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Author Topic:   Warner Bros.
HollywoodProducer
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posted July 07, 2009 10:38 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. seals up Midway acquisition (Variety complete)

With no other bidders emerging for Midway Games, Warner Bros. has bought most of the company’s assets for $33 million, including the “Mortal Kombat” franchise as well as the company’s legacy arcade games, such as “Joust” and “Spy Hunter”. The bankruptcy judge overseeing the sale apparently wasn’t swayed by Threshold Entertainment’s argument that film producer Larry Kasanoff was the driving creative force in the franchise. (The Chicago Tribune quotes the judge as saying the objections, as well as those of Vin Diesel-owned development studio Tigon Games were ‘resolved’. A pair of development studios that Warner opted not to buy will be shuttered in just under two months if no bidders emerge for them. The Newcastle studio has worked on the “Wheelman” franchise, while the San Diego studio has created the “TNA” games. Warner did purchase rights to the “Wheelman” games, but not the development studio behind it. Warner picked up some valuable assets at firesale prices in this deal. Expect another “Mortal Kombat”/DC crossover in the years to come and possibly some re-imaginings of classic titles. The company has been beefing up its video game division steadily over the past few years and has managed to assemble some talented teams. It should be interesting to see what they do with some of the licenses they now own.

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indiedan
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posted July 20, 2009 02:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. Passes $1-Billion Mark

20 July 2009 12:26 PM, PDT

The latest Harry Potter sequel has given Warner Bros. its seventh No. 1 hit of the year and has pushed the studio's domestic gross past the $1-billion mark, it said Sunday. The success of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes on the heals of the studio's surprising good luck with The Hangover, which, with more than $235 million in ticket sales as of this weekend, has become the highest-grossing R-rated comedy domestically in history. In a news release on Sunday, Warner Bros. said that it is the only studio ever to earn $1 billion annually for nine consecutive years.

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indiedan
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posted July 22, 2009 01:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner’S Next Franchise: World Of Warcraft

22 July 2009 12:30 PM, PDT

Warner Bros. is on the verge of launching another fantasy franchise that has the potential of becoming as successful as its Harry Potter and Batman blockbusters. Today’s (Wednesday) New York Times says that it will co-finance and distribute Legendary Pictures’ film version of World of Warcraft, based on the most heavily played multiplayer online game. (There are more than 11 million monthly subscribers.) Moreover, Legendary has signed director Sam Raimi, who helmed the three Spider-Man movies and is currently working on the fourth -- to direct the first film, which Warner said that it plans to release theatrically in 2012. Production of World of Warcraft is expected to begin after Raimi finishes work on Spider-Man 4.

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HollywoodProducer
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posted August 13, 2009 05:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. to Stop Distributing Newest DVDs to Kiosk Vendors
Warner Bros. studio announced plans to prevent its newest DVDs from immediately going into rental kiosks. The move squarely targets leading rental kiosk-operator Redbox, a unit of Coinstar Inc., which some studios believe is hurting studio DVD sales through its $1 nightly DVD rentals. Studio revenue from disc sales to retailers and rental outlets is due to fall by about $850 million to $12.9 billion this year, according to Adams Media Research. On Thursday, Warner said that starting in October, it would handle all sales to kiosk operators directly, as opposed to the current practice of letting distributors sell its DVDs to kiosk operators. Any kiosk operator buying the latest DVDs from Warner must agree not to put them in its kiosks for 28 days. Most DVD rentals and purchases occur in the month right after a movie comes out on DVD. "Redbox will continue to stand behind our customers and our commitment to providing convenient, affordable access to new release DVDs from all studios including Warner Brothers," said Redbox President Mitch Lowe. By acting now to affect fourth-quarter distribution revenue, Warner is trying to protect some of its major year-end DVD offerings, such as "Hangover" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." But Redbox can still work around the studio's restrictions by stocking its kiosks with DVDs purchased at retailers such as Wal-Mart, as it has done for months with other titles from studios that have tried to stymie its business. Warner's move follows similar steps by General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures and News Corp.'s Fox. But instead of selling to kiosk operators directly, those studios instructed its distributors to hold back their newest DVDs from kiosk operators. Redbox sued Universal late last year and Fox this week, both in federal court in Delaware. Warner also said it was forbidding wholesalers from buying and selling previously viewed Warner DVDs. Some studios believe the flood of cheap used DVDs from Redbox is eroding DVD pricing. In a recent conference call, Time Warner chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes said he favored a kiosk "window" -- a delay compared to the release of a DVD -- and that in the long run it would "make the business healthier." Redbox, with kiosks in thousands of supermarkets, convenience stores and other locations, has been on a tear in recent months. This week, it announced it would expand its kiosks into more than 2,000 Kroger supermarkets within the next year. Some studios, such as Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Sony Corp., have entered into agreements with Redbox that make their DVDs available to the kiosks with no delay.

