James Gunn and Peter Safran, the heads of Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios, will continue to lead the film, TV and comic book production arm and do what they do best after Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Once upon a time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in the hands of Paramount, having struck a distribution deal with the comic book label and launching the megaverse with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America And Iron Man 2. Then Marvel turned to Disney, which earned them $4 billion in 2009. With DC, Paramount undoubtedly gains a huge franchise in its library that already includes Star Trek, Ninja Turtles, And Mission: Impossible.
We hear the duo recently met with Skydance’s new co-CEO David Ellison about their future and things went well. According to reports this morning, all film units, Paramount and Warner Bros., report to Paramount Pictures co-presidents Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. The futures of Warner Bros. motion picture presidents Michel De Luca and Pamela Abdy remain up in the air at the recently renamed entertainment conglomerate Skydance; this duo still needs to talk with Ellison.
Gunn shot the Superman following The man of tomorrow, which is scheduled for release on July 9, 2027. The label Face of clay, about the Batman antagonist, is their first low-budget genre film, which will be released on October 23. Warner Bros.’ second highest-grossing film last year was Gunn’s. Superman with over $618 million at the worldwide box office. Matt Reeves’ sequel is also in production at DC. The Batman Part II set for February 18, 2028. Last summer, Supergirl didn’t do very well, with an overall gross of $126.4 million.
Meanwhile, the DC-HBO Max series Lanterns was an audience success. Co-created by Tom King, Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy, its third episode attracted 10 million viewers worldwide in its first three days, including 7 million in the United States. Lanterns Launched on August 16, the pilot was seen by more than 20 million viewers worldwide and continues to grow, the company said. The series launched as one of HBO Max’s top titles.
Safran and Gunn were named to head DC Studios in October 2022 as part of a new label strategy orchestrated by WBD CEO David Zaslav to mimic the structure of Disney’s production hub of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, etc., with myriad production heads. This was arguably the first time (unless you count Charlie Chaplin) that a filmmaker, Gunn, pulled double duty as studio head.
Safran has already had a good run at Warners/New Line with the billionaire The conspiracy franchise and also producing DC franchise titles like Shazam And Aquaman. Safran had produced on Gunn’s 2021 The suicide squad film and its HBO Max spin-off series Peacemaker with John Cena, which has two seasons.
All this according to sources Friday morning. Paramount and DC could not be reached for comment.
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