Breaking news. TheWrap award-winning journalist Sharon Waxman posted today that Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull might be looking at offers from rival studios to decide whether or not to renew contract with Warner Bros.
The Legendary Pictures contract with Warner Bros is nigh at the end of its 8-year agreement. Right now, Thomas Tull hasn’t taken any decisions, but he will have one within the next 60 days (2 months).
This might be critical in a few ways. Recently, the Duncan Jones-directed Warcraft film was confirmed to start rolling cameras on the first quarter of 2014.
If Thomas Tull renews the contract with Warner Bros, everything keeps moving forward. However, if Legendary Pictures signed in with another studios the outcome is unknown for current and upcoming projects’ schedules.
According to The Wrap, the big studio eyeing Legendary Pictures is no other than NBC Universal. Now this part of the breaking news is extremely interesting. NBC Universal was founded in August 2004 after the merger of General Electric’s NBC with Vivendi’s Vivendi Universal Entertainment.
Activision Blizzard was a merger between Activision, Inc. and Vivendi Games. Unless there have been any changes since 2007, former Management Board of Vivendi and Chairman of Vivendi Games René Penisson is currently Chairman Activision Blizzard.
Legendary CEO Thomas Tull has been meeting with rival studios to decide whether he wants to leave Warner’s when his contract is up at the end of the year on the heels of tension with executives there. He said last week he’d decide within 60 days.
NBCU is in first position to make the deal, which could be done by the end of the week, one of the individuals said. It would be a multi-pronged partnership involving distribution rights to Tull’s movies, co-financing of Universal movies and television partnership. — source
Probably, it would be a good idea to sign another 8-years with Warner Bros. The Man of Steel with Cavill has been successful, and Man of Steel 2 is already rumored (listed) at IMDB. The issue here for Legendary Pictures is that Warner Bros owns DC Entertainment (DC Comics) and the Superman license.
The Man of Steel cost 225 million and has earned $398.3 million worldwide up to this point, currently third-place at the box office in United States (ComingSoon.net).
Warner Bros owns the following properties: Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Entertainment. Warner is also co-owner of the CW Television Network.
NBCUniversal Media, LLC owns the following subsidiaries: NBC, Universal Pictures, Universal Parks & Resorts, Focus Features, Telemundo, USA Network, Syfy, Chiller, E!, G4, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC.com, NBCNews.com, iVillage, PictureBox Movies, Bravo, Style, Telemundo Television Studios, The Weather Channel, ShopNBC, and Hulu. Divisions: NBCUniversal Television Group, NBC News, NBC Sports Group. In turn NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast. Comcast has holdings on Style Network, and the Golf Channel.
As of 2012, Comcast had a revenue of US$ 62.570 billion. Its subsidiary, NBCUniversal had a revenue of US$ 21.124 Billion in 2011.
As of 2012, Warner Bros revenue was US$ 12 billion.
What do you think about the possibility of Legendary Pictures joining NBC Universal? Would you rather want Legendary Pictures to renew contract with Warner Bros?
Recent Warcraft Film news
May 31, 2013 – Recently, Charles Roven (producer) announced plans to begin shooting the Warcraft film early 2014.
April 30, 2013 – Blizzard Entertainment Careers Team was looking for a Storyboard Artist with Film experience (instead of Cinematics experience).
April 25, 2013 – Bill Westenhoffer joined Legendary Pictures as VFX Supervisor for the Warcraft Film.
My rundown on Warcraft film news and activity spanning 2012 – 2013 can be found here.