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HollywoodProducer
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posted August 13, 2009 05:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. to Stop Distributing Newest DVDs to Kiosk Vendors
Warner Bros. studio announced plans to prevent its newest DVDs from immediately going into rental kiosks. The move squarely targets leading rental kiosk-operator Redbox, a unit of Coinstar Inc., which some studios believe is hurting studio DVD sales through its $1 nightly DVD rentals. Studio revenue from disc sales to retailers and rental outlets is due to fall by about $850 million to $12.9 billion this year, according to Adams Media Research. On Thursday, Warner said that starting in October, it would handle all sales to kiosk operators directly, as opposed to the current practice of letting distributors sell its DVDs to kiosk operators. Any kiosk operator buying the latest DVDs from Warner must agree not to put them in its kiosks for 28 days. Most DVD rentals and purchases occur in the month right after a movie comes out on DVD. "Redbox will continue to stand behind our customers and our commitment to providing convenient, affordable access to new release DVDs from all studios including Warner Brothers," said Redbox President Mitch Lowe. By acting now to affect fourth-quarter distribution revenue, Warner is trying to protect some of its major year-end DVD offerings, such as "Hangover" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." But Redbox can still work around the studio's restrictions by stocking its kiosks with DVDs purchased at retailers such as Wal-Mart, as it has done for months with other titles from studios that have tried to stymie its business. Warner's move follows similar steps by General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures and News Corp.'s Fox. But instead of selling to kiosk operators directly, those studios instructed its distributors to hold back their newest DVDs from kiosk operators. Redbox sued Universal late last year and Fox this week, both in federal court in Delaware. Warner also said it was forbidding wholesalers from buying and selling previously viewed Warner DVDs. Some studios believe the flood of cheap used DVDs from Redbox is eroding DVD pricing. In a recent conference call, Time Warner chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes said he favored a kiosk "window" -- a delay compared to the release of a DVD -- and that in the long run it would "make the business healthier." Redbox, with kiosks in thousands of supermarkets, convenience stores and other locations, has been on a tear in recent months. This week, it announced it would expand its kiosks into more than 2,000 Kroger supermarkets within the next year. Some studios, such as Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Sony Corp., have entered into agreements with Redbox that make their DVDs available to the kiosks with no delay.

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HollywoodProducer
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posted September 09, 2009 05:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. Takes DC Comics More Closely Under Its Wing (WSJ complete)

Time Warner Inc. is folding its comic-book unit, DC Comics, into its studio and renaming the operation DC Entertainment Inc., just a week after Walt Disney Co. agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc.

The company said the restructuring will help Warner Bros. take better advantage of the potential of the DC's characters across all of the company's outlets, including movies, television, and consumer products.

DC Comics, home of the Batman and Superman franchises, merged with Warner in the late 1960s and became part of Time Warner in the 1989 merger. But integration of DC's brands into the rest of the studio's operations has been an area of weakness for Warner Bros. in recent years, despite movie audiences' appetite for comic-book fare. While Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" was a huge hit for the studio, other films on DC characters have fared poorly at the box office.

As part of the restructuring disclosed Wednesday, Diane Nelson, a long-time Warner executive who has overseen the "Harry Potter" phenomenon since 2000, was appointed to run the new division.

"Our plan is to bring DC properties deeper into the fold at Warner Bros., and look how we can better leverage our resources," Ms. Nelson said.

Marvel, in conjunction with other Hollywood studios, has turned superheroes like Spider-Man and X-Men into big-screen stars.

The DC Comics characters haven't kept pace. "Catwoman," which came out in 2004, was a box-office bust. In 2006, Warner Bros. released "Superman Returns" with hopes of rebooting the franchise but the film disappointed fans who wanted more action. The film grossed less than expected. "Watchmen," released earlier this year, also underperformed expectations.

While the move comes on the heels of the Disney-Marvel news, Time Warner said the creation of DC Entertainment has been in the works for more than a year.

"We do not view ourselves as competitors with Marvel," said President of Warner Bros. Pictures Group Jeff Robinov, who will oversee the new company. "Any investment made in the comic books space greatly helps the genre for all content producers," he added.

Jeff Gomez, president and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment and a producer who has consulted on some top franchises, such as Hasbro's "Transformers," says that Warner Bros.'s new structure will help to bring some much-needed consistency to the DC characters.

DC Entertainment will work with all of the Warner Bros. divisions on integrating the stable of comic-book characters across its videogame, movie, television, online, and consumer-products divisions.

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indiedan
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posted February 10, 2010 09:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A Studio Head Slowly Alters the ‘Warner Way’
By BROOKS BARNES
LOS ANGELES — Jeff Robinov, president of the Warner Brothers Pictures Group, arrived at the fashionable Tower Bar here on a recent weekend. Other members of Hollywood’s A-list were quickly ushered to tables in the dining room, but Mr. Robinov had to wait — and wait. He finally ordered off the bar menu.

