Publicity Firm WDW Rebrands as WDM Entertainment, Unveils New Leadership Team (EXCLUSIVE)

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New Hallmark Channel real-life couple alert!

Everyone has their special fuzzy memories of their favorite smashes over the years – but now and then, the artists themselves don’t exactly feel the same way about their own music.

Joseline Hernandez is under arrest.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In NewsNation, New York City isn’t the de facto location for a morning-news program. On Monday, the Nexstar Media-backed cable-news outlet expands its Chicago-based “Morning in America” to four hours and adds Markie Martin, formerly the network’s Dallas correspondent, as a co-anchor alongside Adrienne Bankert. There is some precedent for such a format. Robin Meade succeeded at it for 20 years by holding forth from Atlanta on behalf of HLN. Her program, “Morning Express,” was canceled earlier this year by Warner Bros. Discovery in a cost-cutting maneuver. “I grew up in small-town Oklahoma, and often felt that national news networks catered more toward big-city lives,” says Martin in a recent interview. “I think our content lines up with what every American cares about on a daily basis.” Martin arrived in the Windy City for her new assignment just about a week ago, and was in need of furniture for her new apartment.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group has signed a first-look deal with London and LA-based Locksmith Animation to develop and produce animated features for worldwide distribution.

EXCLUSIVE: As the Annecy International Animation Film Festival begins to get underway this weekend, newly hired Warner Bros. Animation President Bill Damaschke has announced a rebranding of the motion picture division with a focus on filmmakers.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Molto bene! Food Network has renewed its new Italian cooking competition “Ciao House,” hosted by Alex Guarnaschelli and Gabriele Bertaccini, for a second season. “Shot on-location in Italy, the series takes ten rising culinary stars on the journey of a lifetime to live in a breathtaking Italian villa and compete against each other as individuals and in teams to prove their mastery of Italian cooking techniques and dishes,” per Food Network’s logline. “Each episode’s culinary challenges are steeped in tradition and the competitors must also navigate alliances and rivalries as they pick their own teams and each week, the losing team must vote off one of their own. In the end, the last chef standing wins a life-changing grand prize: an immersive culinary education across Italy, training with renowned Italian master chefs.”

The day after New York-based pickets were canceled for the week because of smoke, the gathering at Warner Bros. in Los Angeles was a bit smaller on Thursday, with less than 50 people gathering in support of the WGA strike.

EXCLUSIVE: Following months of going through dozens of audition tapes, Warner Bros and DC Films look to be getting closer to finding the stars of their Superman: Legacy movie as a second round of testing looks to be imminent.

The day that SAG-AFTRA began its talks with Hollywood studios over its own film and TV contract with a strike authorization in hand, picketing Writers Guild members on Wednesday hit up Disney and Warner Bros in Burbank.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Some people only get one chance to run CNN. Amy Entelis is about to embark on her second. The veteran news executive was one of three who took the reins at the Warner Bros. Discovery news outlet when Jeff Zucker, the previous chief, was forced out in February of last year after acknowledging a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, once CNN’s chief marketing officer. Now Entelis will be part of a new trio leading the news giant after the Wednesday departure of former CEO Chris Licht. The challenges facing CNN have not diminished. Entelis will guide CNN’s news operations along with Virginia Moseley, recently named to oversee editorial operations, and Eric Sherling, recently appointed head of U.S. programming. David Leavy, a longtime Zaslav lieutenant who was named chief operating officer at CNN last week, will oversee business activities. The entire group must keep CNN moving forward as the 2024 presidential election cycle draws near, even as the outlet’s ratings have fallen and its staff has been buffeted by job cuts, programming changes and a seemingly endless cycle of senior executives coming and going.

After a bit of a rough time at the end of his run of Warner Bros./DC films, it appears Zack Snyder has settled in quite nicely over at Netflix with a deal that allows the filmmaker the freedom to make, basically, whatever he wants. That freedom includes the option of turning his new sci-fi epic, “Rebel Moon,” into a two-part film series.

