Warner Bros: Last News

The Penguin has found its mob moss.

MGM’s Creed III  is off to a powerful start at the international box office with the Michael B Jordan-directed movie grossing $6.9M through Thursday in 56 markets.

Ellise Shafer HBO Max will host its own coffeehouse at SXSW this year, featuring events centered around the streamer’s popular titles like “The Last of Us” and “The White Lotus.” The two-day activation is presented by HBO Max’s Human by Orientation and Pa’lante initiatives, which are designed to “elevate and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ and Latinx communities,” according to a press release. The coffeehouse will be open to the public on March 11 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on March 12 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The coffeehouse will host both invite-only and public events, including a HBO documentary filmmaker roundtable, “The Last of Us” fireside chat with Gabriel Luna and Variety‘s Selome Hailu, an acoustic performance by Ambar Lucid, a queer cocktail party and “The White Lotus” discussion with writer Evan Ross Katz and Variety‘s Adam B. Vary.

EXCLUSIVE: Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel is in negotiations to direct the Pokemon Detective Pikachu live-action sequel based on the globally popular Pokémon franchise for Legendary Entertainment. Chris Galletta will write the script for the follow-up to Legendary’s 2019 box office hit. 

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. 

Mark Pedowitz, former Chairman and CEO of the CW, and his production company Pine Street Entertainment have signed with CAA for representation. The move comes as Pedowitz contemplates his future as a producer after exiting the CW in October, following Nexstar’s acquisition of the broadcast network.

EXCLUSIVE: The hit CW series All American has added Darone Okolie (Winning Time) and Tre Hale (Platonic) to its Season 5 cast in recurring roles.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Generation star Nava Mau will star in Netflix’s upcoming drama series Baby Reindeer.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As former The CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz gets back into the production business, he has sign on with CAA for representation, the tenpercentary announced on Thursday. Pedowitz has revived his shingle, Pine Street Entertainment, which is represented by CAA as part of the arrangement. Pedowitz announced his departure from The CW in October, following Nexstar Media Group’s acquisition of the network from its previous joint operators CBS and Warner Bros. (Those two entities maintain minority stakes in The CW, but Nexstar is now the majority owner and operator.) In reviving Pine Street Entertainment, Pedowitz is bringing back his independent production company that produced CBS’ “The Crazy Ones” (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Robin Williams), as well as a number of development projects.

EXCLUSIVE: Sing Again, a Korean singing competition series that’s outperformed The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice, has landed a third season on the JTBC network and Discovery+.

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.”

BreAnna Bell Doug Bradley (“Hellraiser”) has been added to the cast of The CW’s “Gotham Knights” series, the network announced on Wednesday. Bradley will appear in Episode 6 of Gotham Knights as Joe Chill, one of DC Comics’ most notorious villains known for cruelly killing Bruce Wayne’s parents. After fifty years of rotting on death row, Joe Chill is scheduled to be executed. However, Gotham’s infamous “Patron Saint of Bad Guys” isn’t about to let his secrets die with him. “When casting the iconic role of Joe Chill, arguably the man who created Batman, there was only one name we considered – Doug Bradley. We needed an actor with the kind of gravitas that would do justice to such a seminal character in DC Comics canon,” said series co-creators Chad Fiveash, James Stoteraux and Natalie Abrams in a statement. “And who better to embody the role of the classic Gotham fiend than the man whose legendary portrayal of another classic fiend – Pinhead in the Hellraiser franchise — continues to terrify generations of horror fans?”

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.

EXCLUSIVE: MastersFX, the special effects character and makeup company behind everything from Chucky in Child’s Play to Jack from the Jack in the Box commercials, has hired Sandra Lindala as its new VP. She will oversee the company’s operations in its Vancouver and Toronto studios and help develop new business.

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.

Foxtel Group and Warner Bros Discovery have renewed their multi-year content agreement, under which the Australian pay-TV operator and streamer will remain the home of HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros and Discovery programming in Australia.

Abbott Elementary has been confirmed to return for a third season.Created by and starring Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary is a workplace comedy set within a poorly funded elementary school in Philadelphia. The show follows the tribulations faced by the various teachers, including Janine Teagues (Brunson), substitute Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) and history teacher Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti).The show’s first season received critical acclaim and won three Emmys, including Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Zachary Quinto has been cast in the lead role of the NBC drama pilot “Wolf,” Variety has learned. The project was first ordered to pilot at the broadcaster back in January. It is inspired by the books “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “An Anthropologist on Mars” by Oliver Sacks. Per the official logline, “Wolf” will follow “a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist (Quinto) and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier, the human mind, while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.” Quinto’s character is named Dr. Oliver Wolf. He is further described as “head of neurology at Bronx General and an obsessive genius. He’s drawn to people that society has deemed “other” and helps them find hope and purpose. He embraces differences rather than suppressing them.”

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.