The Tower Bar may want to have a talk with its headwaiter. While little known outside of the clubby film industry, Mr. Robinov, 51, has become one of the most powerful people in moviedom over the last two years and is becoming even more so. He is the heir apparent for the company’s top movie job when Alan F. Horn, chief operating officer of Warner Brothers Entertainment and overlord of film production, retires next year.

With its corporate gentility and stability in a highly unstable business, Warner has long been Hollywood’s gold standard. By sticking to “the Warner way” — star-driven pictures, effective marketing — and keeping executive churn to a minimum, the studio of Batman and Harry Potter has sold more than $1 billion in tickets at the domestic box office for an unparalleled nine years running.

But Mr. Robinov, taking notice of changing industry economics and shifting consumer tastes, has been modifying that blueprint. His strategy involves making fewer but more ambitious movies, cutting back on sweetheart producer deals and at long last integrating its corporate sibling DC Comics more tightly into the movie division.

Mr. Robinov, in close alliance with his president of worldwide marketing, Sue Kroll, is also moving Warner out of its stately comfort zone by pursuing more provocative advertising campaigns (“Rock Out With Your Glock Out” is the slogan for a forthcoming title) and raunchy comedies like “The Hangover.” Mr. Robinov pressed to make “The Hangover” over Mr. Horn’s objections. The $35 million movie, co-produced with Legendary Pictures, has sold about $467 million in tickets.

“There are movies that don’t necessarily speak to my generation,” Mr. Horn, 66, said, “but Warner needs to speak to all audiences.”

Mr. Robinov has more on his hands than just continuing to show Hollywood who’s boss. The studio’s slimmed-down corporate parent, Time Warner, is relying more than ever on its motion picture arm to mint profits that will impress investors. And he must accomplish that without the Harry Potter franchise, which ends next year.

Operating income for the studio rose 61 percent to $436 million in the fourth quarter. Even so, Wall Street’s attention is currently focused elsewhere, namely on 20th Century Fox’s “Avatar,” which has become the top-grossing movie of all time (in dollars not adjusted for inflation).

Premium-price 3-D tickets are one reason “Avatar” has attracted over $2 billion at the global box office, and Warner is hopping on the 3-D bandwagon in a big way. Last week it announced plans to release “Clash of the Titans” and the final two “Harry Potter” films in 3-D. Warner will have as many as nine 3-D releases next year, according to Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution.

Driven by its need to replace Harry Potter, not to mention the continued appeal of superheroes, Warner recently announced a major reorganization of DC Comics. The goal is to quickly and more fully exploit its characters, something Time Warner’s corporate bureaucracy has hampered in the past.

The Walt Disney Company’s $4 billion purchase of Marvel Entertainment just over a month ago has increased the pressure on Warner to succeed this time. Warner is expected to announce a DC slate in the coming months populated by characters like the Flash and Wonder Woman.

Central to Mr. Robinov’s approach to DC is to avoid cookie-cutter representations and take risks when it comes to hiring directors and choosing a cast. Fully backing a filmmaker’s vision has become a hallmark of his style, ranging from the odd “Watchmen,” which was a modest success, to the candy-colored “Speed Racer,” which was a flaming disaster, to “The Dark Knight,” a home run.

“He is trying not to cling to the things that have worked in the past,” said Christopher Nolan, who directed “The Dark Knight” and is working on another Batman sequel.

Another part of Mr. Robinov’s vision for the studio involves Ms. Kroll, his hard-driving marketing chief, who has been charged with instilling electricity and nimbleness in campaigns.

She was behind the arresting visuals for “Where the Wild Things Are,” which opened at No. 1 at the box office despite its art house aura. For the forthcoming comedy “Valentine’s Day,” which is showing such strong advance interest that producers are already racing to put together a similar movie built around New Year’s Eve, Ms. Kroll found an elegant way to showcase 18 stars on one billboard.

“She’s a monster: creative, brilliant, tireless,” Mr. Robinov said.

Ms. Kroll has definitely shaken up Warner’s sleepy marketing division. Soon after her promotion in 2008, she decided late on a Friday that the trailer for “10,000 B.C.” needed to be more visceral. She tracked staff members down at home, had an editing company stay open for the weekend and hired midnight couriers. Mr. Fellman mobilized the distribution team to push exhibitors to immediately accept a new trailer. Within two days, the two executives had accomplished what usually takes weeks.

“I have a very cavalier attitude that anything is possible,” she said. “You’ve got to be relentless and you’ve got to be fearless.”

While it tinkers with its formula, Warner Brothers Entertainment, the studio’s umbrella company, is also confronting the distracting issue of corporate succession for only the fifth time since 1967, when the Warner family ceded control. Speculating about who will replace Mr. Horn and Barry M. Meyer, the company’s departing chairman, has become one of Hollywood’s favorite parlor games.

While Mr. Robinov is widely seen as Mr. Horn’s heir, it is less clear what the corporation might do with Mr. Meyer’s post — with speculation running the gamut from simply replacing him to splitting his job among a handful of executives.

There are three princes vying for the roles: Mr. Robinov; Bruce Rosenblum, president of the television group; and Kevin Tsujihara, president of home entertainment. The uncertainty has set off political maneuvering inside the studio.

