Warner Bros: Last News

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, Music Veteran music publicists Luke Burland and Bobbie Gale are teaming up to form a new firm, 2b Entertainment. The two share more than 30 years experience working with artists, music companies and brands. Both previously served in senior media relations positions at Warner Bros. Records (now known as Warner Records) and as in-demand indies — Burland, most recently at BB Gun Press (founded by Brian Bumbery, currently a top communications executive at Apple Music); Gale at her own MixedMediaWorks. Based in Los Angeles, 2b Entertainment’s client roster includes Jojo Siwa, Danny Elfman, Mike Dean, Holly Humberstone, Josh Groban, Julian Casablancas, Justin Tranter, Maggie Lindemann, Meghan Trainor, My Chemical Romance, OK Go, Shania Twain and Steve Earle, among other artists. Corporate accounts run across entertainment, lifestyle and fashion, representing such brands as CITI, +1 Records, Laylo, Dad Grass, Muserk and Cosm. (See the full roster here.)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief TNT Sports is to be the new name of the premium sports brand being launched in the U.K. by BT Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. It will replace the name BT Sport. The Eurosport brand, owned by WBD, will also disappear from the U.K. The move, announced on Tuesday, will take effect later this year, from the start of the U.K. 2023-24 soccer season. The companies were less specific about the timetable for the disappearance of the Eurosport name. Eurosport, which has been a brand in the U.K. since 1989, will be “rolled into the new brand at some time in the future.”

The incoming Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)/ BT Group UK sports streaming JV will be named TNT Sports, the U.S. media giant has revealed.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The solo catalog of George Harrison has moved to Dark Horse Records via BMG, the company announced on Tuesday. Harrison’s family retains the rights to the catalog. Beginning in 1968, Harrison’s solo discography was released first on the Beatles’ label, Apple Records, and later Harrison’s own Dark Horse Records through Warner Bros. Records. In 2021 Universal Music’s catalog division released a deluxe anniversary edition of Harrison’s classic 1970 album “All Things Must Pass.” The 12-album catalog includes Harrison’s debut “Wonderwall Music” (the soundtrack to the film “Wonderwall”), “All Things Must Pass,” the 1973 follow-up “Living in the Material World,” his 1987 comeback album “Cloud Nine: and his final studio album, “Brainwashed,” which was released in 2002, the year after his death from cancer. It also includes the live double album “Live in Japan,” featuring Eric Clapton and the compilations “Let It Roll – Songs by George Harrison,” “Early Takes Vol 1, The Apple Years 1968-1975,” and “The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992.” In celebration of Harrison’s 80th birthday on Feb. 25, Dark Horse/BMG have released his entire catalogue in Dolby Atmos surround sound exclusively on Apple Music.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” debuted in pole position at the U.K. and Ireland box office with £8.8 million ($10.6 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In its third weekend, Universal’s “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish” collected £3.1 million in second place for a total of £17.1 million. In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” earned £888,435 in its second weekend for a total of £3.8 million. Disney blockbuster“Avatar: The Way Of Water” continued to chart with £531,213 in its 10th weekend in fourth place for a mighty total of £75.5 million.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN’s morning show isn’t peeling away from Don Lemon. The anchor will return to “CNN This Morning” on Wednesday, despite delivering a set of controversial remarks last week, the latest maneuver in what has become a more difficult than expected effort by the Warner Bros Discovery-backed outlet to shake up its programming. “I sat down with Don and had a frank and meaningful conversation. He has agreed to participate in formal training, as well as continuing to listen and learn. We take this situation very seriously,” CNN CEO Chris Licht said in a memo Monday night. “It is important to me that CNN balances accountability with fostering a culture in which people can own, learn and grow from their mistakes. To that end, Don will return to CNN This Morning on Wednesday.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Don Lemon will be absent from “CNN This Morning” for a second consecutive broadcast as CNN continues to grapple with backlash to comments he made last week about the abilities of women over 40 — a crucial demographic for any morning-news program. Three people familiar with the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed network say CNN staffers got word around 3 p.m. on Sunday that Lemon, who had been expected to return to his morning duties after taking a previously-scheduled day off on Friday, would not be on air Monday. Sara Sidner, an anchor who has been getting more screen time over the past year, is expected to fill in for him, sitting alongside co-anchor Poppy Harlow while the third member of CNN’s morning show team, Kaitlan Collins, will report from Poland. Some CNN staffers have begun to wonder, according to these people, whether the network may be considering a shake-up of the “CNN This Morning” team.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor A pair of Oscar bellwether ceremonies took place this weekend, heralding uncertainty and unpredictability to an awards season where no one agrees on what contenders will end up taking home Academy Awards. The DGA Awards, which has historically matched up best with the eventual winner of best director, chose the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They’re the third directing team to win in the DGA’s 75-year history (after Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for “West Side Story” and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men”). Only eight DGA winners have failed to walk away with the Academy Award in the same season, with the last instance being Sam Mendes (“1917”), who won at DGA but lost to Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) at the 2020 Oscars.

