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Bad Robot Productions WB first refusal deal
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Bad Robot has had its hand in the rebirth and/or continued success of the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible franchises. And in an industry that can never get enough multifaceted tentpole franchises- ones where you could conceivably generate revenue through films, TV series, video games, and action figures- Bad Robot has a pretty great track record.

 

And their success is not limited to the big screen, as Abrams came from TV and continues to use his production shingle to create quality shows like Westworld and Castle Rock for HBO and Hulu, respectively.

 

Warner Bros. is preparing to launch their own WarnerMedia streaming service, so you’d better believe they’ve had Bad Robot’s stellar body of work on their mind, since the key to surviving in this crowded entertainment marketplace will be exclusive content.

 

That’s what makes today’s news so big: According to The Hollywood Reporter, WarnerMedia is now in final talks to secure Bad Robot’s services, in a deal said to be worth $500 million. The deal would find Abrams and Bad Robot creating and developing projects across WarnerMedia’s film, TV, and digital platforms. And according to THR’s sources, the process of migrating the production shingle’s feature film deal over to the Warners is already under way.

 

It should be noted that this doesn’t necessarily mean that Warner Bros. has exclusive rights to anything Abrams produces these next few years. After all, Abrams produced and directed both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for Disney while technically being the property of Paramount Pictures. So exceptions can always be made if someone were to want to “rent” J.J. for something, and is willing to pay the fees associated with doing so.

There is industry talk some of the recent WB housecleaning of executives has been clearing the way for this deal. Though no set franchise commitments have been announced yet since the deal has to be finalized.

Edited by Bosco685
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9 minutes ago, The Brain said:

Do you think this is a good fit for both???

That's what will be interesting.

With the firing of WB Chairman & CEO Kevin Tsujihara, who talked a great game in 2013 how he was going to turn around the WB/DC film properties and then didn't, the road ahead is a little more clear. But how this works into engaging with Walter Hamada as the current head of the DCU films would need to be worked out.

I'm sure Abrams made it clear to commit Bad Robot to such a partnership he had to have control of his properties to a certain level. Cough-cough -Superman - cough. :wishluck:

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Once upon a time, a young JJ Abrams had penned a -script for Warner Brothers under the working title of Superman: Flyby. In a team before properties like Mission Impossible III or Lost ended up changing his career, Warner Bros. ultimately decided to pass on the project, which was first handed in as early as July 2002. Fast forward nearly 20 years later and the shelved film is back in the limelight thanks to newly-surfaced storyboards from the development phase.

 

Shared by (at the time) storyboard artist Peter Ramsey — who was one of the three directors on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — the artwork shows just about what you'd expect from a Superman film: Kal-El zooming around cities and the world.

In a weird twist of fate, Abrams' production company Bad Robot is reportedly closing in on a massive deal with Warner Brothers, which has lead some to speculate that the fan-favorite filmmaker could end up being an architect for the studio's fledgling DC Extended Universe. On this week's Fatman Beyond podcast with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, the latter pointed out Abrams' impending deal.

 

“Suddenly you have J.J. Abrams, the foundry of remaking IP, of overseeing massive universes of characters, and Warner Brothers, who currently has nobody overseeing the DC Universe... that is just conjecture, but it would not surprise me one whit if it was like, ‘Hey man, you know who’s awesome at doing his thing? That guy. You know what we have that needs doing? Those guys,’” Bernardin said. “And he’d be fantastic.”

 

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It’s done! JJ Abrams and his Bad Robot have closed a five-year deal for him to keep his TV business and move his film business under the WarnerMedia umbrella. The wide-ranging pact, which runs through 2024, also includes games and digital content.

 

The JJ Abrams Sweepstakes started last fall, with a number of media congloms vying for his services in an all-encompassing deal expected to reach as much as $500 million. By June, WarnerMedia emerged as a front-runner thanks largely to the shorthand he had developed with the Warner Bros TV team over the past 13 years, and a massive financial commitment by parent WarnerMedia. It took a couple of more months to seal the deal, largely over intricacies involving ending Abrams’ Paramount Pictures movie pact. Under his exit agreement, Bad Robot will honor existing Paramount obligations.

