Warner Bros. Earthquake: Our All-Angles Coverage
Plus: Reality TV’s new brand dollar deals; the AI CEO standing up for IP
Our own Richard Rushfield sounded the alarm early, often and largely, alone on the dangers of the potential disappearance of Warner Bros. for these past several weeks. This week, after David Zaslav made it official that WBD is for sale, finally, the rest of media jumped into the fray.
From Friday’s New York Times (and also on the front page of the business section of today’s print edition):
And following Richard’s column this week that questioned why the unions (or really anyone) had not spoken up…
…came this headline:
Sean McNulty and Lesley Goldberg also presented two very, very smart must-reads on what increasingly looks like (for now) the strongest potential outcome: Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison winning WBD:
So why are Saudis and Comcast and others vying over WB? It’s synonymous with best-in-class library and quality in an age of internet sludge. Last Saturday at the Montclair (N.J.) Film Festival, Richard, Sean, Christopher Rosen and I helped celebrate a key architect of Warners’ record 2025 box office run — superstar film studio co-CEO Pam Abdy, a New Jersey native who picked up the festival’s first-ever Visionary Award — at an intimate private dinner with Stephen Colbert and Evelyn McGee Colbert, Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy, writer-director Richard LaGravenese and Anchorage Capital’s Kevin Ulrich. Abdy has risen to Hollywood’s top echelon on the strength of her passion, grit, stellar taste in originals and smart IP choices — I’ll drink to that cocktail any day.
Now, ICYMI, here’s more of our best of the week:
Series Business: Brand ‘Salvation’ for Budgets
In the “Skip Ad” era, unscripted producers including Pantheon’s Jennifer O’Connell and Hello Sunshine alum Sara Rea tell Elaine Low how brand funding is helping budgets cross the finish line and into a greenlight — “It’s an answer to our prayers”:
Reel AI: Tech CEO’s Pitch for IP Safety
Backed by CAA and Comcast Ventures, Bryn Mooser and co-founder Natasha Lyonne’s Asteria has an AI video model built to safeguard IP in an era of copyright chaos. Mooser tells Erik Barmack why he has hope for entertainment’s future, if Hollywood fights for it:
Richard Rushfield: The Boss’ Clarion Call
With Warners’ fate in the hands of the markets and the moguls, a night out with the still-defiant Bruce Springsteen — not to mention a social media video from Sen. Elizabeth Warren about the risks of more studio consolidation — left Richard inspired but also wondering: Where have all the Hollywood loudmouths gone?
Notable: TV Tracks That Pop
If you’re spending this weekend binging Nobody Wants This on Netflix, you’ve no doubt clocked the sophomore season’s soundtrack of original cuts from the likes of Role Model to Selena Gomez. Rob LeDonne looks at how Nobody Wants This and Amazon Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty are turning curated playlists into chart-toppers:
Prestige Junkie: Awards Buzz Accelerates
While much of Team Ankler was celebrating film in Montclair, Katey Rich was in her own idyllic cinephile paradise: Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia. Katey reports from the ground on the success of Frankenstein and Hamnet and talks to Nouvelle Vague star Zoey Deutch. Plus: What the Prestige Junkie pundits make of the best picture race now:
The Wakeup
Not even knee surgery could keep Sean away from the biggest story of the week — and possibly the whole year. He assessed potential suitors for WBD and also dove into why Netflix has such a tough time launching animated movies not named KPop Demon Hunters:
Our Shows
Monday Morning QBs: Our box office buds found a silver lining in the failure of Amazon MGM’s After the Hunt and bemoaned the difficulty of getting comedies off the ground:
Rushfield Lunch: Franklin Leonard, the first return guest in the history of the franchise, offered his take on the WBD sale and suggested that some (slight) measure of optimism may be warranted if Paramount ultimately prevails:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
Emergency pod! Elaine, Sean and Natalie Jarvey break down which suitors make sense, whether a Paramount-Warner Bros. mashup would add up to the rival Netflix has never had and which WBD assets are most enticing, fantasy-draft style.
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