HBO drop kicks the Batman Animated Series sequel

[Kevin M.]

Bruce Timm and JJ Abrams are both going to be unhappy 

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/batman-caped-crusader-jj-abrams-hbo-max-cancel-1235347652/amp/

Several other toons also cut 

I hear that next in the block is the letter H… it’s not TV… it’s BO 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Bob Jersey]

Not that many people have enough capital to start a kids/animation-only platform willing to pay whatever licencing fees WBD will be asking for all of those properties, my guess.     B

Kevin M, Aug 22nd:

[PGage]

One of the ongoing questions about Zaz is, does he know something almost nobody else knows about how to make money by cutting content expenses, or does his inexperience in dealing with creating content render him blind to the consequences of burning so many bridges with so much talent? If you are JJ Abrams, or any of a growing pool of other creatives who has been directly back stabbed by Zaz, or really almost any

Creative who has now witnessed the betrayals, why would you ever do business with WBD again? Is it possible the future of TV is nothing but reruns of Mythbusters? 

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[David Bruggeman]

I assume, perhaps naively, that Zaz is simply trying to do the same thing we sometimes see when a company is acquired by assuming debt - a major sellout to retire the debt and the top leadership jumps ship or is let go with a precious-metal parachute.

It's not all that different from the big box stores arriving in a small to medium sized market, drive out the small local stores, and then wither away.  The value has been extracted so the company cuts their losses.

David, really feeling the late stage/end-times capitalism lately...

[PGage]

Well, he definitely is doing that in part. But he is not just stripping the new assets for parts and selling them off. My understanding is that the assumption about him is that he sees D+ as the real and ongoing way to make money in television, and that his plan is to make the new Warner acquisitions profitable or desirable, cash in for himself and fellow big investors by getting his stock price up, and then selling the Warners properties off, also for a profit. He has taken on a staggering amount of debt, way more than he can reasonably hope to recoup just in a fire sale. 

In other words, WBD as an entity seems to only make financial sense if you assume Zaz has some magic touch, or business secret, that will actually increase the value of the new properties. But the new properties seem to require different kinds of expertise and skills than the ones that made Discovery work. Austerity and financial discipline may help maintain profitable margins on shows that don’t require a lot of creative input. But what impact will it have at HBO and Warners Films?

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[Mark Jeffries]

It also seems that the only movie project that Daddy Zaslav has seemed to have brought into Warners is the Barry Levinson/Bobby DeNiro gangster flick "Wise Guys," which the GenZers and millennials who are working in animation and doing most of the bitching about Zaslav are screaming "OK Boomer." (Well, and the DC geeks, which is a subset that crosses over with the cartoon geeks.)  It's obvious that Zaslav is keeping his Discovery audience in mind, which is older because it's cable--and the Investigation Discovery viewer would be more interested in a Mafia movie than, uh, say, "Batgirl."

I'm more surprised at the cutbacks at OWN, since I thought Oprah was untouchable.  Times have changed.

Mark Jeffries

spotl...@gmail.com

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[PGage]

Exactly. Matt Belloni did a piece last week I think on how the “Wise Guys” project breaks every rule Zaz has put in place about the kinds of films he wants to make, just after giving the Shiv to Batgirl, and that Zaz gave zero fucks because it was a chance to work with and impress a bunch of his old-man Hamptons friends, and give them something to talk about over scotch and lobster at their summer barbecues. 

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