Barry Reardon Dies: Former Warner Bros Theatrical Distribution Exec Behind Hits Like ‘Batman’ & ‘The Fugitive’ Was 92

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation has hired Shane Prigmore to serve as Senior Creative Advisor for the newly relaunched film unit under President Bill Damaschke. 

Ezra Miller was all smiles on the red carpet for the premiere of The Flash. The internet, not so much!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, Mediawan Kids & Family unveiled a raft of new youth-centric shows, including “Karters” and “Witch Detectives,” on top of a licensing pact with DeAPlaneta Entertainment. Spearheaded by animation veteran Julien Borde, Mediawan Kids & Family is a division of the international film and TV powerhouse Mediawan whose recent acquisitions include Brad Pitt’s Plan B. Mediawan Kids & Family is partnering up with Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA on the production and distribution of its animated series “Karters” for the linear and non-linear services of Warner Bros. Discovery. The action-packed series will premiere on Cartoonito for EMEA, and will be distributed by Mediawan Kids & Family Distribution worldwide except Latin America.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Joker” fans who are theorizing about the reported musical aspects of the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix-led sequel film finally have a little bit more clarity, thanks to star Zazie Beetz. “I think people will be surprised. I don’t think it’s going to be what they expect, around it being musical,” Beetz, who is reprising her role as Sophie Dumond for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” told Variety Monday at Chanel’s Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner in New York. “We all sort of express musically and dancing in our lives day-to-day. I think it’s going to work really well.” Todd Phillips returns to the director’s chair for the “Joker” sequel, which is rumored to take place prominently in Arkham Asylum.

Naman Ramachandran Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” led the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second consecutive weekend with £4 million ($5.1 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The web-slinging animation now has a total of £16.2 million. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts” debuted in second place with a healthy £2.9 million. In its third weekend, in second position, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” collected £2.1 million for a total of £19.9 million. In fourth place, another Disney title, “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3” earned £511,837 in its sixth weekend for a total of £35.5 million. Rounding off the top five in its fourth weekend was Universal’s “Fast X” with £475,640 and a total of £14.2 million.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent British actors Julia Ormond (“Ladies in Black”) and Lydia Page (“Blue Jean”) are set to soon appear in psychological horror movie “Home Education” directed by Italy’s Andrea Niada. Set in the scenic Sila plateau in Italy’s Southern Calabria region, “Home Education” revolves around a family that are followers of an esoteric cult and live in a secluded house deep in the woods. Warner Bros Entertainment Italia, Italy’s Indiana Production and BlackBox Multimedia are producing with support from the Calabria Film Commission. Germany’s SquareOne Productions is handling international sales. Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film in Italian theaters.

Ezra Miller is speaking out in public for the first time since August 2022.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Ezra Miller made a public showing for the first time in nearly two years on Monday night, attending the Los Angeles premiere of DC Studios’ “The Flash.” The embattled actor spoke openly about misconduct allegations levied against them and various legal woes, addressing fans and many industry players at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Miller, who is non-binary and uses they and them pronouns, made a big show of acknowledging Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Film Group heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy and DC Studios stewards James Gunn and Peter Safran for “your grace and discernment and care in the context of my life. And in bringing this moment to fruition.”

Warner Bros. held the premiere for the long-awaited DC spinoff The Flash today in Hollywood with its star Ezra Miller, who has been the subject of several tabloid headlines from alleged assaults in Hawaii to unlawful trespassing at a neighbor’s house in Vermont, making their red carpet debut since such incidents.

hinted to return for an additional season “or two” by DC head James Gunn, who said in January that “it’s a show everybody likes, so it’s gonna keep going for a little bit.”Starring Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent and Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane, the third installment of the superhero series will be produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

J. Kim Murphy It’s curtains for “Gotham Knights” at The CW. The network will not move forward with a second season of the DC Comics series, Variety has learned. The series was absent from a statement of upcoming programming from the CW, which announced renewals for both “Superman & Lois” and “All American: Homecoming” for the 2023-2024 broadcast season. The news about “Gotham Knights” comes more than two weeks ahead of the date that the series is slated to air what would now be its series finale. The program premiered on March 4 and was set to conclude its 13-episode season on June 27.

