Warner Sending Entire 2021 Slate to HBO Max and Theaters.

[Rodney-2187]

There’s no way things aren’t different after all of this, but I bet someone will still make movies and take my money, so I’ll be fine.

[DustnBones001]

Originally Posted by craigbarr2003

They are absolutely not wrong that their members on those films got sandbagged by this move. They only care about their members and their members financial interests. They don't care about what's best for AT&T. You can say they are wrong all you want. If they decide to pull the trigger (and I'm not saying they will, but if they do), then SAG will follow them. They won't cross one another. The WGA may or may not. They have issues with the DGA not really supporting them on some past actions. But it won't matter. WB and HBO Max will not have any future content until things get worked out. That's their power.

Everyone is getting sand bagged right now. Some people are losing their homes so im sorry if I'm not shedding tears for these oh so poor members. They are absolutely without question in the wrong. They would rather people risk their health so they could line their pockets. **** em.

Everyone is suffering during this pandemic. Why should the film industry be exempt?

[Cremildo]

Sir Ridley Scott approves:

But what about his new Matt Damon and Ben Affleck film? What if someone told him that, after all his hard work and money, it would go straight to streaming? “Apart from the money, it’s great, you know? Ideally, the bigger the audience, the better. It’s not financial, it’s more to do with communication. Am I communicating? Because that’s the job we do. It’s nice to see people like it.”

So he’d be happy if everything he made went straight to streaming? “Oh yeah, sure,” he replies. “Well, you can binge there. With a TV show like ours, you can sit there with three bottles of wine and watch all 10 hours if you want.”

[Koller70]

I never like Ridley Scott anyway.

[bigrob]

Originally Posted by Koller70

I never like Ridley Scott anyway.

what did he do to you then?

[Lee A Stewart]

Jason Kilar Defends Warner Bros.’ HBO Max Decision as ‘Defining Moment’ for WarnerMedia

It’s an enormous bet that threatens to alienate Hollywood’s A-list, and it may well make or break HBO Max in the coming year. But WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is vigorously defending the company’s plan to offer day-and-date streaming and theatrical releases for Warner Bros.’ 2021 feature slate, calling it a “defining moment” for a media giant that he thinks needs to make radical changes to thrive in a new era of entertainment.

“In order for this to work, either the box office needs to be there, or if the box office is not there, clearly HBO needs to carry some weight there,” Kilar told Variety editor-in-chief Claudia Eller during a wide-ranging interview Thursday at Variety’s annual Dealmakers event. He presented it as a pandemic-driven choice between the industry’s status quo and the needs of consumers who have clearly embraced on-demand streaming options.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/hbo...rs-1234850254/

[JayTL]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Jason Kilar Defends Warner Bros.’ HBO Max Decision as ‘Defining Moment’ for WarnerMedia



https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/hbo...rs-1234850254/

Whether anyone here agrees or not with the decision, I'm sure we all know the CEO of Warner would defend it, no?

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by JayTL

Whether anyone here agrees or not with the decision, I'm sure we all know the CEO of Warner would defend it, no?

When it all shakes out, he will either be regarded as a wunderkind . . . or unemployed. I'm betting on the former. His track record speaks for itself.

[xbs2034]

CAA is the latest to come out with a very strong objection to Warner Media’s plan. Again implying possible legal action to enforce contractual rights, as well as any future relationship between the studio and the agency’s big name clients hangs in the balance of Warner’s response

https://deadline.com/2020/12/caa-ric...ts-1234654147/

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

CAA is the latest to come out with a very strong objection to Warner Media’s plan. Again implying possible legal action to enforce contractual rights, as well as any future relationship between the studio and the agency’s big name clients hangs in the balance of Warner’s response

https://deadline.com/2020/12/caa-ric...ts-1234654147/

All they had to do was talk to all these people first.

[Britnasty]

‘ Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Blasts HBO Max Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

I learned in the news that Warner Bros. has decided to release “Dune” on HBO Max at the same time as our theatrical release, using prominent images from our movie to promote their streaming service. With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history. There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here. It is all about the survival of a telecom mammoth, one that is currently bearing an astronomical debt of more than $150 billion. Therefore, even though “Dune” is about cinema and audiences, AT&T is about its own survival on Wall Street. With HBO Max’s launch a failure thus far, AT&T decided to sacrifice Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 slate in a desperate attempt to grab the audience’s attention.

Warner Bros.’ sudden reversal from being a legacy home for filmmakers to the new era of complete disregard draws a clear line for me. Filmmaking is a collaboration, reliant on the mutual trust of team work and Warner Bros. has declared they are no longer on the same team.

Streaming services are a positive and powerful addition to the movie and TV ecosystems. But I want the audience to understand that streaming alone can’t sustain the film industry as we knew it before COVID. Streaming can produce great content, but not movies of “Dune’s” scope and scale. Warner Bros.’ decision means “Dune” won’t have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. Warner Bros. might just have killed the “Dune” franchise. This one is for the fans. AT&T’s John Stankey said that the streaming horse left the barn. In truth, the horse left the barn for the slaughterhouse.

