Warner Bros Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

A classic Warner Bros. IP is headed to Netflix with a reimagening from one of the studio’s top TV producers. In a competitive situation with multiple bidders, the streamer has landed Scooby-Doo! The Live-Action Series, from Greg Berlanti‘s Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television where the company is based, sources tell Deadline.

Google is strengthening advertising ties with major media companies amid a broader push into ad-supported streaming.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The three media companies planning to launch a much-scrutinized sports streamer later this year are set to give advertisers a sneak peek at the new outlet. Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to use their new streaming joint-venture — the official name of the video hub has yet to be announced — to boost the impressions they have to sell to Madison Avenue during the industry’s annual “upfront” market, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Jessica Lange is calling out the Hollywood film industry for prioritizing profits over creativity.

Refresh for latest…: Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 has topped the half-century mark globally, now with $503.5M worldwide. Of that, $318.5M is from the international box office. Passing $500M makes KFP4, directed by Mike Mitchell (and co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine), only the fourth animated title to the benchmark since 2020, joining Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.4B) and Minions: The Rise of Gru ($943M), and Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($691M).

Brent Lang Executive Editor A pair of Warner Bros. releases have achieved some important box office milestones. “Dune: Part Two,” the acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert’s monumental sci-fi novel, has passed $700 million worldwide, while “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” the latest installment in the long-running monster franchise, eclipsed $500 million at the global box office.

Sony has pushed its reboot of Karate Kid from December 13 this year to May 30, 2025. This has created a bit of a backward domino effect but won’t rob the year of theatrical releases.

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament is back. While studios during Covid wildly embraced the theatrical day-and-date model when cinemas were closed, they soon realized there’s nothing more profitable than a theatrical release and the downstreams that come with it. If anything, theatrical is the advertisement for a movie’s longevity in subsequent home entertainment windows. Entering the conversation in 2023 were the streamers, such as Apple, who have also realized the necessity of theatrical to eventize their movies. The financial data pulled together here for Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament is culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

Kevin Spacey’s “spectacular fall from grace” is set to air on Channel 4 next month.Spacey Unmasked will feature never-before-seen interviews with multiple people who are not connected to the actor’s UK trial last year, speaking for the first time about their experiences with the actor.It will screen in the UK on May 6 and 7, and will air in the US at a later date on Max, and in several other territories through a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Discovery.Check out a trailer for the doc below:In July last year, Spacey was acquitted of all nine charges he was facing, including seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.This documentary was first announced in 2022, prior to Spacey’s acquittal.An official description of Spacey Unmasked reads: “Spacey Unmasked is a forensic look at a man who was once one of the most admired and respected actors in the world.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Pauly Shore wrote on Instagram that he was “up all night crying” after Richard Simmons continued to publicly distance himself from the biopic on his life that Shore is attached to star in. Furthermore, Simmons revealed on his social media platforms that he’s talking to film studios about making his own biopic. “I just read that a man that I don’t know is writing my bio pic starring Pauly Shore,” Simmons posted earlier this week.

Tom Cruise had another night of adventure on the set of his latest Mission: Impossible movie!

Alex Ritman A documentary about Kevin Spacey that was first announced prior to him being acquitted of multiple sexual offenses in the U.K. last year is now complete, with Variety able to reveal details, a first-look trailer, release dates and a multi-territory deal — including for the U.S. — with Warner Bros.

Almost a year after Kevin Spacey was found not guilty of sex crimes, Channel 4 and Max in the U.S. are set to air testimony from more men detailing their experiences with the double-Oscar winner.

Fathom Events will partner with Warner Bros. Pictures in bringing filmmaker Daniela Völker’s documentary The Commandant’s Shadow to theaters across the U.S. on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, with an encore presentation the following day. Screenings will be available in 500+ theaters across the Fathom network of cinemas. Tickets go on sale from today at Fathom Events and participating theater box offices. 

EXCLUSIVE: Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County) has been tapped to write and direct a new Evil Dead movie for Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures, sources tell Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: Producers Esmail Corp (Mr. Robot) and K Period Media (Manchester By The Sea) are teaming up with Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon (The Age Of Shadows) on an English and Korean-language movie adaptation of novel The Hole.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jessica Lange spoke critically of present-day Hollywood during a recent interview with Vulture, saying “there should be a law against it” when the topic came up about Warner Bros. Discovery axing already-shot movies like “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Acme” for tax write-off purposes.

Maria Menounos‘ new show “Maria: Discover More” is set to launch on ReachTV. The magazine style talk series will play daily at 2,400 gates at 90 airports and 500 thousand hotel rooms. It will cover travel, wellness, beauty, cooking, fashion, finance and entertainment.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Leanne Morgan is set to star in a multi-cam comedy series at Netflix that boasts Chuck Lorre as one of its co-creators, Variety has learned. Morgan co-created the series with Lorre and Susan McMartin. Netflix has given the untitled show a 16-episode order, while also commissioning two more stand up specials from Morgan.

After collaborating with Oprah Winfrey‘s Harpo Films and Scott Sanders Productions on Warner Bros’ The Color Purple, in which she portrayed the character of Squeak, actress and musician H.E.R. is getting back into the business with the companies on a Majorettes-inspired project for 20th Century Studios that she’ll develop, produce and topline.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Imax fans turned up in droves to see “Dune 2” on the really big screen, helping the company top analyst earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2024. Despite the sandworm bump, it was a tough compare with the year-ago period when Imax benefited from the blockbuster success of “Avatar: The Way of Water” in 2023 to deliver its highest-grossing Q1 to date.

Jack Dunn UFEG’s Make It Universal and Rotten Tomatoes have partnered to create the new “Seen on Screen” podcast hosted by Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley. The bi-weekly podcast offers a behind the scenes look into Universal productions and conversations with Universal employees about the impact of film on their lives. “Seen on Screen” also aims to demystify the interworkings of the film industry to listeners.

Apple TV+ has moved up the premiere date for Presumed Innocent, its upcoming limited series, starring and executive produced by Jake Gyllenhaal. The series, inspired by Scott Turow’s courtroom thriller, from David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV, will premiere Wednesday, June 12, , just a few days following its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9. It originally was scheduled to debut on June 14.

UPDATED, 12:50 PM: Ishana Night Shyamalan’s debut film is on the move, again. And the new date is a familiar one. Two months after Warner Bros. shuffled The Watchers back by a week to the June 14-16 Fathers Day frame, the pic is headed back to its original June 7 date.

Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse has some new investors.

Back in 2016, writer/director Shane Black (“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”) released “The Nice Guys,” a comedic two-hander that starred Ryan Gosling (“Blade Runner 2029”) and Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”) in an unlikely team-up an odd-couple pair of private eyes investigating a missing girl and the mysterious death of a porn star. However, while the film was considered a solid effort, it didn’t do gangbusters at the box office, only earning $71.2 million globally against a budget of $50 million.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) South Asia has a sizzling summer slate lined up in the kids space including a mix of anime and homegrown IP. Launching on the Indian animation-focused Pogo channel in May is new Indian IP “Jay Jagannath.” The series portrays the friendship between the Hindu God Lord Jagannath, who has taken the form of a child, Jagan, and his devout follower Balaram.

DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot will now go on Sept. 27 instead of Sept. 20.

Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” stayed atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second consecutive weekend with £1.8 million ($2.3 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The film now has a running total of £6.3 million.

Refresh for latest…: For the fourth weekend in a row, Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was the top studio movie at the global and international box office. While it’s true there have not been a whole lot of wide releases on a worldwide level since the start of the year, it’s heartening to see continued play for the big titles.