Time Warner’s chairman, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, declined to comment about succession except to say, “We have a real preference for our own people.”

He added: “We’ve shown that it is possible to be consistently successful in a business that is supposed to be enormously volatile.”

Mr. Meyer, 66, said slow succession — the opposite of what Walt Disney Studios has recently set in motion — was the proper course for a business that has long lead times for its products and turns on subjective decisions. “If you inject jolting management changes into that process, it’s a recipe for destruction,” he said. “We are trying to evolve the system.”

Getting to know Mr. Robinov has been difficult for people inside Warner and out. A former agent at International Creative Management, the buttoned-down but brooding executive rarely grants interviews and dislikes the type of personal showboating often associated with Hollywood moguls.

In a knife-in-the-back industry, Mr. Robinov is known for wielding a blade in the front, something that has resulted in more than a few wounded egos. “As an agent, all I wanted was an answer,” Mr. Robinov said of his blunt style. “Sometimes it’s a hard message to hear and sometimes it’s a hard one to give.”

Mr. Robinov’s superiors say he is learning how to maneuver more delicately. “He has become less of an acquired taste,” Mr. Meyer said.

Told of that comment, an unsmiling Mr. Robinov said, “Haters, they’re all haters.” Was he joking? He was. “I’m a complicated cat,” he said with a shrug.

His office is largely barren except for a plastic Bob’s Big Boy doll, which he declined to explain to a visitor. A colleague later said that Mr. Robinov likes to take people to lunch at a Big Boy diner in Burbank when he is either promoting or firing them.

There have been quite a few personnel changes — the president of motion picture music was jettisoned in December — as Mr. Robinov has shaped his team. Another recent change involved the president of production, Kevin McCormick, who stepped down to become a producer.

The restructuring will most likely continue, particularly with producer deals. Up until recently, producers who delivered big hits in years past were kept on the payroll regardless of their recent track record. But Mr. Robinov says that era is over, pointing to a 20 percent reduction in producer deals since 2008. He declined to say which producers might be facing less bountiful deals going forward.

Meanwhile, Mr. Meyer and Mr. Horn are starting a victory lap. Mr. Horn is particularly proud of accomplishments that include better coordinating the production, distribution and marketing divisions and lining up outside partners like Legendary Pictures to reduce risk.

“Every ship picks up barnacles over time, but as Barry and I ride into the sunset, I firmly believe we’re leaving it better than we found it, and we found it in pretty great shape,” Mr. Horn said.

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fred
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posted March 11, 2010 05:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
TV veteran Merv Adelson tapped to consult Warner Bros. on new media (LA times)
Colorful entertainment executive Merv Adelson, who co-founded Lorimar Television and once served as a vice chairman of Time Warner Inc., has been tapped as an "executive advisor" to Warner Bros. Known as much for his highflying lifestyle, lavish tastes and serial marriages (four times, including to Barbara Walters) as his business ventures, the 80-year-old Adelson will advise the movie and TV studio on new-media start-ups, Warner Bros. said. Adelson has been off Hollywood's radar for several years. But in an interview, the former TV executive said Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes was the one who approached him about consulting for the studio. "I had known Jeff Bewkes for a long time ... sometime after the first of the year Jeff actually called me and said, `We want you back.' " Adelson said Bewkes wants him to encourage new-media entrepreneurs to meet with Warner Bros. executives. He'll report to Bewkes and Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer, who also has long ties to Adelson. Adelson rose to prominence as a Las Vegas real estate developer during the 1950s when the city was taking off as a gambling mecca. He and longtime partner Irwin Molasky built the city's first shopping mall and 24-hour supermarket. Adelson later started the swank La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad. As chief executive of Lorimar, which Adelson founded alongside producer Lee Rich, he launched a programming giant and training ground for many top entertainment executives, including CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and former News Corp. President Peter Chernin. Lorimar, which made the hit series "The Waltons" and "Dallas," was sold to Warner Bros. in 1989. Adelson then joined the board of parent Time Warner and served briefly as its vice chairman. The next two decades were not as kind to Adelson. He lost much of his fortune, in part because he held on to all of his Time Warner stock through the disastrous merger with America Online and also made some bad bets on new media. He filed for bankruptcy in 2003. "I lost a lot of money," Adelson said, adding, "It’s no secret much of it was lost in the AOL-Time Warner merger." As for his personal life, Adelson joked that he tells women that he is a "very physical 80." As for the odds of being married again, the unattached Adelson told this reporter to write "single" in all caps.