The CW has canceled Gotham Knights after one season.

The CW has renewed Superman and Lois for a 10-episode fourth season, following months of negotiations. The series was one of three shows on the network in collaboration with Warner Bros. pending renewal alongside All American: Homecoming and Gotham Knights.

The CW has renewed All American spinoff All American: Homecoming for a third season. As has been the case with most renewals of existing scripted CW series, Homecoming was picked up for 13 episodes.

Amazon Freevee has teamed with MGM and Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal to add 23 FAST Channels.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” PremiereRegency Village Theatre, WestwoodThe Spider-verse opened a portal into Westwood for the world premiere of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the long-awaited sequel to the 2018 smash hit film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” and the stars celebrated. The actors who were delighted to have returned to the next ultra-cool vision of Spidey from the minds of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Kaluuya and recent Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry.Hailee Steinfeld, who reprises her role as Spider Gwen in the animated movie, slayed the red carpet at the Regency Village Theatre by wearing a complete ensemble from Bally’s spring 2023 collection.

Selome Hailu Titled “Double Fantasy,” Episode 2 of “The Idol” brought in 800,000 viewers across HBO and Max on Sunday night. This marks a 12% dip from the 913,000 viewers who tuned in to last week’s series premiere. Reported by Warner Bros. Discovery, these figures represent a combination of Nielsen’s measurement of linear viewing on HBO’s cable channel as well as WBD’s own data regarding streams on Max. According to WBD, streaming of the episode through Sunday night was “nearly even” with that of the week before, meaning that the decrease in viewership happened largely on cable. Nielsen data shows that approximately 232,000 viewers watched Episode 1 on cable the night of its premiere, meaning that some 681,000 viewers streamed the episode. Therefore, if streaming remained even for Episode 2, it can be estimated that around 119,000 viewers watched it on cable.

,” “ABC News Live”), sports (“NHL FAST,” “MLB,” “PGA Tour”), and music (“Vevo,” “XITE”). The company also secured 10 channels from Lionsgate.

Rotten Tomatoes. “Rise of the Beasts” will need that audience buzz as it faces competition for the 18-34 demographic — which made up 54% of its opening day audience — from Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” next weekend.

Paramount/Skydance’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is in a tight race with Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” for No. 1 at the box office, with both films expected to earn over $55 million domestically this weekend. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” currently has a slight edge, topping”Spider-Verse” on Friday with a $25.4 million opening day from 3,678 theaters.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group has signed a first-look deal with London and LA-based Locksmith Animation to develop and produce animated features for worldwide distribution.

EXCLUSIVE: As the Annecy International Animation Film Festival begins to get underway this weekend, newly hired Warner Bros. Animation President Bill Damaschke has announced a rebranding of the motion picture division with a focus on filmmakers.

Amy Schumer has revealed the real reason why she left the Barbie movie – and it’s not what they told us at the time. While playing Plead the Fifth on “Watch What Happens Live,” the comedian admitted that she didn’t drop out due to scheduling conflicts, but creative differences.“I think it was scheduling conflicts,” Schumer said. “That’s what we said.

