@Triksy said:

New York Times

Trading Box Office for Streaming, but Stars Still Want Their Money

Last month, Warner Bros. quietly approached Hollywood’s two biggest talent agencies, William Morris Endeavor and Creative Artists. The studio wanted to release the much-anticipated “Wonder Woman 1984” simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max on Christmas Day. And they wanted to get the film’s star, Gal Gadot, and director, Patty Jenkins, on board with the plan.

Comicbook

Wonder Woman 1984 Director Patty Jenkins Fought With Warner Bros. Over Winter Release Date

In July 2017, just weeks after the release of its superhero hit Wonder Woman, the studio set a December 2019 date for the then-untitled sequel. By November, Warner Bros. moved Wonder Woman 2 up six weeks to November 2019, where it remained until October 2018. That's when star and producer Gal Gadot announced that the sequel, now called WW84, was moving to its "rightful home" of June 5, 2020,three years after the June release of Wonder Woman.

"I never wanted it to come out in the winter. I was fighting the studio because we were supposed to come out summer of 2020, and then they didn't have a big movie for 2019," Jenkins told The New York Times. "I was in the middle of making a limited series, and all of a sudden they announced that they had moved up the release date by seven months, which was going to give me way less time to make the movie than I had for Wonder Woman. I was saying, 'You guys, why would you guarantee I can't make as good of a film by making it too quick?'"

"So we argued about that all year, and I had to drop out of doing a whole limited series and only do the first two episodes, and just race to write an 80-page treatment at the same time as I'm trying to direct the show," Jenkins said of her Chris Pine-starring TNT limited series I Am the Night. "We finally got lucky that it got moved back. It would have been a much worse movie if it had come out then."

After Warners made the call to send WW84 to streaming on the same day it opens in theaters, insiders reported there was a sense at the studio that the movie might "get stale" if it were delayed further to summer or fall 2021.

Jenkins received the call about "two or three weeks" before it was publicly announced.

"It was weird, because the whole year I was afraid of that, and everybody at the studio kept saying, 'No way, we'll never do that,' because you have to make so much money with this thing. So when they suggested it, I was shocked," Jenkins said. "We did not agree right away — it was a very, very long process, and I don't know that they would have let us disagree based on what they've been doing now. But I was conveniently into it for this movie."

On the HBO Max move, Gadot put it plainly in a separate interview: "The truth of the matter is we just didn't have other better options."

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/wonder-woman-1984-director-patty-jenkins-fought-warner-bros-winter-release-date-2019/

We finally got lucky that it got moved back. It would have been a much worse movie if it had come out then."

@Triksy said:

"We did not agree right away — it was a very, very long process, and I don't know that they would have let us disagree based on what they've been doing now. But I was conveniently into it for this movie."

Sounds to me like WB chose WW bc females are easier to handle? WB didn’t care about women. Read what PJ says. Now they do as if they care to capitalize on the girl power or empowering women thing thanks to things like #metoo and #timesup

Indiewire

Patty Jenkins Details ‘Internal War’ with Warner Bros. Over ‘Wonder Woman’: ‘There Was Such Mistrust’

“They wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision,” Jenkins said. “And my ideas? They didn’t even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view.”

Jenkins continued, “Even when I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’ it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off… I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”

The director added, “They were nervous that it wasn’t viable… They were all freaked out by all the female superhero films that had failed, the smaller ones that had failed, and also Christopher Nolan was making the ‘Dark Knight‘ thing, so I think they were just trying to figure out what they were doing with DC at that time.”

Conversations between Jenkins and Warner Bros. about developing “Wonder Woman” started in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2007 that the studio asked her to direct. Jenkins was pregnant at the time and turned the studio down, only to come back on board in 2011. Jenkins would exit the film over creative differences, jumping over to Marvel for “Thor 2” and leaving the door open for Warner Bros. to hire Michelle MacLaren for “Wonder Woman.” Additional creative differences killed both of those projects, which is when Warner Bros. decided to bring Jenkins back and let her make the “Wonder Woman” film she envisioned.