 

In 2018, Bad Robot formed a video game development division Bad Robot Games, in association with Tencent and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and the companies will continue to work together on the creation of new large and indie consumer games for mobile, PC and console.

 

It had done down to WarnerMedia and Apple, with the traditional media company having the upper hand over tech giant, a comparative newcomer in the content creation game. In addition to the two, Abrams and his team had engaged with Comcast/NBCUniversal and Sony, with talks slowing down after Abrams, along with 7,000 other WGA members, in April fired his agents at CAA in all areas except directing.

 

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Mega-producer JJ Abrams has officially moved the entirety of his Bad Robot production studio to WarnerMedia. Despite being offered a reported record-breaking $500 million by Apple, Abrams ultimately decided to side with Warner for just half the amount. According to new reports from THR, Abrams and Katie McGrath — his wife and business partner in Bad Robot — were impressed with the company's "deep bench" of properties.

 

Though it's far from confirmation, we'd be remiss to not speculate about the A-list filmmaker getting his feet wet with the Warner-owned DC Comics character. Other franchises owned by Warner include Lord of the Rings, Austin Powers, Final Destination, Mortal Kombat, and The Conjuring universe. On top of that, the conglomerate also owns the whole family of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim properties.

 

While meeting with Apple, the latest reports reveal the Cupertino-based company wanted Bad Robot under an exclusive deal, hence the hefty price tag. That'd mean not only would Bad Robot essentially have to strictly make content for Apple's new Apple TV+, but he'd be unable to do any outside deals such as directing any further Star Wars properties or shopping new television shows to third-party networks.

 

Then, there's the relationship Bad Robot already had with WarnerMedia. Warner's television arm was already home to a first-look deal for Bad Robot's television properties, meaning this new overall deal will combine the production studio's film and television sides at one broadcast partner. Bad Robot's film deal had previously been with Paramount.

Superman or Green Lantern Corps, please. Or both! :wishluck: :wishluck:

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The Stars Wars Force Awakens and Bad Robot boss took the stage at Warner Bros. Stage 21 to give praise to his new home, telling the crowd here that he’s in talks with HBO Max on a number of projects. Abrams didn’t unveil many details, but expressed excitement about getting his epic sci-fi fantasy drama Demimonde, off the ground as a pilot with HBO. Series is described as centering around a world’s battle against a monstrous, oppressive force.

 

“(AT&T President and WarnerMedia CEO) John Stankey blew us away with the ambition of what AT&T could do,” beamed Abrams about why he landed Bad Robot with the conglom in a half billion dollar deal after being courted by such studios as Comcast Universal, Sony and Apple.

 

“Every company is a just a collection of people, and the people here are as good as it gets” said Abrams.

 

“He makes me call him Mr Stankey,” quipped the director of the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. 

 

“I can’t say enough good things about Ann Sarnoff, Toby Emmerich, Bob Greenblatt, Peter Roth and Casey Bloys,” said Abrams who already has Westworld on the premium network and has the upcoming Jordan Peele Monkeypaw production Lovecraft Country which showed a trailer today. Set in the Jim Crow South with an American Horror Story like vibe, series stars Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Courtney B. Vance .

 
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The studio has less clarity on what to do with Superman, a character who has now been rebooted two different times in the last 13 years, once with Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”) and later with Henry Cavill (“Man of Steel”) without landing on a winning strategy. Superman has also appeared frequently on television, in shows such as “Lois and Clark” and “Smallville,” which has led to some fears at Warners that the market could be over-saturated with hot takes on all things Clark Kent.

 

To help find a way to make Superman relevant to modern audiences, studio brass has been polling lots of high-profile talent. There have been discussions with J.J. Abrams, whose company Bad Robot recently signed a massive first-look deal with the studio, and there was a meeting with Michael B. Jordan earlier this year with the “Creed” star pitching Warners on a vision for the character. However, Jordan isn’t ready to commit to taking on the project since filming doesn’t seem likely to happen for several years and he has a full dance card of projects. Insiders think that a new Superman film is unlikely to hit screens before 2023, given that there’s no -script and no director attached.

