There have been many quiet Mondays in the Warner Bros. offices. Pictures in Burbank, usually following a bomb like the one the studio just suffered with Tom Cruise’s “Digger.” The enigmatic eco-disaster project will ultimately amount to a loss of hundreds of millions.
But last Monday’s silence was compounded by a familiar wave of grief over the merger, several sources said. Varietyespecially as employees watched Pamela Abdy, co-head of the WB Motion Picture Group, pack her office into boxes. In a move that shocked some, Abdy and his co-director Michael De Luca were fired last week as David Ellison finally focused on his acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. De Luca and Abdy had been at the helm of Warner’s film business for four years, delivering a wild series of strikes (“A Minecraft Movie”) and gutters (“The Bride!”). Along with family photos and movie props, Abdy may have packed away the vestiges of a professional tradition diluted by acquisitions and corporate unions over the past three decades.
Warner Bros. Pictures is poised to undergo its most dramatic cultural transformation since the 1980s under the new leadership of Skydance CEO Ellison – and most notably, its film group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. Ellison’s regime has so far appeared to be a shirt-sleeve operation, focused on cutting costs and increasing profits. The preciousness and luxury that made Warner Bros. a desirable home for creatives will be upsized through technological cruelty, several high-profile sources suggest.
Goldberg and Greenstein had spent only a year (albeit a productive one) at the helm of Paramount Pictures before this week’s announcement that they will preside over all of the combined company’s film labels. That means De Luca and Abdy’s replacement will report to Goldberg and Greenstein, not the CEO’s office (as was the case under David Zaslav’s Discovery and John Stankey’s AT&T, for example).
“On the film side, the breadth of this combination, particularly its commitment to film, places Dana and Josh at the center of the film industry,” said Richard Weitz, co-chairman of WME Group. The power broker is referring to Ellison’s commitment to releasing 30 theatrical films a year at both studios, an agreement he had to put in writing to get his merger across the finish line.
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, who was a key executive in the WB film business from 1989 to 2002 before joining Paramount to produce huge franchises like “Transformers,” says the Skydance team’s dedication to films isn’t just on paper.
“Looking at the two companies and their slates, I don’t think they’ve made 30 films between the two in a very long time,” he says. “This is a net positive for our business because it means more films are made and more capital is spent creating them.”
Goldberg and Greenstein are respected by their industry peers, hailing from Village Roadshow (“The Matrix,” “Ocean’s Eleven”) and Sony Pictures, respectively. They now face the daunting task of further defining the distinct identities of several WB labels like New Line and Clockwork.
“I’ve worked with Josh for over a decade and have a lot of respect for him,” says Tom Rothman, head of Sony Pictures and Greenstein’s former boss. “What you need in this job is a combination of IQ and EQ. It’s about managing capital allocation, but in a much more important sense it’s about managing artistic temperaments. He’s extremely proficient in both areas.”
While Goldberg and Greenstein’s detractors say they don’t like the kind of profile some competitors have on the streets of Los Angeles and in elite coastal circles, they have greenlit 20 films since taking over at Paramount. They also signed talent deals with the Duffer Brothers, Will Smith, James Mangold, Jon M. Chu and Issa Rae (in addition to a distribution pact with Legendary Entertainment).
The job of any successful movie executive comes down to superior talent relationships and responsible budgeting. De Luca and Abdy certainly had the former covered (De Luca was a groomsman at Paul Thomas Anderson’s wedding; Abdy was considered a whisperer for filmmakers like Alejandro Iñárritu). The “irresponsible” spending is likely what helped them woo the A-list filmmakers Warner Bros. is famous, according to a source. “It’s easy to say yes when you don’t care about the price,” they add.
With some $80 billion in debt on Skydance’s balance sheet, carte blanche is over. But it’s not just about fiscal prudence. Unlike “carpetbaggers” Zaslav and Stankey, as another industry high-profile player calls them, Ellison and his team consider themselves obsessive film enthusiasts. The pomp and “platinum” aura of Warner Bros., as one former WB executive puts it, could be quickly sacrificed.
The enduring magic (and occasional arrogance) of Warner Bros. were remnants of a culture built by Bob Daly and Terry Semel, insiders say. They led the company as co-CEOs for nearly two decades starting in 1980. The duo prioritized popcorn hits directed by important filmmakers. Clint Eastwood and Christopher Nolan retained bungalows on the WB land without having any overall agreements in place. “They just wanted to be there,” says a former employee.
Although WB’s television group was often resentful of generating all the revenue while the film group got all the attention, the hierarchy remained. A group of Warner veterans, many of whom now hold high-ranking positions elsewhere, describe a kind of “love at first sight” that the studio inspires in its graduates. A text chain crowded with former employees called the “Gate 4 Club” (referring to the entrance many used to access the parking lot) is active throughout the industry. They talk nostalgically about the days when Daly and Semel parked a row of brand-new Range Rovers as gifts to the cast and filmmakers of “Lethal Weapon” after a blockbuster sequel.
Shiny SUVs are unlikely to be wrapped in ribbons at Warner Bros. anytime soon. Besides, Ellison prefers the sky.
Gn entert
