Warner Bros: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: This morning in Toronto, writer-director Allen Hughes and FX unveil the first of a five-part docuseries Dear Mama. This is an epic exploration of the life of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur and his late mom, Afeni Shakur, the former Black Panthers member. It is Hughes’ first trip back to TIFF since he and brother Albert came to unveil their Johnny Depp pic From Hell, only to see that title become all too apt when, on their media day 21 years ago, everything got canceled when two hijacked planes crashed into and took down the Twin Towers. At the behest of the estate of the Shakur family, Hughes, who aside from films like The Book of Eli directed the acclaimed docuseries The Defiant Ones on Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, spent years diving deep into the mythology of Tupac to answer why his art endures so long after he was shot dead at age 25. Much as he would have preferred to avoid it, Hughes had to confront his own provocative history with Tupac. After the Hughes Brothers hired Tupac for a supporting role in Menace II Society, they fired Shakur over disagreements about the part he wanted to play. Later, the hip-hop artist and his pals crossed paths with Hughes and his co-director Albert, and beat them badly enough that it led to a criminal conviction on Shakur for assault and battery., Here, Hughes discusses all, including the spiritual connection between Tupac and Marvin Gaye, whose life Allen Hughes takes on next in a narrative film for Warner Bros and Motown Records.

Quinta Brunson’s voice is hoarse. The days of pre-award festivities leading up to the Sept. 12 ceremony were frantic, starting with Variety’s Showrunners Dinner (where she swapped war stories with fellow TV creators like Dan Harmon, Danny Strong and Liz Meriwether). Then came the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles, the Governors Gala and Disney’s post-Emmy celebration, which spilled into the next day. Something had to give. Yet when the “Abbott Elementary” creator and star sits down for an in-depth interview with Variety, her creative voice is clear and strong.

TIFF website said.“The filmmaker has withdrawn this film due to rights issues,” the statement read. “We apologize for any inconvenience.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The ongoing overhaul of Rome’s Cinecittà Studios is getting traction thanks to booming demand from international productions just as the number of sound stages increase, prompting realistic prospects of turning a profit by end of 2022, which is a year earlier than planned. Cinecittà has been undergoing a radical revamp devised by managing director Nicola Maccanico since June 2021, when European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Italian premier Mario Draghi (pictured above at Cinecittà) jointly visited the iconic studio lot and held a press conference in its vast Studio 5 — known as the late, great filmmaker Federico Fellini’s second home — to announce a €300 million ($300 million) investment to meet the growing international demand for studio space,

While the boom of local content has seen increased ambition from streaming platforms to compete with local broadcasters, local industry events with strong regional focuses are increasingly becoming attractive destinations for U.S. companies and executives and Rome’s MIA market is no exception.

Batman universe called The People’s Joker has been pulled from Toronto International Film Festival.The film, which reimagines the character of the Joker through a transgender origin story, had one public screening before the rest were cancelled over “rights issues”.A message on the TIFF ticketing page reads: “The filmmaker has withdrawn this film due to rights issues. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Spanish indie production shingle Nadie es Perfecto, producer of Alex de la Iglesia’s hit comedy “Perfectos Desconocidos,” has tapped former Netflix exec Juan Mayne to join the company as it revs up its slate with a slew of new projects. These include two pics in pre-production: “La navidad en sus manos,” in co-production with Bowfinger and Esto También Pasará, directed by Joaquín Mazón, starring Ernesto Sevilla and with a special collaboration from actor-filmmaker Santiago Segura, who has worked with de la Iglesia and Guillermo del Toro; and “Locomía,” directed by Kike Maillo, starring Jaime Lorente (“Money Heist,” “Elite”) and Alberto Ammann (“Lope,” “El silencio del cazador”).

The Property Brothers aren’t going anywhere.

EXCLUSIVE: There probably has been no other division of WarnerMedia more impacted by the Discovery merger than the TNets, which consist of TNT, TBS and TruTV. In the span of a couple of months after the transaction was completed, they got new leadership, with Discovery’s Kathleen Finch adding them to her portfolio, while the previous toppers exited: General Manager Brett Weitz, SVP Original Programming Adrienne O’Riain, and unscripted chief Corie Henson.

Zack Sharf Baz Luhrmann revealed in June that his first assembly cut of “Elvis” ran four hours long, and it appears fans might one day get to see the director’s extended vision come to life… just not right now. Luhrmann recently told ScreenRant (via IndieWire) that a four-hour “Elvis” cut would take another four to six months to edit, and he’s simply too “tired” right now to get it done. The earliest the director could see himself starting to work on the four-hour “Elvis” would be in 2025. ” I don’t close my mind to the idea that in the future, there might be a way of exploring another [cut],” Luhrmann said. “I’ve got to be really careful here, because the moment I put it out there… I tell you what, all my tweets are nothing but, ‘We want the four-hour version! We want the four-hour version!’ I think people are at my gates with pitchforks saying, ‘We want the four-hour version!’

