‘The Penguin’ and ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Will Be Branded HBO (Instead of Max) Originals After All, After Some Crafty Dealmaking
variety.comMichael Schneider Variety Editor at Large When Variety broke the news last month that HBO and Max content CEO Casey Bloys had changed the delineation between what an “HBO show” and a “Max show” is, there was an asterisk attached.
Max’s big-budget, tentpole Warner Bros. IP projects like the “Harry Potter” TV show, the “It” prequel series “Welcome to Derry” and the Green Lantern adaptation “Lanterns” — were moving to under the HBO umbrella, but those coming before 2025 would not.
Here was the rub, much to Bloys’ chagrin: The two shows premiering this fall that had inspired Bloys to change his tune, “The Penguin” and “Dune: Prophecy,” couldn’t contractually make the switch.
The shows had already been sold to international outlets as Max Originals, and those kinds of complicated deals are hard to unwind and revise. “ ‘The Penguin’ would be an obvious fit as an HBO Original.
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