Warner Bros. Launches Candlelight Concert Series on Studio Lot, With Just a Bit of Fudging on WB’s Music History

Viacom18 have revealed a multi-year agreement making JioCinema India’s new streaming home for HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros. content from May. The WBD content had previously been carried on the Disney-owned Star TV platform. But the deal with Star expired at the end of March. WBD sources have confirmed that, except for a handful of shows licensed to third parties, HBO content has been absent from Indian airwaves since the beginning of the month. The new deal is another major victory for Mukesh Ambani, one of India’s richest and most politically influential businessmen. His Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is behind Viacom18 and the JioCinema streaming platform, as well as India’s dominant cellular phone and broadband internet providers.

Warner Bros Discovery has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Viacom18 under which its JioCinema service will become the new streaming home of HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros content in India starting next month. 

Warner Bros. is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2023 and after a two-hour presentation at CinemaCon, it’s clear the studios is making sure the next eight months reflect that historic legacy.

It really does feel like a lifetime ago when Warner Bros. defiantly said, during the beginning of the pandemic, that every film released in 2021 was going to hit theaters and streaming on the same day.

Refresh for updates: Big stuff expected here this morning at CinemaCon in Las Vegas as Warner Bros struts its 2023 slate.

Fox, Comcast and Warner Bros Discovery shares each took a dip Monday after the media companies took turns generating industry-shaking headlines over less than 24 hours.

Chris Tucker at the movie theaters in “Air” but starting Thursday, April 20, you can see him live performing stand up.Tucker, 51, is embarking on a five-show mini-tour of the U.S. from April through July this year.The trek kicks off at Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center on April 20 and after that he’ll return to the Garden State for a gig at Atlantic City’s Tropicana Casino on April 22.And if you need last-minute tickets to see Tucker — whether it be in New Jersey or in another state — you can still pick them up before it’s too late.Some are fairly cheap to see the “Rush Hour” and “Friday” star too.At the time of publication, we found a few seats going for as low as $53 before fees on Vivid Seats.Want to see him live?We’ve got everything you need to know and more.All ticket prices listed above are subject to fluctuation.A complete calendar of all Chris Tucker shows include dates, venues and links to buy tickets can be found below.(Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Paramount Global fired back on Wednesday in the battle over “South Park” streaming rights, accusing Warner Bros. Discovery of withholding $52 million in license fees. Warner Bros. Discovery sued Paramount in February, alleging that the company had breached its $500 million licensing deal with HBO Max by diverting “South Park” specials to Paramount+. On Wednesday, Paramount filed a counterclaim, alleging that HBO Max got everything it bargained for under the agreement, but has nevertheless withheld two required payments of $26 million apiece. The countersuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, also argues that the unpaid fees cover the 300-plus episodes of “South Park” now streaming on HBO Max, which are not in dispute in the lawsuit.

EXCLUSIVE: Harry Gamsu is heading back to Warner Bros. Discovery.

The last time the parent company of Warner Bros and HBO promoted the launch of a streaming service, it faced the once-a-century challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Big Bang Theory” is approved for additional funding.

As rival motion picture studios were becoming intoxicated on theatrical day-and-date releases tied to their streaming platforms during Covid, and big streamers like Netflix completely sidestepping wide theatrical releases, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav believed in the economics of the big picture.

BreAnna Bell Warner Bros. TV has acquired the book rights to Jesse Q. Sutanto’s novel, “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers,” the studio announced on Monday. Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International, which is currently under an overall deal with WBTV, is attached to produce alongside Harpo Films. The novel follows Vera Wong, a lonely widow living in San Francisco’s Chinatown who wakes up one morning to find a dead body on the floor of her struggling tea shop. “No one is more curious than a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands, so Vera decides to start her own investigation,” reads the description. The book was published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and HQ, a division of HarperCollins UK.

letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General Johanthan Kanter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Rep.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large In the 1950s, the motion picture industry wanted nothing to do with the young medium of television — but Jack Warner soon realized that was a losing battle. Warner Bros. was among the first to dive into TV production, when ABC approached the studio about acquiring a theatrical film package. But instead of just running films on TV, the result was “Warner Bros. Presents,” an umbrella series that debuted in 1955 and comprised programs based on existing intellectual property including “Casablanca” and “Cheyenne.” The success of “Cheyenne” ush- ered the era of the Western to televi- sion, as Warner Bros. (initially under Warner’s son-in-law, William T. Orr) brought a movie studio approach to the small screen. “There’s a spirit of independence and innovation that’s so much a part of the legacy of the studio,” says Warner Bros. TV chairman Channing Dungey. Other early Warner Bros. TV hits included “Maverick” and crime dramas such as “Hawaiian Eye” and “77 Sunset Strip.” That legacy continued with “The F.B.I.” and in the 1970s, sitcoms like “Alice” and “Wel- come Back, Kotter,” the Lynda Car- ter-led genre hit “Wonder Woman,” actioner “The Dukes of Hazzard” and the landmark miniseries “Roots.”

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor David Zaslav went office-furniture shopping when he moved into the executive building on the Warner Bros. lot last year. The new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery had Jack L. Warner’s large dark-wood desk pulled out of storage for his use. He also found a leather legal pad holder once clutched by another of his predecessors at the storied studio: Steven J. Ross. Zaslav wanted these totems in his sunken workspace overlooking Olive Avenue in Burbank to show the formidable legacy, in business and in popular culture, he has inherited. “I wanted them to remind me that we need to show as much courage now in leading this business as the Warner brothers did in launching it one hundred years ago,” Zaslav says. As the studio marks the centen- nial of its incorporation as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. (the official date is April 4, 1923), the company has never been more focused on using the wealth of intellectual property assets, the production expertise and the global distribution muscle built up over the past 100 years to power its second century. The vast Warner Bros. movie and TV library is the foundation of WB Discovery’s empire-building ambition to transition from traditional cable to direct-to-consumer streaming.

reported that insiders at Warner said the studio hadn’t ruled out more theatrical films and HBO Max projects for the “Harry Potter” universe, even as the “Fantastic Beasts” films came to a close.“‘Fantastic Beasts’ was always meant to be one piece of a larger plan to build the Wizarding World,” Warner Bros. domestic distribution head Jeff Goldstein told TheWrap at the time.

J. Kim Murphy Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to close a deal to produce a “Harry Potter” television series. According to Bloomberg, which was first to report news of recent talks surrounding the project, the project would be directly based on J.K. Rowling’s best-selling book series, rather than an in-universe spinoff such as the “Fantastic Beasts” film series. Each season would reportedly draw from one of the books, suggesting an ongoing franchise that would stretch for years for the studio. Sources close to the situation suggest that talks between Warner Bros. Discovery and Rowling’s camp remain in a preliminary state. The studio is looking to house the series under its streaming banner HBO Max, soon to be combined with Discovery+ and rebranded under a new name.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s been nearly three decades since Michael Mann’s crime classic hit theaters and it now feels like Mann and Warner Bros. are finally feeling more heat around the corner for a sequel to Heat. While rumors have been swirling for weeks, Deadline is hearing Warner Bros. is now in negotiations to come on to develop Heat 2, the sequel to the 1995 classic that Mann recently turned into a novel that became a New York Time #1 best-seller when it was published last August. On top of Warner Bros. in talks to return, insiders add that Adam Driver, who recently starred in Mann’s Ferrari pic, is in discussions with Mann to play young Neil McCauley in the movie.