Margot Robbie, saying she doesn’t “mind” them but wants to “move past that”.The actor, who had her breakout role as Maeve Wiley in Netflix series Sex Education, is set to star opposite Robbie in upcoming film Barbie from director Greta Gerwig. Following the casting announcement, many highlighted their similar looks on social media.Speaking to Total Film about the comparisons, Mackey said: “It’s just funny. And I think Margot has had the grace and humour to be able to play on that, and allow me to be in the same film as her – bless her.”Mackey however isn’t entirely sold on the comparisons, adding: “It’s just a joke in real life.

EJ Panaligan editor Disney, Amazon Studios, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and other major Hollywood players are pledging support for the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a major educational outreach initiative championed last year by George Clooney and others. Paramount and NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises are also signing on to become founding partners of the Los Angeles Unified School District magnet facility. These companies join previously announced founding partners History Channel/A+E Networks, Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group has committed to providing more than $4 million in funding for the school, which opened in August with 150 students at the Edward G. Roybal Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles.

EXCLUSIVE: Alton Mason, the 24-year-old actor who broke out with his turn as Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Little Richard in Warner Bros.’ Elvis, has signed with M88 for representation.

Amazon Studios, Disney, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed on as Founding Partners of the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund, which was established by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Creative Artists Agency’s Bryan Lourd, to support The Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a specialized academy created to drive transformational change across the industry by building a more inclusive pipeline of historically underrepresented college- and career-ready students pursuing below-the-line careers in film and television.

Lizzo‘s table to snap pics at such a furious pace that it looked like a strobe light to those who weren’t on the floor as part of the unusual ballroom-style seating for nominees and their entourages.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Media and tech stocks across the board felt the pain Tuesday amid a market-wide selloff, fueled by a fresh indicator that higher-than-expected inflation is continuing to put a damper on economic growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1,276 points, down 3.94%, to close the session Tuesday at 31,104.97. The S&P 500 index dropped 4.32%, while the tech-centric Nasdaq Index sank 5.16%. The drops represented the biggest declines for U.S. stocks since June 2020. The losses on Wall Street came after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data for August 2022, showing that the Consumer Price Index for the month increased 8.3% year-over-year (down only slightly from 8.5% in July and from the four-decade-high 9.1% in June). The jump in the CPI was despite a 10.6% drop in gas prices for the month, which failed to offset rising prices for rent, healthcare, food, and electricity and natural gas.

Chip and Joanna Gaines are joining the HBO Max family with content from their Magnolia Network. During a commercial break from the 2022 Emmy Awards, the streaming service launched a new promo where the couple was featured alongside the dragons from House of the Dragon and The White Lotus.

Media stocks and broader markets swooned Tuesday with all three major indexes posting their worst session since June of 2020 on news that consumer prices last month rose more than expected.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery enacted 100 layoffs Tuesday as part of a planned downsizing of the company’s ad sales departments that had been in the works since Discovery closed its merger with WarnerMedia in April, Variety has confirmed. These cuts are part of a previously reported and expected 30% reduction overall across the ad sales division, a sector of the merged company with many redundancies, in the coming weeks. However, not all of the exits will be layoffs, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. An undisclosed number of those departures will be negotiated deals, while others will be retirements. The layoffs set in motion Tuesday are the latest in a string of moves made by Warner Bros. Discovery in an attempt to fulfill the promise made by CEO David Zaslav and his exec team to find $3 billion in cost-saving synergies in the first two years after the merger. The most high profile so far, aside from other layoffs within Warner Bros. Discovery, was the decision that “Batgirl,” the $90 million Warner Bros./DC movie starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, would not be released theatrically, on HBO Max, or anywhere else. 

Selome Hailu Viewership of “House of the Dragon” increased by 5% between Episodes 3 and 4, Variety has learned exclusively. Per Nielsen, linear viewing of the series remained mostly steady, with 2.536 million viewers across four cable airings for the week-ago episode compared to 2.474 million this Sunday. But with streaming on HBO Max and other HBO platforms included, Variety has confirmed overall U.S. viewership of the series is up 5% week over week. Titled “King of the Narrow Sea,” Episode 4 premiered on Sunday night as NBC was airing Week 1 of Sunday Night Football. The programs will air concurrently for the rest of Season 1’s run. Additionally, “House of the Dragon” slightly competes for linear viewership with a show on its own network: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” returned to HBO on Sunday night after two weeks off the air, shifting the timing of Episode 4’s repeat airings to later timeslots.

German media giant ProSiebenSat.1 has struck a deal to pick up the remaining 50% stake in the German streaming service Joyn from Warner Bros Discovery.