“Toby probably had a really bad weekend, not that I feel bad for him,” says one agent.Īccording to a source, Emmerich tried to soothe In the Heights director Jon M. “As if anyone would believe he had any control over the situation,” says one producer with a major Warner property. “Toby’s passion is only about managing up,” says one agent who represents major Warners talent.īy the weekend following the announcement, Emmerich was calling important filmmakers with projects set for 2022 to assure them that their movies wouldn’t be dropped on the streaming service without warning. That’s why many are focusing their wrath on Emmerich. While Kilar pays what is seen as lip service to movies, industry veterans say Warners is sacrificing the huge profit that comes from selling movies in multiple formats and on multiple platforms around the world.Įven before Warners made its play, there was grumbling among agents that Sarnoff, who has been on the job for more than a year, had yet to get acquainted with key players on the film side or make much of an impression at all. But one prominent agent notes that the top executives at WarnerMedia and its parent - AT&T CEO John Stankey, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar and, of course, Sarnoff - “don’t understand the movie business, and they don’t understand talent relations.” Many in Hollywood think WarnerMedia opted for this drastic move to play to streaming-infatuated Wall Street and redo the botched launch of HBO Max, which has netted a dismal 8.6 million “activated” subscribers so far. “Now Warners isn’t the first place, second place or third place you want to go.” What damage will be done to exhibitors by training customers that if they sit on their sofas, the biggest movies will come? And will Warners face serious backlash from important producers, filmmakers, guilds and onscreen talent? “Warners was the quintessentially talent-friendly, filmmaker-friendly studio,” says one agent. The Warners move poses big, maybe even existential questions: How do theaters survive this supposedly onetime, excused-by-the-pandemic move? Genies are hard to put back in the bottle - and no one believes Warners intended this to be temporary, anyway. (The Writers Guild of America declined to comment.) They expect and hope that the guilds will get involved. Some talent reps say the decision affects not only profit participants but others who have worked on films as the move might affect residual payments. And that swooshing sound you hear? It’s the lawyers, stropping their blades as they prepare for battle: that Warners was self-dealing in shifting these movies to its own streamer, perhaps, or that the company acted in bad faith. “Never have this many people been this upset with one entity.” Like others, he had spent much of the day dealing with calls from stunned and angry clients. “Warners has made a grave mistake,” says one top talent agent. The film is the latest from David Lowery, who directed Disney’s acclaimed “Pete’s Dragon” live-action remake a few years ago.Įlsewhere on streaming this month, Amazon Prime Video has the beloved Judy Blume documentary “Judy Blume Forever” and HBO Max is debuting the acclaimed David Bowie movie “Moonage Daydream.” Anyone looking for an easy crowd-pleaser will find it in “80 for Brady,” which streams on Paramount+ following a healthy run in theaters.Ĭheck out the best movies new to streaming in April below.The instant response in Hollywood was outrage and a massive girding for battle. While Apple TV+ hopes to court young adults with its action romance, Disney+ aims to bring families together by launching its latest live-action fairytale remake: “Peter Pan and Wendy.” Unlike the upcoming live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which is opening exclusively in theaters over Memorial Day, “Peter Pan and Wendy” is skipping theaters and debuting directly on Disney+. Can Chris Evans and Ana de Armas convince moviegoers to flock to Apple TV+ this month? The streamer is surely hoping as it prepares to launch “Ghosted,” an action comedy in which a romantic hopeful (Evans) falls for a CIA agent (Armas) and gets entangled in her latest mission.
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