Today, Outfest announced the Opening and Closing Night gala film selections for the 41st edition of the Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, taking place from July 13 – 23 in Los Angeles, presented by Warner Bros. Discovery and Genesis Motor America. The festival will open with Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, directed by Aitch Alberto, and the 11-day event will close with Chasing Chasing Amy, directed by Sav Rodgers. The Opening Night Gala will screen at the Orpheum Theatre, with the Closing Night Gala screening at The Montalbán Theatre.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Some multi-millionaires enjoy collecting vintage automobiles. Others take to the charity circuit or try to influence politics from behind the scenes. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has his own hobbies. One of them is taking a crowbar to what he believes are underperforming cable assets and renovating them wholesale. Zaslav has swung the wrecking ball time and again in his years leading the company once known as Discovery Communications, a collection of cable networks that had specialized in so-called “unscripted” programming — reality shows and documentary series. In 2008, he struck a pact with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions to transform the network once known as Discovery Health into OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network; scrapped a network once co-owned in part by The New York Times to create the true-crime stalwart Investigation Discovery; and flipped the outlet once known as Discovery Travel & Living Network into Planet Green, a network focused on the environment. When that didn’t pan out, it became Destination America in 2012, centered on American culture. In 2010, he tried to revamp Discovery Kids by forging a joint venture with toymaker Hasbro. Last year, the company refashioned DIY Network, an HGTV sibling focused on fix-it programming, around popular home-repair entrepreneurs Chip and Joanna Gaines and called the result Magnolia.

EXCLUSIVE: The Golden Trailer Awards has unveiled its nominees for its 23rd annual extravaganza taking place on Thursday, June 29th at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. The awards show honors the creative teams that are tasked with condensing two-hour films into two-minute trailers.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) Jamie Cooke is supercharging “original documentaries that push the boundaries” from his Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Turkey region by greenlighting around 10 docs per year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN chief Chris Licht told staffers Monday he wants to help them make the news rather than being a central figure in it. In the wake of a devastating profile of the CNN CEO published Friday by The Atlantic, Licht set about soothing frayed nerves Monday by telling employees on the news outlet’s regular morning call that “I should not be in the news unless it’s taking arrows for you. Your work is what should be written about,” according to two people familiar with the matter, The words are the first from Licht to be made public since the piece was unveiled. Thanks to a rich vein of unfettered access provided over months, the piece detailed the executive’s struggles — and some of his insecurities — during his first year on the job at the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet. David Zaslav, the CEO of the parent company, has articulated a strategy of eliminating some of the activist bent that resounded at CNN under its previous chief, Jeff Zucker. But Licht’s efforts to do so have been plagued by near-constant leaks and a restive staff, many of whom remain loyal to Licht’s predecessor, ousted after he admitted to a longstanding relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s former chief marketing officer.

Sigourney Weaver will premiere on Aug. 4. The seven-part series is based on Holly Ringland’s same-name debut novel. According to the synopsis, “When Alice, aged 9, tragically loses her parents in a mysterious fire, she is taken to live with her grandmother June at Thornfield flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past. Alice finds solace in the native plants and flowers growing in her Australian backyard. She, too, begins to grow from her past, but soon must fight for her life against the man she loves.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Not a bird or a plane — nope, it’s a new limited-time NFT-based movie marketing stunt from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. As physical disc sales have waned, Warner Bros. is trying to establish a new home-entertainment business model based on nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which verify ownership and authenticity of digital content. Customers can buy, sell and trade the NFTs in Warner Bros.’s online marketplace, powered by content blockchain technology provider Eluvio. Its newest NFT-based bundles are built around 1978’s “Superman: The Movie,” starring Christopher Reeve and directed by Richard Donner. The Superman Web3 Movie Experience is a multimedia NFT that includes the film in 4K Ultra HD format, plus extras like image galleries and artist renderings by notable DC artists. The studio is hoping to generate excitement among NFT enthusiasts and DC aficionados, to make money through the initial sales as well as to foster an engaged community of fans with the potential for longer-term upside.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Barry Reardon, who led theatrical distribution at Warner Bros. for nearly 20 years starting in the late 1970s, died on May 27 at his home in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 92. A respected 31-year industry veteran, Reardon was known as the “dean” of theatrical distribution and was credited with transforming the way that studio films are marketed and released. During his tenure, the industry began to place more of an emphasis on daily and weekend box office reports and expanded the scope of the all-important summer blockbuster season. At the time of his retirement in 1999 — after 21 years at the studio and 17 as distribution chief — he exited with an enviable track record. Under his leadership, the studio had 22 films cross the $100 million mark domestically — an impressive milestone since movie tickets were much less expensive back then, and one that’s proven to be challenging to match again in these pandemic times. And Warner Bros. spent most of those years among the top three studios in terms of North American box office share.