monitor is One weekly column Commit to everything that happens wired The world of culture, from movies to memes, from TV to Twitter.
Maybe batgirl always be damned. Joss Whedon dropped the film in 2018, after a year at the helm, saying he “really doesn’t have a story”. Shortly thereafter, Raptor Writer Christina Hodson signed on to write the script. Then, finally, in 2021, bad boy for life Filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah took over directing, and the film ended up with in the highlands Star Leslie Grace stars as Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl. Then, this week, Warner Bros. canned it.
Make no mistake, this is a multi-million dollar movie that is fully filmed and in post-production, and the studio won’t even send it straight to streaming. It was already intended to be an HBO Max movie, not a theatrical release. Now, no longer debuting in any one format — or in a mixed release, as the studio did with all of its films last year —batgirl It’ll just… never see the light of day.according to New York Post, as one of the first media outlets to report on the film’s demise on Tuesday, the preview audience didn’t embrace the film and it was “hopeless.” In an Instagram post, El Abi and Farah said they were “sad and shocked by the news.” The pair added that it was vital to them that the audience saw their work, “maybe one day they’ll insha’Allah.”
Soon after the news broke, it was discovered that batgirl Likely a casualty of the $43 billion Warner Bros.-Explorer merger that closed in April. It may not be the only one. After spending a year fleshing out HBO Max’s content and turning it into one of the best streaming services with the most Emmy nominations in the process, the new agency seems intent on touting it.CEO David Zaslav is known as a cost-cutter and as news batgirl‘s demise spread, so word came that burying the film would allow the studio to write down taxes to recoup some of its production costs. It’s also been revealed that the company wants to focus on theatrical releases in the future — rather than HBO Max exclusives.As the week wore on, eagle-eyed fans noticed other Max Originals like moon landing and witch disappeared from the platform.
On Thursday, during its quarterly earnings call with investors, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it will combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a streaming service by summer 2023. Zaslav also spoke about wanting to emphasize quality over quantity in programming, with a particular emphasis on theatrical releases.
The new focus on drama may excite directors like Denis Villeneuve, but that doesn’t negate the fact that HBO Max has an extensive and impressive catalog of products large and small. More frankly, it has become the streaming home of Crap You Love.If there’s one thing that’s ironic, if not puzzling, it’s shelving batgirlit’s that Warner Bros. — that studio that pumped 70 million more US dollars Justice League Release the Snyder Cut – Somehow thought it was a movie that wasn’t worth releasing. Zaslav said in his remarks that the company is putting a new focus on improving its DC movies, but so far they haven’t all been a big hit. Having a more cohesive DC movie is a worthwhile goal, but it seems unwise to offload something in order to save money when it can garner fandom.everyone will love batgirl? Who knows, but HBO Max is full of stuff that some people downright hate, but also a very loyal, ardent audience. Unlike Netflix, which seems to pride itself on what my colleague Jason Parham rightly calls Just OK TV, Max stands out by shining a light on something that at least doesn’t look like it was made by an algorithm.sometimes it is a Sex and the City reboot, sometimes succession; sometimes stupid sometimes stupid dune.
With the announcement of HBO Max and Discovery+ merging into one streaming service, the reviews also seem to be plentiful. HBO Max has prestige TV and Crap You Love, and Discovery+ actually invented the latter. The company all but acknowledged this in its quarterly report, when it said HBO Max was “by appointment” viewing and Discovery+ was “comfortable” viewing. If the company really wants to focus on making hits, does that mean it’s culling a portion of the same HGTV home improvement show (which I like, mind you)? Probably not because the ROI is higher.But because of putting real money into something like hacker And Max Originals, the agency that now brings you Shark Week, seems to be turning it into something else.It feels like stepping out of a Kabletown playbook, right up to the newfound pair FBOY Island.
It’s kind of a pity. After an impressive presentation at Comic-Con last month, batgirl The news feels like the most free promo a DC movie has gotten in a long time. Unfortunately, it’s a bad hum that makes it look like a new Warner Bros hum. Discovery doesn’t care too much about the movies and shows it makes — just their bottom line. Yes, all studios want to make a profit, but shelving content for tax benefits shows a serious misunderstanding of the corporate audience. Warners released a lot of nonsense at a loss — every studio has it — but they released anyway. Some people still cling to that crap. Barbara Gordon deserves the same shot as the Joker. Batgirl for life. or not.
