HBO Has a Comedy About Superhero Movie-Making in the Works
HBO has greenlit the pilot for The Franchise, a half-hour comedy about making superhero movies. The pilot comes from Veep and Avenue 5 creator Armando Iannucci and former James Bond director Sam Mendes. The premise for the pilot says, "It follows a hopeful crew trapped inside the dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero movie-making. If and when they finally make the day, the question they must face — is this Hollywood's new dawn or cinema's last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?" Iannucci will be an executive producer on the series for his Dundee Productions banner. Mendes will also be an executive producer for his own company, Neal Street Productions.
Mendes will direct. Joe Brown, who has worked on Avenue 5 and Succession for HBO, will write and serve as an executive producer. Marina Hyde, a columnist for The Guardian, is also aboard as a writer and executive producer with Keith Akushie, a co-executive producer and writer on Avenue 5's second season. Additional executive producers include Neal Street's Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown, and Julie Pastor. Brown and Akushie wrote the pilot's script based on a story they conceived with Iannucci.
Iannucci made his comic book writing debut earlier this year with a story in Marvel Comics' Amazing Fantasy #1000, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Spider-Man's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15. Mendes had been approached about directing the first Avengers movie for Marvel, a job that ultimately went to Joss Whedon. The Franchise announcement has some odd, almost humorous timing. HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery recently canceled its Batgirl movie and other DC-branded projects, with CEO David Zaslav assuring shareholders that he's seeking a 10-year plan for the DC superhero film franchise.
"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. "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. 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. 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."