“During that period of time, there were so many scripts, I could see the writing on the wall,” Jenkins said about the years-long development of “Wonder Woman,” noting that at least 30 different screenplays were written and considered over the years. “This was an internal war on every level about what ‘Wonder Woman’ should be.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/01/patty-jenkins-war-warner-bros-wonder-woman-mistrust-1234607432/

Gizmodo

Patty Jenkins Says Warner Bros. Wanted Her Seen But Not Heard on the Original Wonder Woman

According to Jenkins, a fundamental difference in perspectives was the root of the problem that manifested itself as Warner Bros not having faith in Jenkins’ own point of view as a Wonder Woman fan. Where Jenkins wanted her film to explore the ideals and values that Wonder Woman embodies, she felt that the studio was more interested in dissecting the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films in an attempt to recreate it with the Themysciran princess.

Of course, there are always multiple sides to every story, and with as many different scripts and creatives teams that were attached to what would become Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, there are certain to be other recollections as to what went down. Given how drastically different in terms of overall tightness Wonder Woman 1984 ended up being compared to its predecessor, it’s interesting to consider what sorts of conversations were had behind closed doors in the months leading up to its release—and what sorts of talks Jenkins and Warner Bros. might have in the near future.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/patty-jenkins-says-warner-bros-wanted-her-seen-but-not-1845984253

We knew that WB wanted to turn MOS into CN’s TDK. If CN’s formula worked for BM, it’ll work for SM and all other heroes and heroines. They expected MOS to make a billion like TDK. But Batman Begins made less than MOS. WB really had morons working for them. Still have fools, liars, opportunist and power hungry people working for them. lol

@AnnaB said:

Gizmodo

Patty Jenkins Says Warner Bros. Wanted Her Seen But Not Heard on the Original Wonder Woman

she felt that the studio was more interested in dissecting the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films in an attempt to recreate it with the Themysciran princess.

If CN’s formula worked for BM, it’ll work for SM and all other heroes and heroines.

It looks like Whedon though his formula would work in everything too.

Comicbook Movie

JUSTICE LEAGUE: Ray Fisher Believes Joss Whedon Brought AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON "Resentment" To Reshoots

We've yet to receive any clarification on why the director behaved in a way that clearly upset a number of cast and crew members, but Ray Fisher has now shared some of his observations.

In the video below, the actor points to Whedon's frustrations about 2015's Avengers; Age of Ultron factoring into some of the creative decisions he made during those reshoots for the DC movie.

"Joss brought a lot of his personal and professional, for lack of a better term, resentment, into the Justice League process," the Cyborg actor explains. "One of the things that he had said in our first conversation was that people didn't quote-unquote 'get' 'Age of Ultron', and there were certain things being said in that conversation."

"I was like, 'Oh, this is less about the work being presented and more, sort of like, of an ego stroke to say 'Well look, if you like it in this movie, you should've liked it in that one. Joke's on you,'" Fisher continued. "And that's just creatively, that has nothing to do with any of the really egregious stuff, that's just on a creative level."

"That's part of the reason why I say that we inherited Joss Whedon. We inherited the problem of Joss Whedon. I'm sure he has a lot to deal with. Hopefully he deals with it in a healthy way, and we'll make good on any sort of apologies that he may need to put out there."

It's no secret that Whedon clashed with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige while making Avengers: Age of Ultron, but why he felt the need to take that out on Justice League...well, we may never know.

https://www.comicbookmovie.com/justice_league/justice-league-ray-fisher-believes-joss-whedon-brought-avengers-age-of-ultron-resentment-to-reshoots-a181081

@HCFan said:

Indiewire

Patty Jenkins Details ‘Internal War’ with Warner Bros. Over ‘Wonder Woman’: ‘There Was Such Mistrust’

“They wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision,” Jenkins said. “And my ideas? They didn’t even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view.”

Jenkins continued, “Even when I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’ it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off… I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”

The director added, “They were nervous that it wasn’t viable… They were all freaked out by all the female superhero films that had failed, the smaller ones that had failed, and also Christopher Nolan was making the ‘Dark Knight‘ thing, so I think they were just trying to figure out what they were doing with DC at that time.”

