Warner Bros. Discovery shops ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ to rivals: report

Keanu Reeves returning to the Constantine franchise, as revealed by Deadline earlier this afternoon, has thrown up some dust in the TV business.

EJ Panaligan editor Disney, Amazon Studios, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and other major Hollywood players are pledging support for the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a major educational outreach initiative championed last year by George Clooney and others. Paramount and NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises are also signing on to become founding partners of the Los Angeles Unified School District magnet facility. These companies join previously announced founding partners History Channel/A+E Networks, Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group has committed to providing more than $4 million in funding for the school, which opened in August with 150 students at the Edward G. Roybal Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery enacted 100 layoffs Tuesday as part of a planned downsizing of the company’s ad sales departments that had been in the works since Discovery closed its merger with WarnerMedia in April, Variety has confirmed. These cuts are part of a previously reported and expected 30% reduction overall across the ad sales division, a sector of the merged company with many redundancies, in the coming weeks. However, not all of the exits will be layoffs, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. An undisclosed number of those departures will be negotiated deals, while others will be retirements. The layoffs set in motion Tuesday are the latest in a string of moves made by Warner Bros. Discovery in an attempt to fulfill the promise made by CEO David Zaslav and his exec team to find $3 billion in cost-saving synergies in the first two years after the merger. The most high profile so far, aside from other layoffs within Warner Bros. Discovery, was the decision that “Batgirl,” the $90 million Warner Bros./DC movie starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, would not be released theatrically, on HBO Max, or anywhere else. 

Axios.Up to 30% of the combined sales teams of the merged company are expected to be cut. The move comes as Warner Bros. Discovery cleaned up Monday night at the Emmys and bested all other companies with the most Emmy wins.

German media giant ProSiebenSat.1 has struck a deal to pick up the remaining 50% stake in the German streaming service Joyn from Warner Bros Discovery.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The blowback Warner Bros. Discovery received over its cancellation of “Batgirl” was “blown out of proportion,” according to CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. Last month came word that “Batgirl,” the $90 million Warner Bros./DC movie starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, would not be released theatrically, on HBO Max, or anywhere else. WBD, formed formed earlier this year by Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia, determined that taking a tax write-off for “Batgirl” made more financial sense than releasing it commercially. “To me, you know, it’s blown out of proportion a little bit, in terms of the attention externally,” said Wiedenfels, speaking Thursday at the Bank of America Securities Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, regarding the “Batgirl” decision. “The focus is, on a go-forward basis here, we’re spending more than ever in the history of the two legacy companies on content. We’re continuing to make significant investments — [but] we’ll make them differently.”

Warner Bros. Discovery‘s surprising decision to shelve “Batgirl” early last month sparked controversy around the industry.

The surprising decision last month to shelve completed DC movie Batgirl was “blown out of proportion” by the press, according to Warner Bros Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Karen Grinthal, a veteran ad-sales executive who has long represented cable’s Food Network and other properties to Madison Avenue, is set to retire from her post. Grinthal, who has worked at Scripps and then Discovery Communications for years, was recently named part of the new senior ad-sales executive team at Warner Bros. Discovery. Grinthal was named in July to be one of three top executives overseeing linear and digital sales for cable networks reporting in to Jon Steinlauf, head of U.S. ad sales for the company. Grinthal was assigned to supervise linear and digital sales and revenue for Food Network, TLC, TBS Entertainment, OWN, Cooking Channel, Cartoon Network and WB Syndication.

Eddie Redmayne To Be Honored With Zurich’s Golden Eye

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has unveiled its leaderships in the Nordics, including Pil Gundelach Brandstrup, who will be in charge of all content and planning across the region. Brandstrup will also continue leading content for Denmark. Other key appointments include Magnus Vatn, Axel Eriksson and Katja Santala who will continue as country content leads, with Lina Friman continuing to head up planning, reporting to Brandstrup. Roni Patel will be responsible for content licensing; Kasper Kryger will be responsible for the ad sales business in the region; Jesper Steenberg will be responsible for the new consolidated distribution team; Tore Fredrik Dreyer will head up distribution for theatrical, games and home entertainment; and Jessie Ross Skarvad will be responsible for marketing and publicity of theatrical, games and home entertainment.

Warner Bros. Discovery has set another of its European management teams, as Nordic chief Christina Sulebakk lays out the structure of her unit.

canceling the HBO Max premiere of a Matt Reeves/J.J. Abrams “Batman” animated series (it is still in production but is being shopped to other networks and streaming services).In the past, DC FanDome was the first place that the trailer for Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman” was revealed, where stars like Dwayne Johnson would show up to talk about “Black Adam” and where comic book news is frequently broken.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Leavy has inked a new three-year contract as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer with the David Zaslev-led media conglomerate, Deadline has confirmed.

With all the drama surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery in recent months, particularly after CEO David Zaslav took over the company after its recent merger, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t that long ago WarnerMedia (without Discovery) was battling plenty of controversy all on its own.

Bloomberg News was “speculation” and that execs were still mulling a price point for the tier, which will be rolled out to select markets before the end of the year.“We are still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower-priced, ad-supported tier and no decisions have been made. So this is all just speculation at this point,” a Netflix rep said.Bloomberg reported Friday that the streaming giant, known for hits like “Stranger Things,” “You” and “Bridgerton,” is looking to price its commercial-supported offering between $7 and $9 to compete with rival Disney.

statement said. “I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer From “The Lego Batman Movie” to just…Batman? While veteran producer Dan Lin is in contention for the top job overseeing DC’s film and TV adaptations for Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety has confirmed that no offer has been made to Lin, and several hurdles stand in the way of any deal moving forward. The biggest hurdle is Lin’s production company, Rideback, which has ties to several other studios, including a first-look deal from January 2021 with Universal Pictures, and development on several features for Disney, including a live-action version of “Lilo & Stitch.” Were Lin to decamp to Warner Bros. Discovery to run DC, his involvement with those productions would need to be sorted, if not severed outright.

looking for a Kevin Feige-like figure to run DC at Warner Bros., producer Dan Lin is in talks to take on the role, a source with knowledge tells TheWrap. Lin would serve as DC chief, creatively overseeing the development and production of DC superhero adaptations.A spokesperson for Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. also announced that “House Party” and “Evil Dead Rise,” initially greenlit as HBO Max releases, will now be theatrical releases that hits the big screen in December 9, 2022 and April 21, 2023 respectively.