The day after New York-based pickets were canceled for the week because of smoke, the gathering at Warner Bros. in Los Angeles was a bit smaller on Thursday, with less than 50 people gathering in support of the WGA strike.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Paul Walter Hauser has made hamburgers the latest red carpet accessory.The actor has found himself making the rounds lately thanks to his stunning turn as serial killer Larry Hall in Apple TV Plus’ limited series “Black Bird,” a role that has already netted him a SAG Award nomination and wins from the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards. After Jamie Lee Curtis asked him to bring her a burger to the next event, Hauser showed up at the Critics Choice Awards with a patty – only to learn Curtis couldn’t attend due to COVID. He later proposed to her with a smashburger at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards and brought 20 burgers to the SAG Awards, where he handed them out to the likes of Adam Sandler. When Hauser’s name was called amongst the nominees in his category, he perfectly timed a blissful bite on camera.So when Hauser joined us as a guest on this week’s episode of the Variety Awards Circuit podcast, we wanted to get his opinion on one of our favorite hamburgers in town, from the Corner Deli – which is located inside a gas station next to our offices. Listen below for his full review.

Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby has landed another series order at HBO – a crime drama starring Mark Ruffalo.

Japanese genre auteur Takashi Miike is notorious for taking his cinema to extreme limits, whether that’s in terms of violence or sexual depravity. And over a career that spans three decades, he’s directed some classics: “Audition,” “Ichi The Killer,” the “Dead Or Alive” trilogy, and “Hara-Kiri,” just to name a few.

EXCLUSIVE: Following months of going through dozens of audition tapes, Warner Bros and DC Films look to be getting closer to finding the stars of their Superman: Legacy movie as a second round of testing looks to be imminent.

Podcrushed” podcast. “I felt very small.

In the wake of world premiering in Cannes to lackluster film reviews at 50% Rotten, Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is currently looking at a $60M+ domestic opening.

The group of executives who are leading CNN on an interim basis made their first comments to staffers on Thursday, vowing to make “this period as smooth as possible.”

Chris Licht released a statement following his exit from CNN on Wednesday.

Chris Licht’s ouster as CEO at CNN, Joe Scarborough argued that Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav should have kept Licht on for the full term of his two-year-contract. “Zaslav gave Chris two years; I wish Chris had been given the two years Zaslav promised him,” Scarborough told The New York Times.

The day that SAG-AFTRA began its talks with Hollywood studios over its own film and TV contract with a strike authorization in hand, picketing Writers Guild members on Wednesday hit up Disney and Warner Bros in Burbank.

Top leaders of CNN’s PR team that oversaw The Atlantic’s disastrous profile of Chris Licht have been fired, TheWrap has confirmed. EVP and global head of communications and marketing Kris Coratti Kelly and head of strategic communications Matt Dornic were among those ousted.According to a source familiar with the decision, the network began cleaning out its communications team Wednesday, just hours after the embattled CEO exited amid plunging ratings and growing discontent within his news staff. The news comes following Licht’s firing on Wednesday.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic The departure of CNN’s Chris Licht, following his turbulent year atop the cable news network, places a pause on one of the great media stories of the decade so far. But even non-media-junkies can appreciate just how strange and how strenuously rocking had been Licht’s time at the network: It played out across screens. The trouble with being the place that invented the 24-hour news cycle is that those hours can come back to bite when you’re the story. There it was in politics, when Donald Trump’s “Town Hall,” with purported rising star Kaitlan Collins, gear-shifted into the first televised rally of the 2024 presidential cycle — with CNN’s air being used to depict an audience of Trump supporters cheering on his jibes. (No less an eminence than Christiane Amanpour, a CNN icon, registered her dissent in public.) There it was on the business pages, with Licht’s overseeing the dismantling of streaming product CNN+, on orders from Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav, setting the tone for his tenure. There it was at the Oscars, when Michelle Yeoh used her best actress acceptance speech to rebuke anchor Don Lemon’s bizarre on-air comments about a woman’s “prime” years. There it was in the gossip pages, after a Variety story about Lemon’s comportment toward his female co-anchors on the network’s flagship morning show, and then his ouster, leaked into the tabloids, and never seemed to be countered by any good news about the network. And, finally, there it was at length, with an all-access profile by the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta revealing Licht’s contempt for predecessor Jeff Zucker and the depths of his disdain for and, frankly, confusion about CNN’s mission.