Tag Archives: Adil El Arbi

Warner Bros. Discovery proposes “10 year plan” for DC

WB Studio Tour
Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer (Getty Images)

Can DC ever chart a course to navigate out of Marvel’s shadow? That’s been the question for the last 10 years (since the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy). Newly crowned Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav thinks he has the answer, which is… the same thing the guys before him tried to do, basically.

“You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman—these are brands that are known everywhere in the world,” Zaslav said on the infamous WB earnings call (per The Hollywood Reporter). “We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we are going to focus, where there is going to be a team with a ten year plan focusing just on DC. We believe we can build a much more sustainable business.”

Oh, gee, a 10 year plan? Why didn’t anyone think of that before? It’s a strange bit of corporate gaslighting to pretend we weren’t all around for the attempted Zack Snyder-verse. Further, it’s not much of a “reset” when only one film (Batgirl) was canceled and the rest–which are all still tangled up in the Snyderverse to some degree–are going forward (even the dreaded Flash film).

“It’s very similar to the structure Alan Horn, [former Disney CEO] Bob Iger and Kevin Feige put together very effectively at Disney,” said Zaslav, as if copy-pasting from the MCU handbook worked for any of his predecessors. He may want to consider that Feige is someone that directors actually want to work for; the Marvel boss’ compassionate response to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah after Batgirl was canned only makes Zaslav and DC look even worse in comparison.

But Zaslav is determined to “focus on quality” and not “release any film before it’s ready,” which sounds more like the baseline for the film industry than an innovative new strategy. “The objective is to grow the DC brand. To grow the DC characters,” he said. “But also, our job is to protect the DC brand, and that’s what we’re going to do.” DC fans will surely sleep better knowing this is the guy protecting their beloved heroes.

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Leslie Grace addresses the sudden cancellation of her Batgirl movie

Leslie Grace
Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer (Getty Images)

Among the hundreds of people affected by Warner Bros. Discovery’s shocking decision to cancel HBO Max’s Batgirl movie yesterday (even as it was reportedly 90 percent of the way to completion), few are as central, obviously, as star Leslie Grace. Singer-songwriter Grace—who had her breakout acting role in 2021 as one of the leads in Warner’s In The Heights—has, after all, spent quite a few months of her life at this point getting fake-beat-up in spandex in Scotland for the film, which was scheduled to come out on HBO Max after wrapping its initial filming back in March 2022. Observers have, thus, been pretty curious about what she had to say about the parent company’s move to shelve the movie indefinitely

Grace took the high road tonight, though, posting a message to Instagram this evening that was focused entirely on the people she made Batgirl with, rather than the not-especially appreciative overlords they technically made the movie for:

Querida familia! On the heels of the recent news about our movie “Batgirl,” I am proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland. I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged relationships for a lifetime in the process! To every Batgirl fan – THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, “my own damn hero!”

Grace accompanied her post with a number of photos and videos from the film’s Scotland production, including videos of her serenading the camera while getting into costume, working with the film’s camera crew, and singing with her castmates. It’s all very positive, and very light on the “fuck you, Warner Bros. Discovery president David Zaslav.” Grace’s post comes not long after the film’s directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Falla, made their own social media statements about the cancellation, describing themselves as “saddened and shocked by the news.”



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