Warner Bros: Last News

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s the big launch day for Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max — and the newly revamped streaming service appears to encountering some technical problems right off the bat. On Wednesday morning, subscribers took to social media to complain that they were having logging in to Max, which is replacing the three-year-old HBO Max service. As reported by users, the issues spanned the Max.com website as well as mobile apps including iOS and connected-TV apps on Roku and Samsung TV. Of course, there are bound to be some problems in migrating millions of customers over to a new streaming platform. A Warner Bros. Discovery rep declined to specify how widespread the issues that users are encountering may be. The May 23 conversion from HBO Max to Max covers only the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Max, Warner Bros. Discovery’s bulked-up and revamped streaming service that takes the place of HBO Max, makes it U.S. debut on Wednesday (May 23). Max makes several subtle enhancements aimed at making the service easier to use and more engaging — while execs say it should also be more stable than HBO Max. According to the company, a “large portion” of HBO Max subscribers will have their apps automatically updated to Max — while in some cases, users will be prompted to download an updated Max app. If all goes as planned, HBO Max subscribers will have their previous plan (including their username, password and billing information), profiles, avatars, and settings including “Continue Watching” and “My List” items migrated over to the new Max.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Mortal Kombat 2” will follow the example of its 2021 hit predecessor and film in Australia. But production will relocate to Gold Coast, Queensland, from Adelaide in South Australia. The New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures title is based on the iconic video game by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Filming will begin at Village Roadshow Studios from June.  “Mortal Kombat 2” is written by Jeremy Slater and will again be directed by Australian Simon McQuoid. The film will be produced by James Wan’s Atomic Monster and Todd Garner’s Broken Road Productions. 

“Sisters are forever.”

May 23 is, according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, “our rendezvous with destiny.” That’s because the company has finally dropped the HBO from streaming service HBO Max and become just Max.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s the beginning of the end for Showtime as a standalone brand. Paramount Global will launch the newly integrated Paramount+ With Showtime service in the U.S. on June 27, establishing it as the company’s top-tier streaming product without commercials. As previously announced, the Paramount+ With Showtime plan will cost $11.99 per month — up 17% from $9.99/month, but still less than the standard ad-free packages from rivals like Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max (nee HBO Max) and Netflix. At the same time, the price of the Paramount+ Essential Plan (without Showtime) will increase from $4.99 to $5.99 per month.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor With HBO Max turning into Max, Warner Bros. Discovery is introducing a higher-priced plan — $19.99 per month — with an expanded bouquet of 4K Ultra HD content aimed at pushing customers to the pricier package. On Monday, the company announced that the 4K tier will feature more than 1,000 films and episodes in 4K UHD, an increase of nearly eightfold over what has been available in HBO Max. The 4K UHD content on Max will include “Game of Thrones,” “The Last of Us,” the Harry Potter films, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, the Matrix films and more. Additionally, all Warner Bros. movies released this year and going forward will be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows.

The Color Purple is coming!

Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg have reunited to revive “The Color Purple” into a movie musical. After debuting footage for distributors at CinemaCon last month, Warner Bros. has released the first trailer of the new adaptation, directed by Blitz Bazawule and set to premiere in North America on Dec.

 presents the proclamation for viewers with their first look at the Blitz Bazawule-directed reimagining of the story made iconic in the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, the 1985 Warner Bros. Pictures film and the Tony Award-winning stage musical.Called a «revival» by producer Oprah Winfrey during the trailer's presentation, the preview gives a brief look at how the film tells the powerful and heartbreaking story of Celie, a young Black woman living in the South from the early to mid-1900s, who finds strength in an extraordinary sisterhood and unbreakable bond.«The reason this moment is so important is because for as long as there is a need for self-discovery, self-empowerment, as long as there's a need for victory in someone's life, as long as there's a need for people to know what it feels like to be loved up and to be made full and whole through somebody's love, there will be a need for ,» Winfrey told journalists. Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones serve as producers alongside Winfrey, a full-circle moment for the trio since Spielberg directed the film adaptation in which Winfrey made her film debut and Jones produced. Fantasia Barrino makes her major motion picture debut by reprising the role of adult Celie, which she first portrayed in her Broadway debut in 2007 and won a Theatre World Award for. Danielle Brooks stars alongside her as Sofia, a role that she played on Broadway during the 2015 revival production, which earned her a Tony Award nomination.The star-studded cast includes Taraji P.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor On Tuesday, May 23, HBO Max is going away — when it will be reskinned as Max, stocked with more than twice the total amount of programming. Max’s expanded streaming menu includes the addition of hundreds of episodes of Discovery+ shows, and it’s set to get dozens of new TV shows and movies over the next month. The new Max will feature 35,000 hours of programming, more than double what has been available on HBO Max. According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the service will be continuously updated with fresh content, averaging more than 40 new movie titles and TV seasons per month. SEE ALSO: What Max Launch Means for Existing HBO Max Customers

It wasn’t the kind of splash that Chip and Joanna Gaines were looking to make. During an anniversary trip to Mexico in 2021, Chip Gaines thought it would be fun to post a video of his bikini-clad wife doing a backward plunge into the pool. “I had to kind of beg her,” he recalls, before posting the video and several other images from their sunny vacation on Instagram. “It was so funny. I thought nobody would care.”

