Warner Bros. teases HBO Max releases of Dune, The Suicide Squad, Sopranos prequel, and more
Aux Features Warner Bros
It was announced in December that Warner Bros. will, in a shocking move, drop all of its 2021 movies on HBO Max the same day they’ll hit theaters. They’ll only be there for 30 days, sure, but that hasn’t stopped filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and studios like Legendary from fiercely criticizing the decision. Their words, however, have fallen on deaf ears, as Warner Bros. has today shared a sizzle reel teasing all the films that will debut on the streamer this year. And Legendary’s Dune is right up top. Will an HBO Max release “kill the franchise,” as director Denis Villeneuve portends? We hope not.
The brief clip also includes footage of Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, as a young Tony Soprano in David Chase’s Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. You can also catch fresh footage from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and James Wan’s Malignant, as well as Mortal Kombat, Space Jam 2, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and King Richard, in which Will Smith stars as the father and coach of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.
What’s missing? The Matrix 4, though a title card confirms that it’s still set to arrive as part of the HBO Max deal in 2021.
Watch it below:
57 Comments
Good luck to Warner Brothers convincing any big name directors to ever work with them again. Especially since they reportedly didn’t even bother to tell any of them before making the announcement.
They’ll do just fine, they’ve got loads of cash.
also the vast majority of people do not give 1% of 1 shit about a ‘big name director’plus, like, they talk big but what are there other options? ‘well you’re putting this shit straight to streaming services during an unprecedented pandemic when theatres probably aren’t going to reopen properly for years? well i’ll…make a netflix movie.’
Outside of the “doing this without telling any of the cast, crew or other studios involved” shittiness, the issue is that no one knows the state of things by the end of the year.If WB had announced they were doing this for the first three months of the year then I can’t see much fuss. If they’d have said they would be considering it for more and would review it as things progressed then fine. That would have made sense and hard to argue with given the state of things. But make no mistake – announcing they were doing it for the whole year is not about the pandemic. It’s using that as an excuse to prop up their streaming service. That’s why people are angry – the films and filmmakers (and cinemas) are being thrown under the bus as a promotional activity for an also-run streaming service that, until then, was coasting on a director’s cut of Justice League and a Friends reunion where the actors just chat for a bit.
It is about the pandemic though. At this rate and point, things will not be back to normal until later this year at best or early next year at the worst. And even then, the damage has been done as far as people prefering to stay home and stream than go to a theatre to watch. Let alone unable to actually film anything anywhere because of lockdowns and restrictions. WB is being realistic and honest about that prospect: people are too scared or too comfortable at home to go sit in a movie theatre to watch something. Its the filmmakers and everyone in between that need to realize that the pandemic has irrecoverably altered and damged the industry forever.
Nah. Again, if it was just the pandemic then announcing this for the first quarter of 2021 and extending it as needs be would be a fair response given the reasons you’ve stated. Announcing in December 2020 that every film for the next year would be available on HBO Max is not a response to the pandemic, it’s using it as a giant marketing tool for HBO Max. As for the industry being changed – I don’t disagree. But there’s plenty of room to rebuild it and cinemas will need films and studio support to help with that, especially in the second half of the year. What WB have done is a big fuck you to cinemas – doubly insulting given that cinemas worked hard to give Tenet a release for the studio. Bear in mind that this decision apparently wasn’t made by the film studio arm of WB. This was made by AT&T. It is there to turn films into simple content to prop up an investment that ain’t paying off for them and to hell with the repercussions for anyone else. You might think that’s the right thing to do (as I say, I’m not disagreeing for the very immediate future) but this is, at its core, a huge marketing push for HBO Max. That’s not a happy silver lining – it was the main motivation behind the announcement.
Yes it is for the pandemic. Again, we’re not looking at normal life to resume in any kind of way again until early 2022 now. WB is not going sink millions in releasing films into empty or near empty movie theaters for the rest of 2021. Tenet and other films just showed that people are still too scared to go to the movies and would rather stream at home. WB/HBO is simply catering to that. And it looks like Disney/Fox are also following suit too. You’re seriously sounding like a covid denier in refusing to accept this reality that the pandemic is still raging out there and people have adjusted their lifestyles accordingly.
Covid-denier? Haha – fuck off.
And there it is, the covid denying troll exposes himself acting like a chilidish manbaby on the internet that has to result to insults because someone called him out of his stupid arguments but has the gall and lack of self awareness to say he’s having an “adult debate.” I’m sorry that you’re too much of a denialist dumbfuck to realize that no one wants to go sit in a movie theater because of the raging pandemic going on that’s killing lots of people, so the giant media corporation is making adjustments to reflect that because they’re losing piles of money releasing films to empty movie theaters. But it’s funny how you idiots aren’t the ones volunteering to go and sit in a crowded theater.
So you can take your bullshit, passive aggressive “politely, let’s agree to disagree” and shove it up your ass. Real adults who are not you know how to actually do that without flying off the handle like you just weirdly did.
