It’s possible to argue against the adage that commerce is the enemy of art. Yet two historic movie and television studios — Warner Bros. and Paramount — and their renowned assets have been prime examples of the contempt shown toward creative endeavors by bottom-line-obsessed executives looking to burnish their 401(k)s.
Even with the spate of entertainment industry strikes and the looming threat of artificial intelligence replacing human writers, actors, cinematographers, and directors at comparatively minimal cost, mergers and acquisitions are undermining the efforts of so many talented people in the interest of greed disguised as austerity. The methods being employed range from spiking completed or near-completed projects for tax benefits to canceling prestige TV programs to selling off high-profile, arguably pricey projects if someone is willing to pony up what might be an inflated fee.
If there was an official first volley in this recent war on content, it came from the offices of David Zaslav, current CEO of Warner Discovery. Presumably, Zaslav — a bean-counting, budget-slashing suit from the upstart Discovery Channel — was awarded the position as a condition or byproduct of the merger between Discovery, the cable outlet that built its reputation on the violent exploitation of its annual Shark Week promotion, and the venerable Warner Bros. Entertainment ripe with assets developed over the course of a century since the early days of Hollywood. Zaslav’s appointment proved to be less than friendly to those responsible for the studio’s output, including programming for HBO and the Warner Bros. streaming service Max. And he has seemed to be little concerned with the value of the company’s intellectual property (IP), appearing to lack any reverence for it.
Batty logic
Zaslav’s initial cost-cutting maneuver was to kill the nearly finished feature film Batgirl, based on the heroic DC Comics character introduced in Batman comic books decades ago. Batgirl, starring Leslie Grace as a new cinematic iteration of Batman sidekick Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon, was directed by the Belgian team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The directors had success helming a couple episodes of the Marvel Studios TV series Ms. Marvel and the two most recent Bad Boys action comedies with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. But Zaslav pulled the plug on Batgirl in 2022, after some middling test screenings and before postproduction polishing. Insofar as the DC superheroes have been a significant part of the Warner Bros. portfolio since 1967, this was a surprising turn of events. Zaslav’s purported logic was that the corporation could gain more fiscally by burying the movie and taking a tax write-off than completing it and releasing it to theaters or utilizing it as an attractive addition to Max’s programming. Much to the chagrin of the directors, the cast, the crew, and many fans, no one would ever see it. All that work was for naught.
Bookending the Batgirl fiasco, Zaslav more recently tried to quash another narrative involving Batman — this one helmed by somebody whose previous work with Gotham City’s cowled protector and attendant DC characters was both successful and influential. Bruce Timm’s bold designs and smart storytelling on Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s helped set the tone for an impressive run of related programs, including Superman and Justice League adventures. As a result, it was promising to learn that Timm had teamed up with blockbuster producer-director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Lost, and others) and filmmaker Matt Reeves (2022’s lionized live-action The Batman) to develop Batman: Caped Crusader — a retro-styled 10-episode reimagining of the Dark Knight for Max. And it’s satisfying to report that this new show with its notable pedigree is set to premiere Aug. 1 … on Amazon Prime. Yes, the Zaslav regime dumped a showcase for world-renowned Warner Bros.-owned IP, marketing it off to run on a streaming service other than Max.
Looney doings
Financial implications aside, a company divesting content that is inexorably identified with it seems like bad business. And if playing fast and loose with the DC brand seems questionable, how about Warner Discovery under Zaslav doing the same with the IP most associated with the studio since the 1930s: the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon characters? First, word came down that a multitude of the vintage shorts featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird and their pals were no longer going to be available on Max. Why pay out any pesky residuals or licensing if you can avoid it? Then, something even more perplexing and disheartening happened in the Warner Toon-averse.
With the spate of entertainment industry strikes and the looming threat of artificial intelligence replacing human writers, actors, cinematographers, and directors at comparatively minimal cost, mergers and acquisitions are undermining the efforts of so many talented people in the interest of greed disguised as austerity.
Coyote vs. Acme is a feature-length comedy mixing live and animated actors in an adaptation of a witty short story about hapless Wile E. Coyote suing the company that makes all the defective traps that fail to help him capture and kill the elusive Road Runner. Unlike Batgirl, all of the effects for Coyote vs. Acme were done, and it was ready to go into theaters or on Max, having scored very high with audiences at advanced screenings. Until it was revealed that Zaslav was trashing Coyote vs. Acme for tax benefits, as he did with Batgirl. The positive response from early Coyote vs. Acme showings and the fact that it was in the can led to a variety of bids from Warner Discovery rivals eager to acquire the movie, but every offer was spurned to date. Coyote vs. Acme remains in limbo.
Other abominable moves by Zaslav and his associates have included canceling the award-winning HBO crime drama Perry Mason after its second season ended on a cliffhanger with the renowned legal savant of the title stuck in a jail cell. In similar fashion, the acclaimed animated science fiction saga Scavengers Reign was left unresolved after its first 12 episodes when it was not renewed by Max — the streamer that commissioned it. On the positive side, Scavengers Reign was subsequently acquired by Netflix, and that may lead to a second season. Meanwhile, Zaslav remains at his post, reportedly earning a $3 million base salary, $23 million in stock, and a $22 million cash bonus in 2023 alone. So much for budgetary restraint. When it comes to understanding and enacting predatory behavior, the guy was obviously paying attention during all those Shark Weeks.
Scaling down Paramount
As for the state of Paramount, a proposed merger of Paramount Global (home to the eponymous studio, Paramount+ streaming, and the CBS television network), and Skydance Media (the production house behind the Top Gun and G.I. Joe movie franchises) is in progress. Prior to the flirtation and possible union between the behemoths, Paramount Global did its own cutbacks, purging its Comedy Central website of archival video clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and taking down the online archives of MTV News and CMT.
In a move that echoes Zaslav’s mishandling of Warner Bros.’ signature IP, Paramount+ declined to present the fully produced second season of the ingenious all-ages animated sci-fi series Star Trek: Prodigy, which was also associated with Paramount Global’s Nickelodeon cable channel for kids. Regardless of being identified with Star Trek in its many forms since Gene Roddenberry created the expansive galaxy-faring franchise in the 1960s, Paramount negotiated a deal for Netflix to stream the entire run of Star Trek: Prodigy, debuting the previously unaired episodes. Paramount Global still controls many other Star Trek TV shows and movies — for now. Who knows what the deal with Skydance might do to further erode the long-running synergy between Star Trek and Paramount?
Whether talking consumer goods, services, or the entertainment industry, it’s not an overstatement to say that corporate earnings are expected to increase incrementally each calendar year — or heads will roll. In other words, the profit margin has to be higher every quarter or those in charge are in danger of losing their cushy, obscenely overpaid positions. Content, notwithstanding quality, is an easy target for deletion by a media giant seeking to pinch a few millions. Although it’s a standard operating procedure to trim supposed fat, it’s more like evisceration when the slice-and-dice actually drains the lifeblood from a company.