HBO Max Insider Says "No Projects Are Completely Safe" From Cancellation
Since the Warner Brothers Discovery merger closed earlier this year, the conglomerate has been canceling movies and television shows week after week in an effort to consolidate the two businesses. Earlier this month, the David Zaslav-led company sent Batgirl to the chopping block, despite the film having already completed principal photography. Though it's been said shows like Peacemaker and even the long-gestating Green Lantern Corps series were safe, one new insider says anything at studio can be axed at a moment's notice.
"Those shows are safe as of right now," one HBO Max source recently told Deadline. "But no projects are completely safe. Everything's being evaluated. They're going to be looking at them all, everything's being driven by finance right now so just because it's safe today, doesn't mean they don't take another look and say 'Maybe the tax write off would be better.'"
Shortly after the Batgirl news broke, Warner Brothers Discovery laid off roughly 14-percent of the workforce at HBO Max given the news the platform will eventually merge with Discovery+.
"Our ambition is to bring Warners back and to produce great high quality films, and as we look at the opportunities that we have broadly, DC is one of the top of the list for us," Zaslav explained during the company's Q2 earnings call earlier this month. "You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman — these are brands that are known everywhere in the world. The ability to drive those all over the world with great story is a big opportunity for us."
The executive went on to say that DC is one of the company's biggest pieces of IP, and that it was currently undergoing a reset to shape DC Films into a formidable competitor to Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"We have done a reset. We've restructured the business. We're going to focus. There will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC. It's very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and and Bob Iger put together, very effectively, with Kevin Feige at Disney. We think that we could build a long-term much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC," Zaslav added.
He concluded, "And as part of that, we're going to focus on quality. We're not going to release any film before it's ready. We're not going to release a film to make quarter. The focus is going to be — how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible? DC is something that we think we could make better, and we're focused on it now. We have some great DC films coming up — Black Adam, Shazam!, and The Flash. We're working on all of those. we're very excited about them."