Outside of the stubbornness, hypocrisy and 15 year old style hyperbolic insults in your posts, I think my favourite thing about this incredible reply is that you’ve liked all your own posts. That’s a nice summary of you.
Sooooo, you stealth edit your initial little childish and petulant rant, dismiss my reply to you, and then you reply back with screenshots of the replies that I made to you? Uh, whut?!? Is this the “adult debate” that you say you’re having? Do you think you’re being an adult here by spending your free time calling people names on the intenet?
This isn’t even the usual garden variety trolling, this is straight up unhinged batshit. And all because someone called you out your covid denialism? I think its time you logged off and took your nap.
Nice try with that one. I can play the dismiss comments game too, troll. Is this the “adult debate” that you were talking about? Buddy, the unhinged berzerker nonsense including the stealth edits you did to your initial little childish rant did and the you’re shit pulling right now is not what adults do. Troll harder.
I edited my reply as soon as I posted it. I realised you weren’t worth the words. Sorry you didn’t notice before you replied. And I’d never noticed the dismiss reply thing before – it’s pretty good, isn’t it? Especially for weird little rants like yours. Did you go back and unlike your posts? You are strange. I also know from past experience of seeing your posts that you seem to get off on these kind of debates against strangers like some teenager on Reddit so enjoy yourself but what a bore -and a cliché – you have become. Being such a big, proper grown-up I’m going to go and do something more useful.
Yeah, I call bullshit on “never noticed the dismiss button” before. But carry on with this “adult debate” you’re having. LOL! This has been very entertaining watching you “adulting.”
You’re seriously sounding like a covid denier in refusing to accept this reality that the pandemic is still raging out there and people have adjusted their lifestyles accordingly.IKR? It’s so hard to get supplies anymore with having to step over all of the dead in the streets, amirite?
This is nonsense on two parts.First, the vast majority of people care about “big name directors” , it’s branding. It’s the same reason they put their names all up on movie posters and in commercials. Directed By, Produced By, From the people that brought you, etc etc . People love familiarity. They like the idea that if this person made that, they make like this. It’s why Spielberg’s name is on so much shit he has nothing to do with.Secondly, yes, they would go to Netflix. Because time and time again, this wasn’t just about going from theater to streaming. This was about Warner’s moving their films to streaming without letting streaming sites bid and cutting everyone out of their backend money in order to prop up their streaming service. Netflix pays up front and buys out the backend money. That’s how they started getting big name talent in the first place. They’ve been doing deals like that for years now.
Yes. Everybody seems to be misunderstanding what happened here and what the repercussions are/could be. Nolan aside, the battle isn’t merely about the big screen experience (though there’s a bit of that for certain talent), it’s that the studio who for decades has been talent first, essentially bungled the way they handled their talent. And yes, they *will* go work for Netflix or any other studio. The issue isn’t this simplistic “lol they still have to go do streaming somewhere else.” THAT is the exact problem WB is potentially facing. That said, they’ll still own DC and can attract talent through that forever.
I’m so exicted to watch these movies at home since I can’t Imagine going to the movie theater until say September/October at earliest and I will still make sure to buy an empty seat next to me.I go to like 12-24 movies a year but times have changed and we need/want things to watch at home now that we will like or want to like. People complaining about being “screwed” when we all are watching people dying left and right and business boarded up because they are shut down comes across so bad.
yeah exactly. as much as i love going to the movies, i like movies being released.warner bros is the only studio with at least some ‘hey we’re actually releasing movies’ plan. i’d obviously love to ‘go back to normal’ but i’ll take ‘hey we’re going to put these on our streaming service’ over constantly pushing back release dates. and like, i agree with everyone who’s saying it was ‘not nice’ that they didn’t consult every director about their plan…but also i don’t think directors get consulted much on release date shifts or have any real say on that under any circumstances. it’s their movie. sure, the other affiliate studios who helped finance are out of luck…but, like, i’ll be honest and say i really don’t care about the minutiae of hollywood bookkeeping. if that invalidates my opinion i’ll accept that.and i mean…i genuinely don’t think we’re gonna see honest to goodness full theatres until like 2025. i agree that it’s them saying ‘hey we don’t have faith that the theatre industry will be viable by EOY, so here’s our dual release strategy’ is also…’not nice’, but i can’t say i disagree with them.
Agreed, I would like to feel bad for the directors for nothing being consulted 1st but we are in a different time and it’s about to be really quiet for a few months and also will be so dangerous outside, so releasing some movies the next 3-6 months at home right now would help a ton.I really wonder if Disney is going to release more movies to streaming soon, I can see them releasing 3 Marvel movies in October-December in theater’s being a better idea than releasing one to streaming to give people something to watch while we wait for the vaccine.
