![]() Cartoon programming was unceremoniously shelved, causing a sharp outcry from fans. Overnight, fans found that their favorite shows vanished from HBO Max’s catalog and were unavailable elsewhere. At the end of the video, they encourage fans to watch their upcoming film “Rebel” to imagine what their “Batgirl” could have been.īut “Batgirl” is only one example of many. In what would become a pattern, El Arbi and Fallah released a video over Instagram Reels detailing their sense of betrayal and the scope of Warner Bros. But the directors were circumvented and were locked out of the film’s servers. In vain, they tried to pirate their own movie as a keepsake of the film. Unless we are very, very lucky, “Batgirl,” starring Leslie Grace (“In the Heights”), will never see the light of day.īatgirl’s directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, found out about their cancellation through the news cycle. Like a horrible remix of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” HBO has a fully filmed, exciting project that they’re burying alive. Discovery is not soft-releasing its product or sending it straight to streaming to save on advertising. To clarify, HBO had already invested roughly $90 million into a nearly complete product fans and actors were excited about its release. Effectively, if a company declares that it will stop profiting off of a piece of media, it can claim a tax break for its associated costs. Variety reports that Zaslav did not believe the film would recoup production and advertising costs and made an unprecedented decision to bury the movie to claim a tax break. Most prominent among those revenue-driven decisions is the shelving of HBO’s nearly finished $90 million dollar Batgirl film. Without any notice or communication, Zaslav began axing programming, secretly removing content from streaming services and deleting social media posts. But the round of layoffs was only one prong of many myopic cost-saving changes.Īugust 2022 was an emotionally crushing period for staff and creative teams working at Warner Bros. That decision led to former executives accusing Zaslav of being anti-diversity, given the composition of the company’s leadership and the demographic of employees fired. In an opening salvo to defray the debt, Zaslav laid off 14% of company staff, the majority being HBO alums. Namely: a $55 billion debt Zaslav inherited after the company merger. The exclusion of artists working with HBO Max and Discovery Plus alludes to Zaslav’s priorities. His recent profile in the Wall Street Journal includes quotes from Zaslav’s corporate peers testifying to his financial sensibility and support for artists. Perhaps conscious of his unscripted reality TV pedigree, Zaslav initially attempted to create a narrative of himself as pro-artist and pro-creative. Newly instated CEO David Zaslav cut his TV executive teeth on unscripted reality television like “90 Day Fiancé” and had a meteoric rise, uniting his much smaller Discovery Group with the gigantic WarnerMedia.
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