives about how they’re going to be cutting back a bit on streaming and put the focus on streamlining releases. That is to say, all that talk about how Disney+ was going to be the golden goose of the company was a bit premature.