EXCLUSIVE: J.J. Abrams-exec produced drama series Duster has had its production suspended.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery is set to undergo another round of layoffs in its television business.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Warner Bros. Discovery is on the eve of launching Max, its new streaming service that combines the already-existing platforms of HBO Max and Discovery+. But don’t expect Aubrey Plaza to be among Max’s subscriber base. “The White Lotus” star revealed to Vanity Fair that she refuses to use streamers because she often gets enraged while using them. So no, Plaza never streamed her own season of “The White Lotus” and stays off HBO Max. “I get really angry,” Plaza said about using streamers. “I was trying to watch ‘Top Chef’ Season 20. Couldn’t figure out how to fucking get Hulu + Live. I give up! I can’t. I just can’t. And so what I like to do is go on iTunes and buy movies that are old. Or I’ll go on iTunes and just, like, buy the whole ‘Sopranos’ series, and then my husband will be like, ‘You literally can watch that for free on HBO Max.’”

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is reviewing its TV commissioning and editorial strategy in the UK due to the tricky economic headwinds, Deadline understands.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was met with heavy jeering while delivering a commencement speech at Boston University amidst the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in Hollywood.During the graduation ceremony at Boston University – where he received his law degree in 1985 – Zaslav was invited back to receive an honorary degree, as well as to deliver a commencement speech to the graduation cohort.Per reports from The Hollywood Reporter, the jeering began even before Zaslav’s speech, when he was being introduced. Throughout his 20-minute speech, Zaslav was met with loud, angry boos and chants including “pay your writers”, “we don’t want you here” and “shut up, Zaslav” in support of the ongoing strike.Footage of the boos and “pay your writers” chants were captured and shared on Twitter by striking Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Mike Scollins.

Selome Hailu It’s clear by this point in the run of “Barry” that the show is no longer about whether or not its title character (series co-creator Bill Hader) is a redeemable human being; as Hader puts it, despite all of his lying and killing, “he doesn’t understand what he did wrong.” Instead, as the fourth and final season comes to a close, the more morally gray supporting characters are beginning to see the consequences of their own failings — ones they can’t blame Barry for. Played by Henry Winkler, Gene Cousineau emerges from Episode 5’s time jump with a mission to do the right thing. He comes out of hiding (which was, for him, a kibbutz in Israel) after hearing that Warner Bros. is working on a movie about Barry’s murder of Cousineau’s girlfriend, detective Janice Moss (Paula Newsome). Enraged by the exploitation of Janice’s death, Cousineau begins to protest the film, but the attention it could bring him is tantalizing, and he slips up. When a Hollywood agent comes calling to let Cousineau know that Daniel Day-Lewis is interested in playing him, he agrees to a meeting. And when the agent says that Mark Wahlberg could star as Barry but needs to be convinced of why he should play a cop killer, Cousineau prepares to make Barry’s case, calling him “a sympathetic soul.”

Amidst the rising tensions of the current Hollywood writer’s strike, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav faced a storm of boos and angry chants as he took the stage to accept his honorary degree at the University of Boston’s commencement ceremony.

William Earl Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav felt the effect of the WGA strike while delivering a commencement speech at Boston University, getting jeered and facing chants of “pay your writers” while he was trying to speak. “Late Night with Seth Meyers” writer Mike Scollins posted a video of one moment during the address in which the chant was loud enough to make Zaslav pause in the middle of his speech. Scollins captioned the video “Zaslav getting hit with a Pay Your Writers chant in Boston. This is so good.”Zaslav getting hit with a Pay Your Writers chant in Boston. This is so good. pic.twitter.com/00pL4ahAqZ In a statement after the speech, Zaslav expressed gratitude to the university where he earned his law degree in 1985. He didn’t reference the Writers Guild of America strike at the commencement, but he did afterward.

Jeers and chants of “pay your writers” from picketers and a number of audience members greeted Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav on Sunday as he delivered Boston University’s commencement address.