El Squibbonator

They'd better. The way things are looking now, they're going to have another Lightyear on their hands.

I didn't mean to slack off like this again, I really didn't. But to make it up to you guys, I'm going to knock out both September and October today, followed by November and December tomorrow. September: October

Fossil Record Animation Conference Reveals Studio Plans Hot on the heels of Fossil Record's collaboration with Peter Chung and C. M. Kosemen, the company held a shareholder meeting today in which they revealed a great deal about the company's upcoming plans. The actual meeting was several hours in length, and cannot be reproduced here in its entirety. However, with Mark Pierce's permission, we have compiled a list of the highlights from it that will likely affect the studio's plans going forward. -- Citing the lackluster critical reception to Dinosaucers, Molly and Emmet, and last year's Frankenstein Jr., The Workshop-- Fossil Record's label for children's and family films-- will be reorganized. No currently-in-production Workshop movies have been cancelled, but they will proceed with more oversight from the main Fossil Record movie division than they did before. -- In The Piper's Wake will take the previously established release date of The Xenoscope in Y10, due to it being more complete. The new release date for The Xenoscope is unknown, but most analysts expect it to be in Y11 or Y12. -- Pat Mills, creator of Judge Dredd and other famous British comics, was mentioned to be "in talks" with the studio regarding the upcoming 2000 AD movie adaptations-- Judge Dredd, Flesh, Strontium Dog, and ABC Warriors. His actual role in the movie is unknown. A spinoff ABC Warriors TV series was also stated to be in the planning stages, but nothing more was said about it. -- A previously-unknown movie was revealed. Titled Fishergirls, its release date, rating, and director are unknown, but the poster at the conference shows a tiny wooden sailboat underneath a pink sky with two moons, with three figures standing on it.

Don't know if it counts as a "franchise", per se, but I want to adapt this weird little piece of online fiction.

Because I've been slacking off, I'm going to do August today too.

It's probably going to be Hulu. They already have other Cartoon Network series on there.

Just to clarify, the Batman: Caped Crusader cartoon has not been cancelled. It was planned for a simultaneous release on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, and will still be airing on the latter as part of its ACME Night block. But it will not be streaming on HBO Max; the company is instead shopping it out to other streaming services. Not trying to downplay the severity of all this by any means, just making sure we don't get carried away with misconceptions.

I was talking stuff like Batgirl.

As of July, word is that it's looking at a theatrical release instead of, or as well as, an HBO Max one.

I dunno, people still watched House of the Dragon in record numbers. If they put something on it that people want to watch, they'll watch it. Warner Bros. is shooting itself in the foot right now.

Did it ever occur to them that the reason they've lost so many subs is because they're taking stuff off the service?

So how come theatrical movies and shows on legacy TV seem to be safe, for the most part? It's only HBO Max that they're gutting.

Essentially, yes. At least that's my reading of all this. All of the cancellations we've seen have been for shows and movies intended exclusively for HBO Max. Those that were intended for theatrical release, or for traditional television, have for the most part been unaffected. Notice how Batman: Caped Crusader is being shopped out to other streaming services? There's a reason for that. See, Batman: Caped Crusader was intended for both HBO Max and Cartoon Network, so while it's no longer going to premier on HBO Max as per the original plan, it's presumably still going to air on Cartoon Network. I'm not entirely sure what Zaslav hopes to gain from gutting HBO Max, but whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be affecting theatrical movies or linear TV. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that's the case, because if he were to set his sights on those other areas I would lose what little sanity I have left.

There will be some, I'm sure, but according to the insider leaks I read, they won't be as severe as we've been afraid. Most "high-level" creative staff who have signed distribution deals with the company after the merger will be staying.

So I don't know if it's been discussed here, but here are a number of takeaways from the aftermath of the WB shareholder's meeting. You can find most of them at that link, but here are a few of the more interesting ones. Much of this information is from Hollywood insider David Poland. The panel were asked how they expect the creative community to work with them after axing a near-completed project, and they said it was a "one-time instance" and said their commitment to movie theaters would attract the right talent. They vehemently denied the rumors that the layoffs would affect Warner Bros'. creative teams The layoffs are expected to come between August and September. More information on the cancellation of Batgirl was revealed. Long story short, Discovery-WB never actually signed off on it, and they considered it an undesirable leftover from the previous owners. They could cancel it without it looking bad on their books, because they weren't the ones who green-lit it. Movies, TV shows, and distribution deals that were approved after the Discovery merger should be considered safe unless proven otherwise. These include Peacemaker season 2, the Amanda Waller spin-off, Matt Reeves’ stuff (a new Batman animated show, plus shows about Arkham Asylum and The Penguin), and the Green Lantern show. So, yeah, still not good news exactly, but not as bad as some of the more sensational articles have led us to believe.

Speaking of A24, why didn't they give Marcel the Shell a bigger release than they did?

You mean this article?

I'm not sure, to be honest. But there's no way he's working at WB for much longer. But another person I'm curious, and a little nervous, about is Genndy Tartakovsky. He's in a rather interesting position in that, on the one hand, he's a legacy producer with a lot of clout at the company, being the creator of Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Primal. But on the other hand, the sort of things he's making now-- Primal and something called Unicorn: Warriors Eternal-- don't particularly strike me as the sort of thing a studio trying to cut down on risky projects would want to fund, even if Primal did win five Emmys. WB signed an exclusive distribution deal with him in June, which was already after the Discovery merger, so make of that what you will.

Stepping away from The Flash for a moment, do we have a good idea of what directors, producers, and other creators are likely to be handed the pink slip in the near future-- not just in movies, but in TV too? I've seen some speculation that J. J. Abrams's deal with WB might not last much longer, since it was signed in 2019 and hasn't really amounted to anything, to say nothing of the fact that his TV show Demimonde was cancelled in June for going over-budget.

Fossil Record Collaborates with Chung and Kosemen About two weeks ago, Fossil Record Studios CEO Mark Pierce cryptically alluded to "new talent" that would bolster the fledgling animation studio's reputation. Now, it seems, the identities of at least two of those people have been unofficially revealed, thanks to social media posts. Both are veteran artists who have a reputation for making the kind of offbeat work Fossil Record strives to release under its main label. Three days ago, Peter Chung (best known as the creator of the TV series Aeon Flux) tweeted "#BlackWater" and an emoji of a whale in response to a fan inquiring if he had any upcoming film or TV projects. Black Water is the title of an upcoming Fossil Record film with no set director or date, which has been described as a "hard-R animated horror movie" about a young pilot whale enduring the grindadrapp, or Faroese whaling season. While it is unknown if Chung is in fact the movie's director or if he has another role, his surreal, dark animation that made him so famous with Aeon Flux fits quite well with the movie based on what is known about it. The other collaborator, surprisingly, is not an animator or even a filmmaker at all, but Turkish science-fiction artist Cevdet Mehmet Kosemen. He is most famous as the writer and illustrator of All Tomorrows, a novel about the future evolution of humanity that became an internet sensation last year. Unlike Chung, Kosemen directly confirmed his involvement with Fossil Record, going on to say, "The rumors are true-- Snaiad is becoming a movie! I've been tapped by Fossil Record Studios for an undisclosed position." Snaiad is Kosemen's longest-running project, an online field guide to the wildlife of an alien planet. The plot of the upcoming Snaiad animated movie is unknown, as is whether or not it will employ Kosemen's signature watercolor style of drawing. While being careful not to name the new talent, Pierce spoke excitedly about them at a conference today. "We're excited to have contributors who are outside our normal wheelhouse-- people who are, as I see it, real artists, not just Hollywood animators."

I made American Spy the third March review.