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HollywoodProducer
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posted March 22, 2010 05:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. opening Montreal video game studio (LA Times complete)
Warner Bros. is opening a major new video game development studio in Montreal. The studio announced its plans today in conjunction with the Quebecois government, which will provide about $7.4 million in subsidies. The new Montreal studio will be the seventh internal production house for Warner Bros.' video games unit and the first it has established from scratch. It previously acquired Britain's Traveller's Tales, maker of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman games; Britain's Rocksteady Studios, maker of last year's hit Batman: Arkham Asylum; Seattle-based Monolith Entertainment and Snowblind Studios; and two studios previously owned by Midway Games, which Warner bought out of bankruptcy last year, including one in Chicago that produces Mortal Kombat fighting titles. Warner has been expanding its video game publishing unit Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the last several years as it has cut back on licensing and produced more titles in-house. It is currently developing games based on Lord of the Rings and is expected to start working on Harry Potter games after a deal with Electronic Arts ends next year, as well as more games based on its DC Comics superheroes. Thanks in part to government tax credits, Montreal has become a hub for video game development, with studios belonging to major publishers such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Eidos. The new Warner Bros. game studio is expected to employ more than 300 people by 2015, according to the studio.

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DavidChang
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posted April 25, 2010 08:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for DavidChang   Click Here to Email DavidChang     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros. Television just signed a big production deal with Conan O'Brien's production company.

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HollywoodProducer
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posted July 20, 2010 09:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Big Picture
Patrick Goldstein on the collision of entertainment, media and pop culture
« Previous Post | The Big Picture Home

Could Chris Nolan have convinced anyone but Warners to make 'Inception'?
July 19, 2010 | 4:06 pm
Over the years, whenever I've stopped by the Warners lot to interview Clint Eastwood, I've always been struck by how much his Spanish-style studio bungalow felt like a home away from home, down to the little parking space right by the front door. The whole domestic image is especially appropriate, since Eastwood has been making movies regularly at Warners since he directed "The Outlaw Josey Wales" there in 1976, when Gerald Ford was president, Harvey Weinstein was promoting rock concerts in Buffalo and some of Warners' top young executives were still in diapers.

Eastwood is just one of a host of filmmakers that have what you might call special relationships at the studio, which under the aegis of Warner Bros. Picture Group President Jeff Robinov has been especially aggressive in courting a new generation of gifted filmmakers. The biggest payoff, of course, came this weekend with the release of Christopher Nolan's "Inception," which not only was the weekend's top-grossing film, making more than $60 million, but has created shock waves all across Hollywood, serving as a reminder to cautious studio bosses that a strikingly original film could compete at the height of the summer moviegoing season with all the usual sequels and remakes and other franchise fodder.

But would Warners have made "Inception," which cost $160 million to produce and even more to market, if Nolan hadn't earned the trust of Warners' top brass after making a string of well-received films at the studio, including the critically beloved "Insomnia" (bankrolled by Alcon Entertainment but distributed by Warners) as well as the mega-hits "The Dark Knight" and "Batman Begins"?

"I don't know if we would've made 'Inception' without already having the relationship with Chris," Robinov told me over the phone Monday. "But he is so compelling and so good in a room that we were willing to bet on him making 'Batman Begins' at a time when all he had made was 'Memento' and 'Insomnia.' And you could argue that we took an even bigger risk of betting on him with 'Batman Begins,' since we had so much riding on that film, which was an effort to reboot one of our biggest brands.

"But to make a studio successful, you always have to believe in talent and that often requires taking a certain leap of faith with filmmakers, which is easier to do if you've enjoyed a certain level of success together."

Warners is the studio most invested in filmmaker relationships. In addition to Nolan and Eastwood, it has longstanding relationships with Steven Soderbergh, who since 2000 has made all but one of his major studio films at Warners, and Zack Snyder, who has two upcoming films on the Warners slate after making "300" and "Watchmen" at the studio. Rob Reiner, whose "Flipped" is due out from Warners next month, hasn't made a film away from Warners since the mid-1990s.

But Warners isn't alone. Even though the age of the studio system, when actors and filmmakers were under long-term contracts to studios, is long over, most studios still have steadfast relationships with key filmmakers whose work often reflects the studio's vision of itself. Sony's Amy Pascal, who loves films about complicated romantic relationships, has enjoyed a close creative alliance with James Brooks, whose "Everything You've Got," is due out from Sony this fall. Brooks hasn't made a film outside of Sony since 1987's "Broadcast News."

Universal, which has a particularly good track record at making irreverent comedies, has a close rapport with Judd Apatow, who has made all three of his films as a director at the studio. Universal also has a strong relationship with Paul Greengrass, who has made all four of his U.S. studio films at Universal, including two of the studio's series of "Bourne" thrillers. Paramount has a close relationship with J.J. Abrams while Shawn Levy, one of the top comedy directors in the business, has made five of his last six films at 20th Century Fox. Fox, of course, is also the home of James Cameron, who has been there longer than even Rupert Murdoch, having made all his films (outside of "The Terminator" series) there since "Aliens" in 1986.

It's not even unusual for filmmakers to outlast their original studio patrons. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which flopped at the box office this weekend, was directed by Jon Turteltaub, who may not have a lot of critical cachet but definitely has Disney staying power. While the studio has had a complete turnover in its executive ranks, Turteltaub is still alive and kicking, having made eight straight films at Disney (including the hit "National Treasure" films) dating back to 1993's "Cool Runnings."