Refresh for latest…: It’s BAFTA Sunday here in London with the annual BAFTA Film Awards ceremony about to kick off at the Royal Festival Hall on an improbably clement evening. Richard E Grant is hosting the ceremony tonight, taking the baton from last year’s emcee Rebel Wilson, and we will be updating the list of winners live, so check back for updates.

Marta Balaga Director: Vita Maria Drygas Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute Production companies: Drygas Film Production Sales: Dogwoof Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists. (Generation 14plus) Director: Asaf Saban

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN may be getting ready to take a new swing at fixing its long-running 9 p.m. problem. On Tuesday, CNN is slated to air a new show in that hour called “CNN Prime,” which is described with a logline that says, “Join CNN’s top anchors for special events and unique conversations about the issues that matter the most.” On Wednesday, audiences can join “CNN’s Don Lemon for a special one-on-one interview with a top newsmaker” as part of the hour’s attractions. Both the show title and the programming descriptions are on display in interactive schedules that subscribers to cable and satellite services can call up to examine programming options. On Thursday, CNN is set to offer a “CNN Town Hall.” A spokesperson for CNN did not respond to a query seeking additional comment, and it could not be immediately learned if executives view “CNN Prime” as something of an experiment or a new and permanent addition to the network’s line-up.

EXCLUSIVE: Argentinian crime thriller A Singular Crime (Un Crimen Argentino), directed by Lucas Combina, has landed a series of international distribution deals on the third day of the EFM.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The verdict is in: Syndicated court staples “Judge Mathis” and “The People’s Court” will both end their run at the end of this season, Variety has confirmed. “Judge Mathis” will wrap after 24 seasons, while this most recent iteration of “The People’s Court” wraps after its 26th season. Season 24 and Season 26, respectively.  Both shows come from Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Telepictures Productions and are distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. According to insiders, the decision was made due to the declining nature of the daytime syndication landscape. As local TV stations shrink their syndication dollars and the advertising marketplace shrinks for daytime syndication, first-run syndication has become a trickier landscape. At the same time, station groups have been expanding their local news broadcasts, also in a bid to save money.

John Oliver has fired the first shot at his new Emmy rival Saturday Night Live – six months before his show Last Week Tonight will go head-to-head in a new awards category.

This just in: Disney/Marvel Studios’ sequel The Marvels will no longer be opening on July 28, rather Nov. 10, which is where Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened last year over the Veterans Day long holiday weekend to a November record of $181.3M. November has also been a prime place for other MCU titles like Thor: Ragnarok and Doctor Strange, among others.

EXCLUSIVE: Molly Yeh has inked a two-year exclusive deal with Food Network, which will include more episodes of her Midwest-inspired cooking show Girl Meets Farm.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Austin Butler’s agent told him he would need to gain weight to play the older version of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” “I heard that Ryan Gosling when he was going to do ‘The Lovely Bones,’ had microwaved Häagen-Dazs and would drink it,” Butler tells Variety. “So I started doing that. I would go get two dozen doughnuts and eat them all. I really started to pack on some pounds. It’s fun for a week, and then you feel awful about yourself. But we were planning on shooting chronologically in the beginning. That quickly went out the window with COVID. It was just impossible.” On this week’s episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Butler sits down to discuss receiving his first Oscar nomination for best actor. He also discusses renting an apartment after the Warner Bros. corporate cards were shut off following the COVID shutdown. In addition, he talked about whether he would reprise his role as James Garrett in a “Zoey 101” movie or get aged-up to play Sebastian Kydd from “The Carrie Diaries,” so he can play opposite Sarah Jessica Parker from “Sex and the City,” a show he says he watched while in his New York City apartment, taking a bath, and feeling like “a middle-aged woman.”

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.”

Warner Bros Discovery chief executive David Zaslav earned $232 million in excess compensation in 2021, according to As You Sow’s latest annual ranking of the most overpaid CEOs among S&P 500 companies. Amazon, Apple, Disney and Netflix are also high up in the group’s ninth report that looks beyond total pay in its own attempt to quantify overpay and draw attention to some pressing issues in the space.

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.

Following the success of the hit Apple series Slow Horses, director James Hawes has found his next major studio project as he has has boarded the 20th Century thriller Amateur starring Oscar-winner Rami Malek. While the project is still in development, Hawes attachment is a good sign this project is headed in the right direction. Gary Spinelli penned the most recent draft.