Warner Bros unveiled a packed lineup of big-screen films at CinemaCon on Tuesday, from a live-action Barbie comedy to Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg’s remake of The Color Purple to celebrate the centenary year of the studio. The Hollywood studio also used its presentation at the annual Las Vegas gathering for a “10-year plan” to relaunch its DC superhero films, which include beloved characters such as Batman and Superman.
David Zaslav, who spearheaded last year’s corporate merger of Warner and Discovery, took to the stage personally to address an audience predominantly of theatre owners.
As reported by Variety, “We don’t want to do direct-to-streaming movies,” said Zaslav, whose predecessor was slammed for releasing Warner films directly onto its streaming platform HBO Max – recently rebranded as Max. “We’re in no rush to bring the movies to Max,” he added.
In a two-and-a-half-hour presentation, Zaslav and fellow Warner bosses brought out A-list stars including Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya.
Robbie and Gosling co-star in ‘Barbie’, which finds the ubiquitous blonde doll living in a dreamlike, pink-hued world, before one day starting to question her idealistic reality and travelling to real-life Los Angeles.
“Everyone knows Barbie, and she’s never been on the big screen before,” said director Greta Gerwig, who drew inspiration from “The Wizard of Oz” as well as disco music culture.
“They made life-size Barbie houses… everything was extraordinary,” she said.