Toby Emmerich at Warner Bros.; Michael De Luca & Pam Abdy take over studio management – Deadline

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 Toby Emmerich at Warner Bros.;  Michael De Luca & Pam Abdy take over studio management - Deadline

UPDATED: Toby Emmerich resigns as head of the Warner Bros. film studio. He is replaced by Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who recently left MGM. That was rumored before they left the studio (they’re staying until the summer, when their contracts expire). This is part of Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s grand plan to split Warner Bros into multiple labels, with Warner Bros Proper/New Line, DC Entertainment and Animation.

Faced with a new construct that would have seen him relinquish oversight of DC and animation, Emmerich instead chose to step down and go straight to a lucrative production deal with Warner Bros game of Thrones, which wasn’t nearly as ruthless. The fate of DC boss Walter Hamada and the other Emmerich-loyal executives i.e. New Line’s Richard Brener and Warner Bros Motion Pictures Group COO Carolyn Blackwood is currently unclear.

Emmerich will remain at the helm through the summer, when Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy come on board and short-term run DC along with animation. MGM, which loses De Luca and Abdy, is aggressively seeking new leadership to remain a theatrical content producer. Deadline hears that Emma Watts, former Fox films executive, is the candidate most frequently named for a potential job.

The mix of personalities will be interesting and in a way it’s coming full circle for De Luca, but on a much bigger job. When De Luca was fired from New Line in January 2001 after a string of unsuccessful films, including Little Nicki, he was replaced by New Line Music President Emmerich, so this is an interesting turn of events. Many of the executives there are longtime employees who have a relationship with De Luca, and so De Luca may not feel the need to clean the house. In De Luca, Warners gets a manager known for having close ties with filmmakers like David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson, and is known for working hard to make big pictures and going with his gut. As a producer, his films include Moneyball, Captain Phillips and the fifty shades of gray Franchise. He’s got the bona fides for a big job like this.

All of this news comes at a time after Emmerich and Zaslav traveled to Cannes together and sat side by side at the world premiere of Baz Luhrmanns elvis which received the longest standing ovation of the festival this year with ten minutes. Deadline spoke briefly to Zaslav at the premiere on the Croisette and he was overjoyed with the reception elvis and enthusiastic about Lurhmann. It was recently reported in the WSJ that Zaslav Warner Bros. was raking over the coals for their spending on the 2021 panel (which went day and night on HBO Max), focusing specifically on Clint Eastwood and his Scream macho, the Oscar-winning filmmaker known for being frugal and delivering his final cuts on time. As far as we know, Emmerich was never in such meetings when Zaslav left for budgets. It will be an interesting adjustment for Zaslav, whose background lies in tax-efficient unscripted tariffs. elvis it took years of nurturing and feeding to see it through a pandemic that has seen its star Tom Hanks become the first major celeb to catch Covid. Keep filmmakers like Clint Eastwood (who delivered the surprising blockbuster American sniper a few years ago). Even at the age of 92, Eastwood directs as if he were double-parked and has never been known as a spendthrift. De Luca has always appreciated filmmaking, and it will be interesting to see how patient Zaslav will be. One of De Lucas’ signature films on New Line was Se7en, a picture that was terribly tested but turned out to be a landmark New Line film. They don’t rush the David Finchers, and Warner Bros found out just how fragile those relationships can be when Jason Kilar dumped the entire 2021 roster onto HBO Max to build subscribers. Nolan, whose blockbuster Warner Bros The Dark Knight Trilogy and beginning, didn’t invite Warner Bros to bid on his next film, Oppenheimer, which Universal won and they’re hoping to become Nolan’s new home. Tom Rothman did a similar thing at Sony when Quentin Tarantino became a free agent Once upon a time… in Hollywood. Tarantino had the final cut and pressure when China threatened to ban the film from its market unless a scene starring Bruce Lee was removed. Though it cost them money, Sony stuck with him and has the incumbent advantage if Tarantino agrees to direct his next film, which he said will be his last.

Emmerich assumed the senior position at Warner Bros after leading New Line as President and COO in December 2016. Greg Silverman then stepped down as President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production and Emmerich became President and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros Pictures Group.

Warner Bros. just had a blockbuster directed by Matt Reeves The Batman starring Robert Pattinson, which earned over $770 million, and a sequel was announced at CinemaCon in April. elvis Off the Heat of Cannes opens on June 24th. Also for Warner Bros., the DC film stars Dwayne Johnson Black Adam via NewLine, Shazam! wrath of the godsa Salem’s Lot Remake and New Lines don’t worry darling with Olivia Wilde at Harry Styles. The next year is coming The Lightning (although Ezra Miller’s odd behavior leaves a question mark), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Barbie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, New Line’s zombie thriller The last train to New Yorkthe DC superhero movie Blue Beetleand wonka, the next part of Willy Wonka, with Timothee Chalamet taking over the role last played by Johnny Depp. There is also a remake directed by Blitz Bazawule The colour purple. One of the notable films released during Emmerich’s run was DC’s joker which became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time at $1.07 billion.

An announcement is expected in the next ten minutes to explain all of this about Emmerich’s departure.

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