Why do studios keep such close ties with filmmakers even after the executives who originally brought them in have been sent packing? Keep reading.


"Believe it or not, there is still such a thing as an institutional memory in Hollywood," says "Erin Brockovich" producer Michael Shamberg, who is producing Soderbergh's next Warners film, "Contagion," which shoots in the fall. "Most of the studios have either inherited or adapted a lot of the old studio practices. Once a director has made a lot of money for a studio, they're eager to keep that director in the fold. That's just good business practice. And if you're a filmmaker, if all things are equal, you want to stay at the same place, where you have executives that you know and trust and are comfortable with."

It's no secret that Warners has the most top filmmakers in its fold because, unlike some studio bosses, Robinov actually recognizes that the true source of creativity on a film derives from the filmmaker, not meddling studio executives.

"We're just a filmmaker-driven studio," Robinov says. "It doesn't mean that it's always going to be easy or that things are always going to work out as we'd hoped. But every movie needs a strong vision and the people that have the most exciting and interesting and accessible vision possible are the filmmakers. So they are the ones we want to build a long-term relationship with."

After Nolan had struck pay dirt with "The Dark Knight," everyone in town was throwing juicy projects at the filmmaker's feet. "But Chris hadn't found anything that quite landed with him," recalls Robinov. "So he went back to working on 'Inception,' which he'd started seven or so years ago. When it was done, his agent, Dan Aloni, said that Chris wanted to offer it to us first, out of respect for the relationship."

In Hollywood, respect for the relationship is a two-way street, especially when the filmmaker has just directed one of the top-grossing films of all time. Robinov and Warners chief Alan Horn immediately read Nolan's script and met with the filmmaker. "We asked a lot of questions and he had answers for all of them," says Robinov. "We wanted to know whether people would be able to understand where they were--in terms of the different subconscious levels and dream states. But Chris knew exactly where he was going, narratively and digitally. We agreed on a budget and Alan greenlit the movie right there in the room."

In the relationship game, not every bet pays off. Insiders have predicted that Baz Luhrmann, after the failure of "Australia," may make his next film elsewhere after having directed all of his U.S.-made films at Fox. Warners has hedged its bets in the past, famously forcing Eastwood to find outside financing for films like "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" before the studio pitched in with part of the budget. Night Shyamalan was an integral part of the Disney family until then-production chief Nina Jacobsen told the filmmaker she had problems with his script for "Lady in the Water." Insulted, Shyamalan left the studio in a huff, taking the film to Warners, where it bombed.

It's easy for relationships to flourish when everything is going smoothly. The true test comes when a film tanks. Studios often blame the filmmaker while filmmakers often blame the studio's marketing efforts. So the real test of Warners' belief in its filmmakers doesn't come so much with Nolan, who has something of a Midas touch, but with a filmmaker like Soderbergh, who has delivered both hits (the "Oceans Eleven" series) and misses ("The Good German" and "The Informant!").

Referring to those last two films, Robinov says: "They weren't necessarily all that accessible, but they were really interesting to us on an artistic level. And if you want to send a message to the creative community that you're willing to try to do different things, then you actually have to try to do different things. That's the bet we make and it always starts with the filmmakers."

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fred
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posted July 21, 2010 08:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Warner Bros.' DC Comics team makes a heroic effort to rival Marvel's films
While other superheroes powered box-office bonanzas, only Batman scored big for DC. (Even Superman didn't fly.) Diane Nelson and Geoff Johns are charged with changing that. First up: 'Green Lantern.'

By Geoff Boucher and Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times

July 21, 2010

The premiere for Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 2" shut down Hollywood Boulevard in May with the year's most bombastic red-carpet event, featuring fireworks, a heavy-metal soundtrack, go-go dancers and a parade of celebrities that included Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke and Hugh Hefner. Walking through it all were two outsiders of a sort: Diane Nelson and Geoff Johns.

The industry odd couple — she previously managed the Harry Potter brand for Warner Bros. but had no experience in comics, he's a fan-favorite comic-book writer who had never worked at a studio — are the president and chief creative officer, respectively, of DC Entertainment, main comic-book rival to Marvel. Their task is to rummage through the massive DC library and finally get venerable characters such as Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash and Aquaman on the silver screen for parent company Warner Bros. Their appointment, part of a restructuring of DC last September, is an implicit acknowledgment of the long dysfunctional relationship between the studio and its New York comic book unit.

Warner Bros. is counting on the pair to fly to the rescue and to do it soon — the Potter franchise, which has pulled in more than $5.3 billion at the box office, is winding down with its seventh installment this November and its finale next summer. The top Warner leadership is also frustrated that over the last decade it has been Marvel Comics characters — led by Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man — who have won the hearts of moviegoers with franchises that have pulled in close to $8 billion.

For Johns, 37, who grew up in Michigan as a passionate comics fan, walking Marvel's red carpet gave him even more motivation to weave a Hollywood story for DC's characters, many of whom have a far more illustrious publishing history than Iron Man.