Public safety comes first. Nobody argues with that. Which is why when it became apparent the winter would bring a second wave of the pandemic, I understood and supported the decision to delay “Dune’s” opening by almost a year. The plan was that “Dune” would open in theaters in October 2021, when vaccinations will be advanced and, hopefully, the virus behind us. Science tells us that everything should be back to a new normal next fall.

“Dune” is by far the best movie I’ve ever made. My team and I devoted more than three years of our lives to make it a unique big screen experience. Our movie’s image and sound were meticulously designed to be seen in theaters.

I’m speaking on my own behalf, though I stand in solidarity with the sixteen other filmmakers who now face the same fate. Please know I am with you and that together we are strong. The artists are the ones who create movies and series.

I strongly believe the future of cinema will be on the big screen, no matter what any Wall Street dilettante says. Since the dawn of time, humans have deeply needed communal storytelling experiences. Cinema on the big screen is more than a business, it is an art form that brings people together, celebrating humanity, enhancing our empathy for one another — it’s one of the very last artistic, in-person collective experiences we share as human beings.

Once the pandemic is over, theaters will be filled again with film lovers.

That is my strong belief. Not because the movie industry needs it, but because we humans need cinema, as a collective experience.

So, just as I have both a fiduciary and creative responsibility to fulfill as the filmmaker, I call on AT&T to act swiftly with the same responsibility, respect and regard to protect this vital cultural medium. Economic impact to stakeholders is only one aspect of corporate social responsibility. Finding ways to enhance culture is another. The moviegoing experience is like no other. In those darkened theaters films capture our history, educate us, fuel our imagination and lift and inspire our collective spirit. It is our legacy.

Long live theatrical cinema!

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/d...os-1234851270/

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by Britnasty

‘ Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Blasts HBO Max Deal (EXCLUSIVE)



https://variety.com/2020/film/news/d...os-1234851270/

He big mad. Again this could have been avoided by making a zoom call.

[Geoff D]

With the irony being that Dune prolly wasn't gonna make a bean in profits and lead to some lengthy franchise run anyway...unless HBO Max decided to front up money for the sequels

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

With the irony being that Dune prolly wasn't gonna make a bean in profits and lead to some lengthy franchise run anyway...unless HBO Max decided to front up money for the sequels

Yeah, I get Villanueve's sentiment, but he's far too optimistic about theatrical's recovery in 10 months.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by captveg

Yeah, I get Villanueve's sentiment, but he's far too optimistic about theatrical's recovery in 10 months.

I didn't really mean it that way, I been saying it's gonna tank since well before covid.

[mpstjohn]

Originally Posted by captveg

Yeah, I get Villanueve's sentiment, but he's far too optimistic about theatrical's recovery in 10 months.

Did he think Blade Runner 2049 went well gross-wise? That film too had a cult following behind it but couldn't find any decent traction. This was never gonna see a sequel. He's a great filmmaker but being that alone doesn't guarantee box office success.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I didn't really mean it that way, I been saying it's gonna tank since well before covid.

Yeah, but his remake of Heaven's Gate is gonna outgross Avatar.

[Lee A Stewart]

Disney Investor Day Postmortem: Studio Has No Immediate Plans To Melt Down Bulk Of 2021 Theatrical Sked Into Streaming Like WarnerMedia

Even though a combined 100 movie and TV series titles were announced today during Disney Investor Day, with 80% of them going to Disney+, let it be noted that the Burbank, CA studio didn’t burn down its 2021 theatrical release schedule, like WarnerMedia did last week, in order to keep the fire going on its streaming service.

At least not yet.

Let’s not forget, they are the studio that took Mulan and Hamilton away from dying exhibitors at a time when they needed those movies the most. However, Disney was careful today about saying what exactly was intended for theatrical, and what was definitely destined for Disney+ so as not to upset the apple cart with exhibition.

https://deadline.com/2020/12/disney-...ek-1234654716/

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by captveg

Yeah, I get Villanueve's sentiment, but he's far too optimistic about theatrical's recovery in 10 months.

I think both he and Nolan are coming out looking like out of touch spoiled brats.

Both their statements are riddled with hyperbole and various ways of trying to cover up the fact that they simply are scared of consumers having a choice.

And that's the crux of this entire discussion. They don't want people to have a choice, because they know for a lot even pre-pandemic that going to the theater is a chore you have to do in order to see the latest film, not because they want some mystical communal experience that, frankly, barely exists anymore (I've seen exactly one film in the past ten years where the audience made a peep - and that was for the once-in-a-generation Force Awakens).

Their threats about people not wanting to work with WB are comical - because there are many, many people out there who are fully capable of doing their jobs but just lack opportunity. If they keep fighting this, they are going to come out on the wrong end - they look anti-audience, anti-choice, and anti-consumer. And there will be plenty of talented people to take their place if they truly are so outraged.

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by Britnasty

‘ Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Blasts HBO Max Deal (EXCLUSIVE)



https://variety.com/2020/film/news/d...os-1234851270/

Maybe Warner needs to pay him off like they did Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot.
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