Congressman Joaquin Castro Rips Warner Bros Discovery as ‘Outright Hostile’ to ‘Creators of Color’

Warner Bros. Discovery will take a hit of between $1.3 billion and $1.6 billon in pre-tax restructuring charges for the third quarter ended in September as part of the ongoing merge of its operations, primary from content write-downs.

In what has been heavily buzzed around town, Jesse Ehrman has been named President, Production and Development at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Warner Bros. Discovery has become the first major studio to sell a movie’s NFT bundle,with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dropping tomorrow.

After 15 years at Warner Bros, and four as the President of DC Films, Walter Hamada has finally left the Burbank, CA lot as sources tell Deadline the exec waits for the senior Warner Discovery brass to finalize his exit payout. Hamada has run DC since 2018, and reupped in January 2021 with a contract that was supposed to take him through 2023.

Ahead of tomorrow’s tipoff of the 2022-23 NBA season, Warner Bros Discovery announced contract renewals for the four hosts of TNT’s mainstay studio show Inside the NBA.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Amazon Prime Video has scored a pair of deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony to bolster its programming in France with premium titles. The agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery gives Prime Video the first-window rights to exclusive TV series from Warner Bros. Discovery in France, including “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” the first two seasons of “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” Ava DuVernay’s miniseries “DMZ” and “Peacemaker” Season 1. Also part of the pact are library TV titles, on a non-exclusive basis. These include “Legacies” (Seasons 1 through 3), “Pretty Little Liars,” “Fringe,” “One Tree Hill,” “The Originals” and “Shameless.”

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery is behind a TV show telling real life stories of people overcoming severe medical conditions to show human bravery, with Netflix’s Amazing on the Inside producer Future Studios and distributor TVF International shopping Unbelievable Me at Mipcom Cannes this week.

according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Both Tricia and Jill will be here through the rest of the year, working with me as we realign the teams through this transitional period.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Warner Bros. Discovery Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics chief marketing officer Tricia Melton is departing the company, along with Cartoon Network and Adult Swim senior VP of marketing and partnerships Jill King. Their exits rep the latest high-profile departures at the conglom as it continues to cut costs and downsize following the April acquisition of Warner Bros. by Discovery. Melton’s and King’s exits come just days after Warner Bros. TV Group’s animation division was hit hard by cuts — including the merger of development and main production teams for Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. Both shingles remain, but with a smaller, merged headcount.  

shuttered as part of cost-cutting moves. WBD’s chief DEI officer Asif Sadiq will partner with Warner Bros. Television upon the completion of the current workshop class and will work to grow the program.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to end its long-running writers and directors training program, which the conglom announced Tuesday as part of a series of layoffs and budget cuts at Warner Bros. TV Group, drew a strong rebuke from different parts of the industry, including a stinging statement on Wednesday by the Directors Guild of America. But what Warner Bros. Discovery hadn’t followed up to explain — and quickly revealed on Wednesday — is that its Writers Workshop and Directors Workshop will live on (albeit it, in a somewhat different form, details TBD) but now move from Warner Bros. Television and be housed inside the conglom’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion unit.

Warner Bros. Discovery has performed a quick U-turn on its decision to close its Writers and Directors Workshops.

The Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs continue.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Former Warner Bros. Discovery and OSN executives are teaming up to form a new content studio serving the Middle East and North Africa, Variety can reveal. Rise Studios is being set up by industry veterans Emad Morcos, former OSN chief content and commercial officer; Amanda Turnbull, former general manager at Warner Bros. Discovery Middle East, Africa and Turkey; and Amel Farag, former head of content commercial strategy at OSN. Rise will invest in local content and talent in order to launch homegrown film and TV productions on both regional and global broadcasters and streaming platforms.

Warner Bros Television is cutting more than a quarter of its workforce as part of its parent company’s drive to cut costs.

laying off hundreds of workers on the business side. Up to 30% of the combined sales teams of the merged company were expected to be cut.

Another wave of Warner Bros Discovery post-merger layoffs is coming.

EJ Panaligan editor Warner Bros. Discovery has announced the finalists for its Warner Bros. Discovery Access Music Supervisor program, which gives creative voices from historically underrepresented communities the training and tools to gain experience in television and film music supervision. The six selected participants, Mjeema Pickett, Tiffany Gouché, A.D. Johnson, Matthew Wang, Nikki Marshall and Willy Rodriguez, will participate in a curriculum developed by an advisory board of music supervisors Paul Broucek, President of Music, Warner Bros. Pictures; Bronwyn Savasta, SVP, Music, Warner Bros. Television; and Evyen Klean, Founder, Neophonic. The cohort will learn about production, IP management, publishing, soundtracks, deal negotiation in addition to music masters, record labels, research, clearance and licensing. The program will also allow participants to gain hands-on training in an experience that will assist in their future career goals in entertainment. After completing a string of Masterclasses, the cohort will be able to shadow a WBD music supervisor on a show or feature, through a partnership with HBO, HBO Max, WBTV and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Naman Ramachandran Leading practitioners of the Asian theatrical business participated in a lively discussion on the future of the sector post-pandemic and the signs are encouraging. Speaking at the APOS conference in Singapore on Thursday, moderated by Variety Asia editor Patrick Frater, Stephen Laslocky, VP at leading research firm Media Partners Asia, provided a handy overview of the theatrical market in Southeast Asia. Laslocky said that Indonesia, the largest market in the region, would be back to 2019 levels of theatrical business by the end of 2022. “In Malaysia, the demand generally appears to be back, the issue was the pipeline just wasn’t so great, particularly this year. But next year, they think that’s going to improve for both local, which has done very well this year, and for foreign films next year,” Laslocky said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Gerhard Zeiler, president of International at Warner Bros. Discovery, has moved to reassure the Asia-Pacific region that it is an integral part of the group’s post-merger strategy. “Don’t believe that we don’t know how important Asia is for our company, he said Thursday. Zeiler was speaking at the APOS Convention in Singapore on Thursday. He cited examples of theatrical success for “Batman” and “Fantastic Beasts” in the region and investment in local production in the region. The reassurance may have been necessary following post-merger announcements that proposed changes in North America, Latin America and Europe ahead of Asia – despite recent external data showing Asia-Pacific as one of the world’s fastest growth regions.