Why is PJ airing all this dirty laundry now? She wants to push people’s attention away from the fact that she only cared about theaters when her film and back-end pay weren’t in trouble. Then she got paid and was suddenly conveniently into the hybrid release for her film. No more worries about the existence of theaters. But by airing all this dirty laundry, it’s kind of clear now that without WB’s strong input she can’t deliver a good film. WW17 is a much better film than the mess WW84.

@HCFan said:

Indiewire

Patty Jenkins Details ‘Internal War’ with Warner Bros. Over ‘Wonder Woman’: ‘There Was Such Mistrust’

Jenkins continued, “Even when I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’ it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off… I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”

ZS was behind the severed heads. He tweeted the pic.

Something's really wrong with ZS.

@Blue-Rose said:

ZS was behind the severed heads. He tweeted the pic.

Something's really wrong with ZS.

WB thought ZS’ Steppenwolf was too scary, but WW holding human heads in her hand was OK? lol She shouldn’t kill people if she believes that Aries is manipulating them. If things get out of hand, BM may need to kill some criminals, because he doesn’t have super powers. But humans can’t harm WW. She can easily disarm them and tie them up.

Cosmicbook

ZACK SNYDER RESPONDS TO PATTY JENKINS' WEAK WONDER WOMAN

Following Patty Jenkins stating she didn't like a Wonder Woman who was "harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off," Zack Snyder responds on Twitter quite epically.

PJ on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast : “Even when I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’ it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off… I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”

ZS’ tweet: Wonder Woman 1854 - This amazing image shot by Stephen Berkman of an else-world, war weary Diana, who had chased Aries across the battlefields of the world and had yet to meet Steve, who would help her restore her faith in mankind and love itself.

A fan on Vero questioned Zack about the image and asked if he will be using it in the remastered version of Batman vs. Superman.

Zack responded: "It will not be used as it contradicts the brilliant movie Patty made and I supported and did the story for."

https://cosmicbook.news/zack-snyder-reponds-patty-jenkins-weak-wonder-woman

As we can see here, ZS is being a b*tch in a very subtle way. He wanted the world to know that his WW wasn’t supposed to be a savage brute always, as PJ implied. But that both his WW and ST would have been far more complex than hers. Instead of making ST just the owner of a penis for the sweet naive WW to lust after and obsessed about, as PJ made her ST, ZS’ ST would have turned a beastly WW into a civilized being who can love, forget the horrors done by men and see the good in mankind again.

And that’s not all, folks. ZS’ reply to the fan wasn’t as subtle as his tweet, though. He clearly wants the backstabbers, PJ and GJ, to know that he won’t sink to their level and contradict anybody's story while at the same time tell the world that he was responsible for the story that PJ turned into the brilliant WW17. ZS wasn't involved in the crappy WW84 story that the backstabbers came up with to contradict his MOS and BvS.

Harry Lennix

Finally putting the rumors to rest. #SnyderCut #MartianManhunter #JusticeLeague

HOW IT STARTED: pic > > > > > HOW IT’S GOING: pic

https://twitter.com/HarryJLennix/status/1349449680107626497

IGN

Zack Snyder Seemingly Confirms Justice League Will Be a 4-Hour Movie, Not a Miniseries

What's On HBO Max screenshotted an exchange between Snyder and a fan, which occurred during a Q&A session on Snyder's Vero account, where the director appeared to confirm that his Justice League cut would be released as a "one-shot" movie when it premieres on HBO Max in March, as opposed to the limited multi-part series that was announced at DC FanDome last summer.

While many have interpreted this to mean that the four-part miniseries has been scrapped in favour of a four-hour movie, it's possible Snyder is indicating that all four hour-long episodes will drop simultaneously, giving viewers the option to watch the Snyder Cut in one continuous block rather than splitting it up and releasing the "episodes" one-by-one as part of a schedule.

