The Big Five of Hollywood has an accident again, and this time it is Warner.
First of all, let’s clarify the relationship. The company we often talk about is called Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., which is a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, and WarnerMedia is owned by the American communications giant AT&T.
Last year, AT&T threw out WarnerMedia to take over due to too much debt (more than $180 billion), and Discovery Channel in the United States took over the stall.
After a year, the merger and reorganization was finally successfully completed at a price of 43 billion US dollars not long ago. The full name of the newly restructured company is “Warner Bros. Discovery”.
However, although WarnerMedia’s business is basically taken over by Discovery Channel, AT&T still maintains 71% of the shares, and Discovery Channel is 29%.
For this reorganization, there are many aspects involved, but the most interesting is the planning for DC superheroes.
As we all know, DC, as a giant of American comics called Marvel, has not developed very well over the years.
Seeing that the movie box office of more than 1 billion or 2 billion yuan is making a lot of money next door, he can only always talk about the so-called depth and darkness.
But everyone knows that film companies are businessmen, and they want to make money. High ratings and low box office are occasionally okay. If this is the case all the time, it is impossible for the management to be satisfied.
Due to the many magical operations of the Warner executives before the reorganization, plus the various methods and problems of some directors, the DC universe has been in a state of half-dead.
In fact, because the films are very weakly connected to each other, and there are many films with independent worldviews, after the “Justice League”, the so-called DC universe has long existed in name only.
However, with the changes in the external environment and the changes in the top management after the reorganization of Warner and Discovery Channel, the situation began to change.
Or to put it bluntly, DC seems to have a chance to turn over.
First of all, it is the problem encountered by the biggest rival Marvel.
Although it is said that the hope of success cannot be pinned on the opponent’s mistakes, objectively speaking, the Marvel Universe has indeed encountered a bottleneck.
Since “Avengers: Endgame”, most of the films have not been very good, either with high ratings and low box office, or with average results, they can only be compared with the old films in the first stage.
Some children’s shoes may say, isn’t that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” very bright at the box office? More than 1.8 billion US dollars in the world, this achievement has not been released in the mainland.
However, the problem is that everyone knows that this result can only be obtained by playing three generations of Spider-Man in the same frame. But this kind of emotional card cannot be copied. How many times can you play it?
Secondly, the biggest problem of Marvel is that it has now started to get involved in all kinds of things, and has lost the direction of simply shooting popcorn commercial movies.
Various elements of political correctness, showing loyalty, and how love comes. These can be said to be all hidden dangers, and in fact, it has also banned its films from being released in some markets.
In this case, as Marvel’s opponent DC, it is relatively honest.
In terms of timing, this is a good opportunity for DC to launch an offensive (of course the timing is right, but it does not mean that the actual operation will definitely get satisfactory results)
After the reorganization of Warner and Discovery Channel, after large-scale layoffs and changes, some senior executives were dismissed or resigned, while others continued to stay due to contractual reasons. As for the current leader, David Zaslav is the CEO.
Speaking of this David Zaslav is very interesting. As early as when the merger between Warner and Discovery Channel was still in progress, he has been paying attention to DC’s superheroes, and he has also made a lot of plans.
Of particular interest is the character Superman.
As we all know, before the reorganization, Warner’s project planning for Superman was a mess.
First of all, the superman actor, Henry Cavill, who was in his prime, was discarded by DC. There isn’t any movie planning for him, not even a cameo.
The Superman movie project is to replace the original Superman with a black man, changing the ethnicity in order to be politically correct.
At the same time, I plan to develop a TV series about a black superman (this black superman is a character that exists in the original work, not the same person as the white superman), obviously I want to have both hands.
The original White Superman, there is only one “Superman & Lois” TV series left.
David Zaslav can be said to be very dissatisfied with these previous operations of Warner.
David Zaslav believes that this kind of behavior that does not allow the Superman project to occupy a larger proportion of DC’s planning is simply a waste of Superman’s potential as a hero.
