Hot Rumor: Nathan Fielder Has Been Visiting Elizabeth Holmes in Prison as Part of Some Top-Secret Documentary

Happy Wednesday, folks!

Just as I predicted on Saturday, Matt Belloni used his Monday night newsletter to address the exec rumors swirling around Warner Bros., only Kim Masters wrote the story for Puck, and I thought she did a great job with it.

Masters reported that it is, indeed, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy who are in the hot seat due to their knack for spending like drunken sailors, which is exactly what they did at MGM.

Yes, I know it was Toby Emmerich who greenlit last weekend’s disappointing Mickey 17, but there have been other curious decisions — big budgets given to auteur filmmakers, which is nice in theory, but rarely pays off in practice.

I appreciate The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield for taking a break from his usual doom-and-gloom column to praise WB for a change for taking a chance on Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite, and new films from directors Paul Thomas Anderson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. But the truth is that while it’s perfectly fine to take one or two of those risks a year, I just named three 2025 releases and didn’t have to look very hard, either.

Masters adds that Zaslav is considering having Peter Safran take over the film side at WB, which makes zero sense to me… unless his DC Studios co-chief James Gunn has become such a control freak that Safran feels like there isn’t much there for him to do over there. That could explain why he’d take another position within the studio, which would allow him to work on a greater range of projects outside of comic book movies and TV shows.

That said, I’m told that the #3 at DC Studios, Chantal Nong, isn’t quite ready to replace Safran in the capacity of co-CEO, nor is she necessarily the right fit alongside Gunn, so while the WB slate may fare better under Safran, DC Studios may ultimately suffer in the long run without him taking on the brunt of business responsibilities for the studio.

Still, my jaw literally dropped when I saw that Safran was in contention to replace Mike and Pam, though Puck also cited other industry rumors suggesting that Zaslav will look for new leadership outside of the studio.

On one hand, I sympathize with De Luca and Abdy, as you have to be willing to spend money to make money — and that means shelling out for top-tier material. But does PTA’s latest really sound like top-tier material? It could very well turn out to be a masterpiece, but it sure feels like a risk from my vantage point.

Even Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s next film, due in 2026, is a risk, albeit one mitigated by the presence of Tom Cruise, who signed a deal with Warners back in January 2024. Could DC have plans for Cruise? It’s possible… though I can only imagine him as Batman or as Superman’s biological father, Jor-El. There are said to be some major casting surprises in Gunn’s Superman, and I imagine Jor-El is one of them, so stay tuned on that front…

I thought it might be Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt — and who knows, it still might be — but a source suggested that Gunn wouldn’t do that to Marvel’s Kevin Feige, seeing as how we likely haven’t seen the last of Star-Lord in the MCU.

Zaslav could, of course, be scapegoating De Luca and Abdy for his own poor instincts, as it was he, for example, who decided to back Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights to the tune of nearly $50 million. I didn’t mention that one on Saturday because I knew it was Zaslav’s baby.

Puck’s sources also took issue with De Luca and Abdy agreeing to Ryan Coogler’s unusual demands on Sinners, as select rights will revert back to Coogler after a certain period of time — an ask that was reportedly an immediate dealbreaker for Universal and Sony, the latter of which gave such a deal to Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Even if something isn’t going on at Warner Bros., this recent spate of articles is bad for business, for the mere perception of weakness in this industry can end studio regimes prematurely. Stay tuned, as I suspect that dominoes are about to fall all over town…

Tonight, you’ll read a hot rumor about the federal inmate Nathan Fielder has been spending time with for a top-secret project. Plus, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink joins the MCU, but will she be playing the X-Men character I had her pegged as? The answer isn’t so simple…

There are also items about Netflix’s Cujo remake, Daniel Craig heading to Narnia, Russell Crowe’s spy flick, the barren red carpet for Snow White, a new take on The Elephant Man, Metallica coming to Apple, Tony Hinchcliffe coming to Netflix, Michael B. Jordan’s latest love interest, and a look at Season 4 of Hacks on Max.

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