A View to a Kilar

AT&T's era ends in a whimper and big WTF

Kilar. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Duran Duran, it seems, captured the spirit of the era in their Bond song, 30 years ago:

Meeting you with a view to a Kilar
Face to face in secret places, feel the chill-ar.

Nightfall covers me, but you know the plans I'm making
Still overseas, could it be the whole Earth opening wide
A sacred why, a mystery gaping inside
The weekend is why, until we

Dance into the fire
That fatal kiss is all we need
Dance into the fire
To fatal sounds of broken dreams
Dance into the fire
That fatal kiss is all we need
Dance into the fire

When all we see is the view to a Kilar.

And thus ends one of the briefest, but most consequential eras in the ever-evolving journey through the multiverse of Warner Bros. studio and affiliated companies.

But will it even be the most consequential? Or will we just look back at the Kilar Era, and Operation Popcorn, like we do the Apollo missions — an amazing thing we once did because we could, before we decided it was too expensive to keep doing it and got bored and started doing other, less big things.

It all depends what comes next, and on that subject, after the grand Zaslav pronouncements, we have only question marks as far as the eye can see.

But if the Warners future is cloudy, there's plenty we can say about the Warners’ past. Plen-ty. Let's have at it why don't we.