Pam Abdy: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Following an intense multi-studio bidding war that went into the weekend, Warner Bros. has landed the package Maude v Maude that has Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry attached to star. Roseanne Liang is on board to direct from Scott Mosier’s script. Berry and Jolie will produce along with Berry’s producing partner Holly Jeter, producing through their banner HalleHolly, along with Jeff Kirschenbaum and Joe Roth who will produce through RK Films. Mosier and Liang will exec produce.

EXCLUSIVE: Even at 92 years old, Clint Eastwood isn’t ready to slow down as he has set the thriller Juror #2 as his next film with Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette in negotiations to star. While it isn’t official sources also add that with schedules and budget figured Warner Bros., Eastwood’s long-time home, is coming close to officially green-lighting the film. Jonathan Abrams penned the script.

BreAnna Bell The horror of “The Conjuring” is getting the TV treatment. HBO Max is developing a TV series based on New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring” universe. The news was announced on Wednesday exclusively during Warner Bros. Discovery’s unveiling of the Max streaming service on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. According to Warner Bros., “The Conjuring” television series will continue the story established in the feature films. Producer Peter Safran is attached to executive produce the series via his Safran Company banner. James Wan, who also produced and directed several films within the franchise, is in talks to also executive produce. Wan’s Atomic Monster Productions is backing the project alongside Warner Bros. Television.

EXCLUSIVE: Smokehouse Pictures partner George Clooney and Grant Heslov have signed an overall film deal with the Warner Bros. Pictures Group and its Co-Chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. It amounts to a homecoming for the filmmakers, who named their company for the Smoke House steak joint right off the Warner Bros lot, where they used to eat all the time. Clooney’s history with the studio goes back to his breakthrough starring role in the Warner Bros Television drama ER. They made their first deal at Warner Bros when they formed Smokehouse in 2006.

EXCLUSIVE: In one of the wildest book rights auctions the town has seen in some time, Warner Bros. production co-heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy tonight landed screen rights to the upcoming T.J. Newman novel Drowning: The Rescue Of Flight 1421. Studio paid $1.5 million against $3 million, and there were five seven-figure bids on the table, sources said.    

Zack Sharf Digital News Director New “Lord of the Rings” movies are officially on the way from Warner Bros., and Andy Serkis is the first original cast member to say he’s ready to return to Middle-Earth. Serkis gave an iconic motion capture performance as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s original trilogy and reprised the role in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” “Look, [producers] Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens are sort of a second family that I have become part of and have gone on to make so many films with,” Serkis told BroBible’s Post-Credit Podcast. “And — let me tell you — they are the best and most incredible people to work with. I think that there are so many other potential Middle-Earth projects which could come about, and if they’re doing them, I would, of course, jump at the chance to have that relationship rekindled.”

EXCLUSIVE: Film industry veteran Michele ‘Miss’ Imperato Stablile has been named President, Worldwide Physical Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. She will report directly to Warner Bros Pictures Group Co-Chair and CEOs Michael DeLuca and Pam Abdy. She’ll join the studio in the coming weeks.

yet more Tolkien movies are on the way from their New Line Cinema.“For all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film,” said Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.The extended versions of the six “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films add up to about 20 hours total, which seems pretty well explored to me.On paper, the move is logical.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Warner Bros. Pictures is revamping the “Lord of the Rings” film franchise. On a Thursday earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that newly-installed studio leaders Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have brokered a deal to make “multiple” films based on the beloved J. R. R. Tolkien series. The films will be developed through WB label New Line Cinema. The first series of films, helmed by Peter Jackson, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide. Embracer Group AB made the deal with he studio for adaptations of “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”

Angelique Jackson M. Night Shyamalan has inked a new multi-year, first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker switching his allegiance from Universal. The announcement was made Thursday by Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. News of the pact comes as the director celebrates his latest release “Knock at the Cabin,” which marks his seventh No. 1 opening at the box office — he has a No. 1 film in each of the last four decades — and further contributes to his more than $3 billion haul at the global box office, beginning with his breakout hit, “The Sixth Sense.” “Where I write and direct is my home,” Shyamalan said in a statement announcing the new deal. “Disney and Universal, where I’ve made most of my films, will always be home and family to me. Warner Bros. has a storied history of cinema. Through its recent experiences, the company has rediscovered its love and appreciation for filmmakers, and the impact of the theatrical experience. We all win when movies succeed in theaters. I believe David Zaslav, Michael De Luca, and Pam Abdy have dedicated themselves to unique filmmakers, and to filling theaters all around the world for years to come.”

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros Pictures Group has inked a multi-year first-look directing and producing agreement with two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, whose movies have grossed $3.3 billion at the box office.

EXCLUSIVE: Akiva Goldsman is returning his Weed Road to Warner Bros, in a multi-year first look deal.

EXCLUSIVE: As Warner Bros Pictures continues to find its footing under new management, the studio on Thursday secured the services of a cornerstone filmmaker, signing a first-look deal with its Elvis director-writer-producer Baz Luhrmann. 

How great is the Ezra Miller movie The Flash. So good, that Warners is moving it up by a week to June 16, Father’s Day weekend, where Disney has the original Pixar movie Elemental, and Sony has the R-rated Jennifer Lawrence movie No Hard Feelings.

Exhibition stocks were up today on news from Bloomberg that Amazon is going to commit a reported $1 billion to theatrical releases annually.

EXCLUSIVE: Film and TV producer and former studio executive Lynn Harris is joining Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho Productions as producing partner. The news comes in the wake of Hocus Pocus 2, which Harris produced, being Disney+’s most watched movie ever.

EXCLUSIVE: The process of integrating MGM into the broader Amazon universe is starting to gain momentum eight months after the $8.5B sale by the tech giant was completed.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline hears that a global zoom meeting was held for Warner Discovery employees this morning, on which CEO David Zaslav introduced the new DC Studios Co-Chairmen and CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran. This was their first appearance together before the company since being named to their posts on Oct. 25.

Industry veterans James Gunn and Peter Safran have been appointed to the new roles of Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of DC Studios, overseeing the overall creative direction of the DC Universe across film, TV, and animation under a single banner. Gunn and Safran will report to David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer, Warner Bros. Discovery, and will work closely with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, Co-Chairpersons and CEOs of Warner Bros. Film Group. The appointments will be effective on November 1. 

HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys has a new title, Chairman and CEO, HBO and HBO Max Content.