Credit: DC / Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has been at the center of several controversies lately as the studio struggles to bounce back from a series of bad decisions and poorly performing movies.
Arguably one of Warner Bros. biggest franchises is DC, which has struggled to gain a foothold with fans as Marvel has continuously set the standard for superhero films. In 2021, then-CEO of Warner Bros. decided to move every scheduled release straight to streaming, skipping a theatrical release, in a move that cost the studio Christopher Nolan and his upcoming blockbuster, Oppenheimer. Warner Bros. has also since merged with Discovery Media, rebranding the iconic HBO Max streaming service as just “Max,” and pulling a variety of content from the platform.
Now, as the studio undergoes an executive shakeup, including gutting several leaders for Turner Classic Movies (TCM), an article from 2020 is making the rounds again as an underscore of the current goings-on under current CEO David Zaslav. The article comes from a 2020 report from The Hollywood Reporter describing Warner Bros.’ decision to lean in artificial intelligence.
AI has become a major issue in the last several months, prompting a WGA strike as writers fight for better pay and a promise to keep AI out of the film industry, with SAG poised to join them at the end of the month. The projected use of Warner’s AI, at least as explained in the article, was to “guide decision-making at the greenlight stage,” stating that it can assess “the value of a star in any territory and how much a film is expected to make.”
It was expected to help reduce the amount of time spent on certain tasks and give executives a better idea of what stories would work best and make the most money. Essentially, it would mean that movie pitches would have to be created to beat an algorithm in order to see any kind of progress. The article has started to recirculate as many blame Zaslav for the string of recent decisions to gut several existing brands under the WBD umbrella.
Interestingly, the new studio chiefs appointed by Zaslav were pulled from the former MGM Studios, where they were experimenting with trying to greenlight smaller, more independent ideas. Coming on to Warner Bros., they’ve stated that it’s a principle they intend to keep and dive deeper into, allowing newcomer filmmakers as well as established names the ability for more creative freedom.
It’s unclear exactly how much, if any, involvement the AI programming has had on recent projects or decisions, even more so with the new chiefs looking to promote broader ideas, but it’s certainly helping make a case against why studios shouldn’t use artificial programming. As writers, actors, and fans fight against its use, even a studio like Marvel has started to embrace the technology, making it anyone’s guess who might be next.
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