"You look at that success …it makes you want to achieve the same sort of thing but do it in our own way," Johns said. "They've done great things and now we want to do great things."

They will get their first test this week at Comic-Con International, the massive pop-culture expo in San Diego that has become a make-or-break showcase for the sci-fi, fantasy and superhero films that increasingly populate studio slates. They have one heroic success to build on — director Christopher Nolan's two Batman films have grossed $1.4 billion — but also the drag of this year's disastrous "Jonah Hex" and "The Losers," painful reminders that DC characters have often been cinematic kryptonite.

Nelson and Johns will coordinate everything DC-related — Johns, for instance, hinted that there may be a half-dozen or more potential television projects in pipeline, suggesting "Smallville" and "Human Target" may soon be joined on the air by other DC-based properties. There are also video games and toys, but the most scrutiny so far is on their role as catalysts for tentpole films at the studio, where film group president Jeff Robinov speaks as though the 75-year-old comic-book company is a fresh new asset.

"We're looking at DC as an untapped asset," he said, "since we need to find a way to fill some of the holes in our event movie schedule created by the end of Harry Potter."

On Saturday, in front of an expected audience of 6,500 at Comic-Con, Warner will present the first footage from "Green Lantern," which stars Ryan Reynolds and is the biggest effort by the studio to create a superhero franchise that doesn't feature Superman or Batman. The character, whose roots go back to the 1940s, is a member of an intergalactic peacekeeping force armed with rings that give them nearly unlimited powers.

"Lantern" is the first film made with the new DC team in place and Johns will be right up there on stage with director Martin Campbell, Reynolds and other cast members. Far from an interloper, Johns was an essential sounding board on matters of plot, tone, character design and visual effects, the film team said.

" 'Integrity officer' is a great way to describe him," Reynolds said. "He's quality control in terms of the source material and making sure we use it in the right way. If something doesn't sit well with Geoff, then everyone knows that's worthy of sounding an alarm."

The biggest challenge for Nelson and Johns may be merging the cultures of the Warner lot in Burbank and the offices of DC, which are in Manhattan but may soon move to L.A.

The company that would become known as DC Comics invented the comic-book superhero in the summer of 1938 with Superman. Its florid archive is deeper and includes more iconic characters than the Marvel library, but moviegoers certainly wouldn't know that over the last decade. "Superman Returns," a 2006 cinematic reboot of the world's best known superhero, was regarded within Warner as a critical and commercial disappointment. Instead of following it with a sequel, the studio is now allowing Nolan to produce a new take on the character.

Movies based on Marvel heroes, meanwhile, have grossed more than $7.2 billion worldwide in the last decade for a variety of studios, a track record that led Walt Disney Co. to buy the comic-book company last year for $4.3 billion. Marvel Studios is now an independent unit of Disney cranking out its own films.

Nelson and Johns say they're not out to copy Marvel and they view the competition as friendly and motivational. But the success of their competitor has clearly put the pressure on them from the highest levels of Warner parent company Time Warner Inc.

Nelson, 43, is accustomed to that type of intensity. As the lead executive overseeing the Potter franchise, she played a key role in successfully steering author J.K. Rowling's characters from the page into theaters, toy stores, theme parks and home-video collections. She has been tasked with replicating that success for DC characters.

Nelson's office is dotted with superhero bric-a-brac and, to pose for a newspaper photographer, she wore a retro Wonder Woman shirt and plastic ring with the Green Lantern logo. But she made no attempt to present herself as a lifelong fan; when asked what she knew about DC Comics before taking the job, she held up the ringed hand with her fingers in the shape of a zero.

However, Nelson said her distance from the mythology gives her plenty in common with the majority of moviegoers.

"It's no small challenge how few people have heard of these properties or understand their stories outside of fans of comic books," she said. "Sometimes the comic-book fans who love this stuff want us to get too precious about this stuff and if we do, we'll kill it off. We need to figure out how to evolve and grow it and bring it to more people."

Johns, meanwhile, is as deeply immersed in the DC mythology as any hard-core fan. After starting his career as an assistant to Richard Donner, director of the 1978 "Superman" film, he became one of DC's top writers, working on nearly every major character. Starting in 2008, he served on a team of DC writers who advised Robinov on sharpening his approach to comic books.

That made him a perfect fit when Warner executives started looking for a creative executive to work under Nelson. "Geoff knows how to make these characters contemporary and yet stick to their core values, which is a fantastic asset for us," said Robinov.

Among the DC properties Robinov would like to see on the big screen after "Green Lantern" and Nolan's Superman are the Flash, Wonder Woman and the Justice League, which would pull together many big-name DC superheroes into a team. If that last movie does happen on the new team's watch, it would be a wry twist because Nelson and Johns got their posts in part because of a previous Justice League movie that was killed shortly before filming was to begin in 2008. It was one of several ill-fated projects, along with a comedic take on Green Lantern set to star Jack Black and a TV show featuring Batman sidekick Robin that didn't mesh with Nolan's movies.