Whether Snyder's Justice League ends up being released as one movie or four installments that can be watched separately or as one continuous feature, it will include around two-and-a-half hours of never-before-seen footage, comprised of "four or five minutes of additional photography", original footage from the theatrical release, and elements that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Snyder also previously confirmed that he hasn't used a "single frame" from Joss Whedon's Justice League reshoots for his version of the movie (which is being widely dubbed as the "director's cut").

The movie will also include the official in-universe reveal that Harry Lennix's Lt. General Calvin Swanwick is secretly Martian Manhunter.

https://www.ign.com/articles/zack-snyder-justice-league-four-hour-movie-seemingly-confirmed-not-miniseries-release

Games Radar

Zack Snyder reveals another look at Steppenwolf in Justice League

The director posted the picture on Vero, captioned with a tease about Junkie XL’s score: “This sounds insane” (H/T Screen Rant). In the photo, Steppenwolf appears to be crouched over an Atlantean soldier.

Snyder shared another photo hinting at the progress of Justice League – this one of a parking space at Warner Bros. reserved for post-production, with the caption “Mixing”.

https://www.gamesradar.com/zack-snyder-reveals-another-look-at-steppenwolf-in-justice-league/

Heroic Hollywood

Batman Actor Ben Affleck Talks Alcoholism & Suffering On Justice League

Affleck was great in the role, but the actor had to deal with the constant meddling of a studio executives from Warner Bros. The former Batman actor previously opened up about his strenuous time on the set of Justice League and now he’s expanded on the matter.

I did Batman because I wanted to do it for my kids. I wanted to do something that my son would dig. I mean, my kids didn’t see Argo. Zack wanted to do a version of the Frank Miller Dark Knight graphic novel series, which is a really good version of that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why things go the way they do in the movie business, and just because your face is on the poster doesn’t mean that you’re dictating all of those things — and even if you were, that they would go well.

Affleck also has some fond memories on his time as Batman. He even mentioned that he wore his cape and cowl to his son’s birthday party.

I wore the suit to my son’s birthday party, which was worth every moment of suffering on Justice League.

The actor went on to detail when he went off the rails with his alcoholism and it started around the time of Justice League.

I started drinking too much around the time of Justice League, and it’s a hard thing to confront and face and deal with. I’ve been sober for a while now, and I feel really good — as healthy and good as I’ve ever felt. And the process of recovering from alcoholism has been really instructive. [...]

https://heroichollywood.com/ben-affleck-batman-justice-league-alcohol-suffering/

@Triksy said:

Heroic Hollywood

Batman Actor Ben Affleck Talks Alcoholism & Suffering On Justice League

Affleck was great in the role, but the actor had to deal with the constant meddling of a studio executives from Warner Bros.

Affleck also has some fond memories on his time as Batman. He even mentioned that he wore his cape and cowl to his son’s birthday party.

Something’s wrong with WB. If BA’s white A-list butt suffered at the hand of executives, I can only imagine what they did to RR’s black no-name butt. So I’m very happy with WB’s hybrid system. I don’t want to pay for anything that they make and I get to see their 2021 films in HD for free on the net the same day they're released.

@Blue-Rose said:

Something’s wrong with WB.

You might be right.

Deadline

WarnerMedia Accused Of “Cruelty” & Discrimination By Casey Stern After Axed Sports Anchor’s Battle To Rescue Abused Children

“Over the course of the last two years, Casey Stern has been put through his own personal hell, the likes of which no person should ever be forced to endure,” declares the charge against the AT&T-owned entities filed Wednesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the plaintiff’s gender and child care responsibilities (read it here).

“Beginning in about December 2018 and persisting through February 2020, Mr. Stern’s three young children were subjected to heinous child abuse at the hands of their own mother, Mr. Stern’s ex-wife Shanon Stern, as well as Ms. Stern’s boyfriend, Alexander Soriano,” the pretty explicit document goes on to say. “The abuse became so prevalent and vicious that the children began wearing backpacks around the house in preparation to run away.”