I agree that it appears the way they did it, without consulting with directors and producers sort of sucks, but I am thinking it was actually a very smart move…this pandemic isn’t ending any time soon, and the alternatives aren’t great. Release movies only in theaters, where they will get only a fraction of the expected sales, like with Tenent, or just make your blockbuster films, and sit on them until the pandemic ends…which will be when exactly (i.e. Bond). At least this way there is still some excitement, and revenue…assuming they got a pretty good deal with HBO for this arrangement, and people in the industry can keep working. Since just about everything made these days is some sort of sequel or part of a series, they can keep up the interest, end the deal with HBO after the pandemic abates, and get asses back in the seats for the next films in the series.
Yeah, I’m sure Villeneuve and James Gunn will take Dune and the DC Comics properties to other studios to do them, right?
Good luck to any big name directors getting any work considering that Disney/Fox and some of the other major studios seem to going in the same direction as the alternative is…..Netflix.
I feel so bad for Villeneuve–he thought he was improving upon Lynch’s Dune, when in fact he was just making Syfy’s Dune. Fuck a TV movie.
You should be disturbed that so many big-name directors lust for their audiences’ death. Movie theaters are just about the worst environment to be in with regard to the fucking plague that shows no signs of abating. If directors want their movies to be seen, they shouldn’t demand their audiences risk their lives to do it.
I think the post covid film industry in such a flux that it won’t matter.
The ‘Studio System’ is baa-aack!Welcome to the Golden Age of Hollywood 2.0 .
James ‘The Pedo’ Gunn seems to be fine with them.
Good luck to Warner Brothers convincing any big name directors to ever
work with them again. Especially since they reportedly didn’t even
bother to tell any of them before making the announcement.
it depends, i suppose, on how much of the theatre gross profits were slated to come over to the directors, and how much HBO cash is coming to them instead.
If i know contracts, that’d be “some” and “none”, but i don’t know contracts
Will an HBO Max release “kill the franchise,” as director Denis Villeneuve portends? We hope not.Is Villeneuve really that committed to adapting all of Dune? Because shit gets weird in the later books from what I’ve heard. Like, Paul’s son turns into a Human/Sandworm Hybrid. I applaud him for the effort though.
“All of Dune” would take longer than Villeneuve has years left in him, if we include the expanded universe milked built by his son. I’d imagine they were initially planning on adapting the first 3 books, but even this first movie is only half the first book.WB is going to have to drastically restructure their contracts if they continue with simultaneous releases, and they’re probably going to have to come up with something to appease Villeneuve and others if they expect to use their services again.
I just had a crazy thought. What if Dune is a huge hit and the WB licenses it to Universal Studios for the theme parks!!! Dune land right next to Harry Potter land. Sandworm Rollercoaster!! Vending stalls selling the “water of life” and tons of food drenched in cinnamon
Yeah, and maybe they’ll finally make that theme park and movie based on Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light that they’ve been working on since ‘79. I know we’d argo to it.
I doubt they’ll go past Children of Dune, and that’ll give them 5 movies at least.
This movie isn’t even all of the first book.
I think the worry is this movie won’t make enough money to justify making the second one, which is supposed to close out the first book.
Correct, the completion of the adaptation of the first book was going to be green lit based on the performance of the initial film.
How could it possibly make enough profit to warrant a sequel with the streaming release and COVID shutdowns? Maybe a big China box office? I don’t know if their theaters are open yet.
Realistically speaking I just want to see the second half the first movie. The rest is pretty hard to adapt and really would be better served as a series rather then a movie. Even then God Emperor of Dune gets weird.
“from what you heard”?
Dude, just read the books, they’re free online somewhere
Exactly. He should just work on making it better than Blade Runner 2049. Don’t worry about sequels. Would he even do them himself?
I briefly read it as Space Jam 2: The Conjuring, and was both baffled and captivated.
NEED
The Biggest Crossover Event in History
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but the animation style in Space Jam 2 looks very bad.
ok but I need more footage of “The Many Saints of Newark”
Being pushed back to September is good news for my Sopranos rewatch (I’ve only just finished season one) but bad news for my patience. I can’t wait for it – the casting is great. Vera Farmiga as Livia? Corey Stoll as Uncle Junior? I can’t wait.
Space Jam 2: The Devil Made Me Do It
Space Jam 2: Pay Me!
Space Jam 2: Revenge of the Space
Space Jam 2: With Strawberry
Space Jam 2: The Spacening: The Jam Made Me Do It
So, Matrix-wise, hopefully going to the theater will be a lot more desirable by the end of the year. I wonder if that could be a hit even while being released on HBO.
By the time it comes out, WB projects that technology will have advanced to the point where theatergoers will “jack in” to the movie via convenient neck ports rather than seeing it in person.
I had no clue that Joey from the Deuce was played by James Gandolfini’s son. No one in that show made me laugh louder than Joey, so I’m curious to see him try to fill his father’s shoes.
On one hand, yeah this sucks for movie theaters and it was dick move to directors. Selfishly though, I doubt I am going to be in a theater at all this year so at least I know new shit will show up quicker for home viewing. Double edged sword
this is fun isn’t it if you scroll through you’ll get blurred low resolution images 0:46 from the background that’s San Francisco there’s the figure of a woman there are other images that are identifiable as specific people or scenes from movies