"In the past, there wasn't coordination or a cohesive plan for making movies out of DC characters," said Jeff Katz, a former executive at Warner sibling studio New Line Cinema who now runs film and comic production company American Original Entertainment. "It appears that Warner Bros. has realized they need a new strategy to get the maximum value from DC, which is clearly a smart decision."

Johns, who still pens comic-book scripts at night and on weekends, including Green Lantern, seems a bit startled by his ascension but also thrilled at the opportunity. He said a visit to the set of "Green Lantern" last month was the highlight of his professional life.

"To see a movie set for a character that I had spent so much time and creative energy on and to see it actually get shot, it was amazing. And more than that, I had been dreaming of seeing a Green Lantern movie since I was 8 years old."

geoff.boucher@latimes.com

ben.fritz@latimes.com

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HollywoodProducer
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posted July 27, 2010 09:27 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
On Sunday, July 25th, Warner Bros. Studios became the only studio in history to surpass $1 billion at the domestic box office for ten years in a row. In addition, the division has crossed the billion-dollar threshold for eleven of the past twelve years. The announcement was made by Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. Pictures President of Domestic Distribution.

The studio passed the billion-dollar mark on the heels of the blockbuster success of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” which has topped the weekend box office in its first two weeks in release and has taken in $142.9 million to date. Beginning the year, Warner Bros. was still enjoying the success of Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes,” which had just opened on Christmas Day 2009. The studio also scored hits with Alcon Entertainment’s action adventure “The Book of Eli”; New Line Pictures’ ensemble romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day,” directed by Garry Marshall; the epic action adventure “Clash of the Titans”; and “Sex and the City 2,” New Line’s follow up to its 2008 hit based on the enormously popular television show.

In making the announcement, Fellman said, “This is an extraordinary milestone for our studio, and it reflects the enormous talent and dedication of a large roster of people, both on and off the screen. We are very proud of what we have achieved, not only this year, but over the past decade, and with an amazing slate of films opening in the coming months, we know this is just the beginning.”

Still to come in 2010 from Warner Bros. Pictures are: “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore 3D,” opening this week; Rob Reiner’s “Flipped”; “Lottery Ticket,” starring Bow Wow and Ice Cube; “Going the Distance,” starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long; “The Town,” directed by and starring Ben Affleck; Zack Snyder’s animated “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole 3D”; “Life As We Know It,” pairing Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel; Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” starring Matt Damon; Todd Phillips’ “Due Date,” teaming Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis; the much-anticipated “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Pa

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RobinRafe
Director

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posted August 05, 2010 08:46 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for RobinRafe   Click Here to Email RobinRafe     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As predicted, Warner Bros is set to buy Brit TV production company Shed Media, maker of such programmes as Supernanny and The Choir, for around £100 million ($159 million) to boost its presence in the key market. Warner Bros, part of Time Warner, says the price represented a premium of around 73% from July 29, the last business day before the start of the offer period. Warner is buying a 56% stake in the company from Shed's management. WB says it has received undertakings from around 73% of Shed shareholders backing the deal. Shed says the deal will enable it to grow further, with the backing of a large international group. The studio must have wanted Shed badly. Back in June, the talk was of Warner offering £75 million for Shed. Managers were understood to be holding out for £90 million. Shed executives are now set for a windfall. Exec Alex Graham will earn £12 million from the deal, while Shed co-founder Eileen Gallagher could earn £7.5 million. Graham has already made £20 million from selling his independent TV company Wall to Wall to Shed in 2007. Who says you can't make money from the entertainment business?

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DavidChang
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posted October 04, 2010 08:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for DavidChang   Click Here to Email DavidChang     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Everyone expected fallout from last month's announcement: DC Entertainment Relocates Film, Television And Digital Operations To Burbank. Now I've confirmed what the Bleeding Cool website reported first and asked me to post: that three major DC Entertainment execs are exiting -- Richard Bruning, currently SVP and Creative Director; Cheryl Rubin, SVP of Brand Management; and Steve Rotterdam, SVP of Marketing and Sales. This is obviously a major shakeup at the company Diane Nelson runs for Warner Bros. But with new movement on Batman 3, Superman 2, Green Lantern, and now Wonder Woman (neither Watchmen nor Jonah Hex were on her watch), the exec who led the Harry Potter franchise so successfully is putting her stamp on the DC Comic characters now after years of screwed-up development. This is terrible for departing DC personnel, but great for reanimated and rebooted and maybe even brand spanking new franchises.

According to Bleeding Cool, Bruning was a longtime DC Comics employee who not only designed the current company logo but also the titles on Watchmen and The Dark Knight and others. Rubin controlled worldwide licensing for DC properties and franchises including Batman and Superman across all media. She also is co-chair of the Time Warner Women’s Network, a NYC group that works for the professional development and networking of Time Warner female employees. Rotterdam was a relatively recent hire of 3 years.

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