After apparently getting little help from the authorities and instigating private investigation of his own, Stern got the children back early last year. The anchor’s ex-wife and her boyfriend were arrested in February. Out on bail and awaiting trial because of Covid-19 delays, the duo has been charged with 15 felonies, including with five counts of first-degree child cruelty.

However, in the meantime, Stern saw his high-profile on-air duties symmetrically cut back, the complaint alleges, and eventually he was told late last year that his contract won’t be renewed.

“To make matters worse, the Company has informed Mr. Stern that, even though it will not be using him for anything anymore, he is not be permitted to seek work in his chosen field until August 2021 (when his contract expires) unless he releases the Company of liability for its unlawful conduct,” the EEOC complaint states of the anchor who has been a mainstay on NBA, MLB and NCAA coverage since 2016.

Deadline reached out to WarnerMedia for a response to the complaint, but the company said it doesn’t “comment on pending legal matters.” The media giant may be quiet, but Stern’s complaint makes it very clear management at the company weren’t seemingly so quiet when it came to Stern’s situation.

“In one particularly offensive incident, John O’Connor, NBA TV’s Executive Producer, responded to an accommodation request by suggesting that Mr. Stern was using his children – who were being beaten by his ex-wife and her boyfriend – as an ‘excuse’ to avoid work assignments. Specifically, Mr. O’Connor said, ‘When are you going to stop using this’ family situation as an excuse?” the paperwork claims.

“These statements, which are only examples, make clear that the Company believed that Mr. Stern, as a man, was expected to place his job above his family – regardless of the fact that Mr. Stern’s children were the victims of severe domestic abuse.”

Spreading around recent cases of alleged abusive environments or “poor treatment” at The Ellen DeGeneres Show and TMZ, lawyer Michael J. Willemin certainly seeks to paint a big picture in the complaint of the Jason Kilar-run company as a “toxic” workplace. “The Company’s cruelty cannot be overstated, nor is it an isolated incident,” the EEOC filing says of Atlanta-based Stern’s case.

“Rather, the treatment of Mr. Stern is just the latest example of what has become commonplace practice at WarnerMedia and its subsidiaries.”

https://deadline.com/2021/01/child-abuse-warnermedia-discrimination-suit-casey-stern-mlb-nba-ncaa-1234674131/

Z. Snyder

Fallen #SnyderCut
https://twitter.com/ZackSnyder/status/1355145168626675717

Risen #SnyderCut
https://twitter.com/ZackSnyder/status/1355149488487161856

Reborn #SnyderCut Streaming 3.18.21 #UsUnited
https://twitter.com/ZackSnyder/status/1355152770408476677

@Triksy said:

Heroic Hollywood

Batman Actor Ben Affleck Talks Alcoholism & Suffering On Justice League

Let’s cry a river because BA suffered on the set of JL. Well, so did many women while he just stood by and let pigs like Harvey Swine-stein harass them. Wait, I forgot that he harassed women too.

Lately, BA has been saying that people were cruel to JLo when they were together. But what did he do or say when the racist and sexist comments about her were made? He and Ana de Armas broke up and the next day someone came out of his house with a life-sized cardboard cutout of her and threw it in the trash for all the photographers to see. Very classy. Here is the pic.

BA doesn’t have balls to say or do things to stop cruelty from happening, but he has balls to do classless sh*t like that or to complain about his suffering. Instead of finding excuses for his drinking, he should look at his conscience. Maybe the reason he can’t stay away from the evil liquid is because he’s an evil person.

Z. Snyder

Reborn #SnyderCut Streaming 3.18.21 #UsUnited
https://twitter.com/ZackSnyder/status/1355152770408476677

I’m surprised the geeks haven’t dropped by to make sure we know. They were celebrating on several broads. lol BTW, I think that WB is trying to steal attention away from the ZS cut. WB wanted to release GvK just a week after the ZS cut. But ZS’ fans complained and WB moved it again. But two weeks isn’t enough. They should have released a smaller film that could benefit from all the attention that the ZS cut will get. Promote the smaller film with the ZS cut. Right now, most geeks are talking about GvK. The ZS geeks, which form a smaller group, are talking about his cut as always.