 

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I read about the Jordan discussion. I'm just not okay with a Prime-Earth Black Superman. Elseworlds? I'd be okay with that. Woke Superman just doesn't feel right to me, though.

DC has good black characters to pull from already. John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, Cyborg, Black Lightning, etc. 2 of those guys are Grade-A Justice League members, too.

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J.J. Abrams has set his first three series at HBO Max.

 

WarnerMedia's forthcoming streaming service has handed out straight-to-series orders for Duster, The Shining offshoot Overlook and what is described as a "major" show based on DC Comics characters in the Justice League Dark universe. All three shows will be exec produced by Abrams and his wife and Bad Robot partner, Katie McGrath, and Warner Bros. TV Group.

Duster will be co-written by Abrams and LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead, Parenthood, Shameless), and was conceived by the former. It is set in the 1970s Southwest and revolves around the life of a gutsy getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate who goes from awful to wildly, stupidly, dangerously awful. 

 

Overlook, a spinoff of sorts based on the iconic hotel featured in Stephen King's 1977 novel and subsequent 1980 feature The Shining, features iconic characters from the horror thriller. It explores the untold, terrifying stories of the most famous haunted hotel in American fiction. The project reunites Bad Robot, King and Warner Bros. TV following Hulu anthology Castle Rock. The 10-episode drama, sources say, is being written and exec produced by Dustin Thomason and Scott Brown, who both previously worked on Castle Rock. The series has, per sources, also opened a mini writers room to get a jump on scripts during the industry-wide production shutdown.

 

The third show is an untitled drama based on characters in the so-called Justice League Dark universe, details of which are being kept under wraps. JLD debuted in DC Comics in 2011 and is a team featuring magic-based characters such as Zatanna, Deadman, Swamp Thing and John Constantine. Over the years, Warners has attempted to get a big-screen version of the ground with filmmaker such as Doug Liman and Guillermo Del Toro coming and going. Warners-backed streamer DC Universe also had a short-lived drama series based on Swamp Thing and produced a Constantine TV series for NBC with the character ultimately folded into The CW's Arrow-verse. (The fate of DC Universe as a home for scripted originals remains murky at best.)

 

"What an amazing start to our association with the wildly imaginative Bad Robot team under J.J. and Katie," said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max. "What could be better than an original J.J. idea and then Warner Bros. letting them loose on iconic IP from Stephen King and the DC Universe and to provide more must-have programming on HBO Max." 

 

Edited by Bosco685
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Deadline has confirmed that Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Superman reboot feature for Warner Bros and DC, which J.J. Abrams is producing under his Bad Robot label.

 

Hannah Minghella will serve as producer. No plot yet and no attachments despite the fact that we’ve heard how Henry Cavill is eager to get back into the cape.

 

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The Snyderverse is over. Zack Snyder's vision for the DC Cinematic Universe has seemingly come to an end with the Snyder Cut – now, Warner Bros. and DC are reportedly putting their faith in Star Wars rebooter J.J. Abrams.

 

A new report from The Hollywood Reporter reveals new details about the upcoming Superman adaptation, including that Warner Bros. has already met with various directors to helm the Ta-Nehisi Coates-penned -script. Abrams will serve as a producer on the movie, with no intention of directing. 

 

The report adds that the new Superman movie is key to the studio's future DC plans, and is looking to the upcoming The Flash movie to open up the multiverse. THR adds that Zack Snyder's Justice League was the SnyderVerse's "last hurrah" and that only hand-picked stars will remain: they are Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), and Ezra Miller (The Flash).

 

It appears that Abrams is seen to have "the largest footprint" at DC, with the filmmaker having inked a $500 million deal with WarnerMedia back in September 2019. As well as producing the next Superman movie, Abrams will oversee the Justice League Dark Universe which will span both movies and TV. The report says that one of the rumored projects is a Constantine reboot for HBO Max.

 

While some may be skeptical of Abrams following the response to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, there's no denying the director is an excellent world-builder, having helped steer the successful Star Trek, Cloverfield, and Mission: Impossible universes, as well as executive produce the excellent Lovecraft Country with Jordan Peele. Other production credits include Lost, Westworld, and Fringe.

 

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