He thinks that a highly popular character like Superman, because the foundation is there, but the character is too old-fashioned, it is necessary to add more vitality to him to ensure the popularity.
Just like Batman’s popularity has always been very high, so he has to launch his related works, there is no such thing as saying that he is very popular and so put it aside.
On the other hand, when Henry Cavill was interviewed, he still said that Superman’s suit was in his closet and he could wear it at any time, or that he had been waiting to wear this dark blue with s on the chest again. color battle uniform.
It is important to know that these words of Henry Cavill are not scene words. In many interviews, he has publicly expressed his opinions and views on the direction of Superman’s next movie.
For example, he hopes that Superman can maintain a sunny style like the comics, with positive energy as the keynote, instead of always turning black at every turn.
It can be seen from these that Henry Cavill does have a certain understanding of the role of Superman, rather than saying that the movie is finished.
At the same time, Henry Cavill also expressed that he is very welcome to contact him at any time by Warner Bros. Exploration. In fact, the new CEO David Zaslav also knows that Henry Cavill has been preparing.
In addition, directors including Matthew Vaughn have also expressed that they hope to shoot a superman movie with a sunshine tone. It can be said that if this project is really established, there is no need to worry about no director taking over.
Of course, with that being said, how the follow-up will develop depends on how the reorganized Warner Bros. Exploration will operate, but David Zaslav’s own planning for the DC universe is not limited to this.
After the company was restructured, David Zaslav was acutely aware of the biggest key to the success of Marvel next door.
What’s the point? It’s a man, his name is Kevin Feige.
As a genius in Hollywood, Kevin Feige not only has deep knowledge of film operation and operation, but also is very proficient in Marvel comics. He knows how to extract the most suitable elements of the original work to appear on the screen and integrate them together.
In layman’s terms, Kevin Feige is the top brand strategist in Hollywood and the most suitable to be the helm of a movie universe. David Zaslav believes that the DC universe lacks such a qualified leader.
Speaking of which, some people may think that it’s okay to call the former Zack Snyder back? He was also once at the helm of the DC Universe.
However, the DC Universe during Zack Snyder’s time was actually not that good, and the films did poorly at the box office.
“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” was even selected for the Golden Raspberry Bad Film Award, and is the only film in the history of Northern America that is less than twice as good after over 100 million drawings.
In fact, David Zaslav is looking for other candidates, including Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Studios executives and filmmakers.
In addition to the project, the helmsman also needs to coordinate the relationship between the various departments to ensure that the filming runs smoothly instead of fighting each other.
David Zaslav’s purpose is clearly to create consistency in the DC brand, but it’s clearly a long way to go.
Why? Because there is only one Kevin Feige in Hollywood.
But from the current point of view, the ambition of the new CEO has always been there. He believes that although some DC movies such as “Aquaman” are very successful, they are always independent and the huge elements of DC have not been integrated. .
Therefore, David Zaslav wants to reorganize a new DC movie universe, although it is very difficult, but he still has this idea.
For example, “The Batman” director Matt once said that he is building a “Batman universe”.
“Batman Universe” can come out, then Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and even Aquaman and other heroes with the same number of related characters can naturally launch their own series and even the universe.
As for the new DC universe that gathers all the heroes, it’s even more of a problem.
Before Warner released information, many DC movies this year were postponed until the end of the year or next year, and it may not be prepared for this.
Because there is a movie called “The Flash” that can change the timeline of the world, obviously this is a key.
From the current point of view, the external situation is favorable, and the internal reintegration movement has been carried out. Now is the best chance for the hero to turn over, and it is also the best time for DC to catch up with Marvel.
Of course, this is the case in theory, but whether it can be done in practice depends on the specific operations of the new CEO David Zaslav and the reorganized Warner Bros.
Related Post: ‘Warner Bros. Discovery’ plans to rebrand DC.
