Why Warner Bros. Discovery Shook Up Its Film Business and What Happens Next

Sara Jumping Eagle grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, one of the poorest counties in the US. She graduated from Stanford Medical School and returned to the reservation to help the Lakota people as a pediatrician and activist.Now 50, Jumping Eagle never expected to wind up on a busy street in Santa Monica last month — in a physical brawl with “The Flash” star Ezra Miller, 29.

“Welcome to the 48th, 49th, and 50th AFI Life Achievement Awards,”  American Film Institute President and CEO Bob Gazzale stated as he began his welcoming remarks for Thursday night’s long awaited and long pandemic- delayed tribute to Julie Andrews, the 2022 honoree at a ceremony originally  set to take place in the spring of 2020 that now finally happened with all style and warmth so familiar to these AFI evenings ever since AFI founder George Stevens Jr. came up with the idea in 1973 when director John Ford was the first honoree (Stevens, now 90, was there and acknowledged from the stage last night). Since then there has never been a “gap” between cereomonies but now there is between 2019 honoree Denzel Washington and Andrews, but it was well worth the wait, and congratulations to the AFI, Board Trustees Chairs Kathleen Kennedy and Bob Daly as well as Gazzale (who is also Executive Producer of the show which will air on TNT June 16 at 10pm) for not letting Covid diminish the event, even if it had to come a little later than usual,and every member of the audience at the Dolby Theatre (transformed into a banquet setting for the elegant dinner) had to take a PCR test at least 48 hours before entering the building. Other than that it was just like old times and you could tell the industry crowd was thrilled to be there for a genuine show business legend. The only sad part was that Andrews’ The Sound Of Music co-star Christopher Plummer was not there. The Oscar winning actor had actually been set to appear at the tribute when it was originally to take place before the pandemic had other ideas. He died in Feburary of last year at age 91.

Ezra Miller‘s already had their fair share of legal troubles this year following their recent arrests in Hawaii. But now it looks like that’s just the beginning, as newly filed court documents accuse Miller of grooming a minor since the age of 12, and using “violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs to hold sway” over the young woman.

Marvel Studios may have its next big team-up movie. A film based on the Thunderbolts — a team of supervillains in the Marvel comics — is in early development, with director Jake Schreier on board, Variety has confirmed.“Black Widow” writer Eric Pearson will write the film, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will produce.

Let’s go girls! Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey are giving viewers a double dose of romance on season 19 of The Bachelorette — starting with a behind-the-scenes look at night one.

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios’ top-secret Thunderbolts movie looks to have gained momentum as Deadline has learned that Jake Schreier is set as director of the new Marvel tentpole. Black Widow scribe Eric Pearson is penning the script with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige producing.

Warner Bros. Discovery has named Luis Silberwasser, a former exec at Discovery, Telemundo and most recently TelevisaUnivision, as chairman and CEO of its sports division.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLuis Silberwasser is getting ready to till new terrain on a familiar piece of ground.The veteran TV executive, who has in recent years become a top content executive in Spanish-language media, has been named to head up the broader sports business for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefWarner Bros. Discovery Thursday announced its management team for Japan, Australia New Zealand, reporting into James Gibbons, WBD’s president and managing director.The reshuffle follows similar announcements for the EMEA area under Priya Dogra and India, Southeast Asia and Korea under Clement Schwebig.In addition to the above appointments, David Macdonald is named VP Networks, Japan, based in Tokyo.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefWarner Bros. Discovery has set out its India, Southeast Asia and Korea (INSEAK) leadership team under Clement Schwebig, as president and managing director.The Thursday announcement follows just hours after a similar announcement of the EMEA leadership team under Priya Dogra.Both Schwebig and Dogra report to Gerhard Zeiler, president of international for the merged company.

Following the departure of Toby Emmerich as Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Boss, his fellow associate, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group COO Carolyn Blackwood is leaving. This is all ahead of Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy coming in to run the motion picture group under Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterVeteran Warner Bros. executive and film division chief operating officer Carolyn Blackwood is parting ways with the studio, sources told Variety.Her resignation follows a week after word that her boss Toby Emmerich, chairman of the motion picture group, will transition to lot producer later this year. The regime changes come as Warner Bros.

This has been building since before Toby Emmerich exited and Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy took the reins at Warner Bros. Joaquin Phoenix hasn’t quite signed a deal to reprise his role as the disturbed murderous anarchist Arthur Fleck in a sequel to the billion dollar grossing "Joker," but the film is a go.  Director Todd Phillips revealed on Instagram that there’s a "Joker" sequel script he just wrote with Scott Silver and that Phoenix, who won an Oscar for playing the title role, is reading it.That isn’t quite true; Phoenix read it awhile ago, and it has come down to making a rich deal for him to star in the genre-jumping sequel.

EXCLUSIVE: CNBC, which has long aired daily Shark Tank episodes in primetime, has greenlit a new variation on the entrepreneurial mainstay called Business Hunters.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorDC Comics fans are getting a closer look at Dwayne Johnson’s “Black Adam” in a new, action-packed trailer.“Black Adam” stars Johnson as the powerful anti-hero and sworn nemesis of Shazam, who was played by Zachary Levi in a 2019 origin movie and in the upcoming sequel, “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” coming next year. After over a decade in development, “Black Adam” will be released on July 29.Johnson was originally supposed to enter the DC universe as Black Adam in 2019’s “Shazam;” however, his role was scrapped when the spinoff for his character was greenlit in 2017.In October of 2021, Johnson debuted a first look at the film on Twitter — which showed Black Adam breaking out of imprisonment after 5,000 years of captivity.

Warner Bros. Discovery has officially laid out its senior EMEA leadership team under President and Managing for the region (excl Poland) Priya Dogra.

Manori Ravindran International EditorWarner Bros. Discovery has set out its EMEA leadership team under Priya Dogra, in her new role as president and managing director for the region.“My focus has been to build a senior team that harnesses and balances the experience, perspective and talent from across the Discovery and WarnerMedia businesses,” said Dogra.

posting a series of images to Instagram, including a red script cover with the title “Joker: Folie à Deux,” as well as a shot of Oscar-winning franchise star Joaquin Phoenix smoking while reading the screenplay. The script cover lists the writers as Phillips and Scott Silver, who both penned the first installment.The official Warner Bros.

HBO is officially not moving forward with J.J. Abrams’ ambitious HBO sci-fi drama series Demimonde. The decision comes after weeks of discussions with Abrams, his Bad Robot production company and Warner Bros. Television which were focused on the show’s budget. As Deadline reported last month, the studios on the project, Warner Bros. Television and HBO, had been trying to rein in costs, but Bad Robot kept firm on their proposed budget, said to be in the mid-$200 million range, and would not agree to a reduction.

This has been building since before Toby Emmerich exited and Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy took the reins at Warner Bros. Joaquin Phoenix hasn’t quite signed a deal to reprise his role as the disturbed murderous anarchist Arthur Fleck in a sequel to the billion dollar grossing Joker,. but the film is a go. Director Todd Phillips revealed on Instagram that there’s a Joker sequel script he just wrote with Scott Silver and that Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Oscar for playing the title role, is reading it. That isn’t quite true; Phoenix read it awhile ago, and it has come down to making a rich deal for him to star in the genre-jumping sequel.

Tim Burton has chimed on on one of the longest-running DC comics controversies: the nipples that appeared on the hallowed Batsuit in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.