Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 22, 2022, 12:00:48 PM
Supposedly, Zazlab said that cancelling Batgirl will save them $20 million in taxes. Can anyone explain how this work?

I don't see why the costs associated with the movie wouldn't be tax deductible in the first place. The only thing I can think of is that since the movie was scheduled for 2023, cancelling the movie in 2022 means they put all the loss on their 2022 returns. I've seen other companies do this. When you know that you are going to take a loss, moving losses from next year to this years means you have one really bad year, but the following year will look better.

IOW, better to lose $70 million in 2022 when you have tons of losses already than lose $50 million next year when you are supposedly recovering.

Hollywood accounting is a notoriously dark art anyway but apart from that I am guessing the tax write off for a movie that made literally nothing is considerably more than one which is balancing that against some revenue.

Quote from: Reckall on August 22, 2022, 12:43:16 PM

Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 22, 2022, 12:00:48 PM
Supposedly, Zazlab said that cancelling Batgirl will save them $20 million in taxes. Can anyone explain how this work?

They didn't say much. Basically, since there has been a merger the new management can cancel projects born under the previous management and take a tax deduction (or something similar: this is not my field). They also said that the "window" for doing this will close at the end of August.

Zaslav, for sure, is cutting things left and right. There is an ongoing bloodbath at Warner.

And the REEEEEEEEEEEING is glorious.

Nice, now if only some other stuff would get cancelled or put under new management.

Recently, the director commented that Batgirl was "far from finished". They still had some scenes to film (reshoots?) and none of the special effects had been completed. This confirms what most of us thought anyway and makes the cancellation a little less extreme.

In related news, Shazam 2 was pushed to 2023 and Aquaman 2 was delayed by nine months.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 25, 2022, 10:09:33 AM
Recently, the director commented that Batgirl was "far from finished". They still had some scenes to film (reshoots?) and none of the special effects had been completed. This confirms what most of us thought anyway and makes the cancellation a little less extreme.

Well, no While it is known that the movie still needed some last minute polishing, it was basically 95% finished. This kind of polish usually involves tighten the edit a bit or maybe reshoot some bit scenes to clarify some plot point.

The director is "amazed, bitter, contemplating suicide" so to better rally the Twitter mobs. Same the actors. But "far from finished" is a flat out lie. Even if it was true, Zaslav told the investors that for the movie Warner already spent $90 millions. It would be illegal to lie about that in an investor conference. And the test audiences confirmed that it sucked badly. Zaslav sunk it because it literally damaged the DC brand - which is already ailing.

Quote
In related news, Shazam 2 was pushed to 2023 and Aquaman 2 was delayed by nine months.

These are news to me but I'm not surprised. It is known that Aquaman 2 needed reshoots due to Ben Affleck returning as Batman (but that part is already done) and the whole "Amber Heard situation" still up in the air. I know that Shazam 2 tested fine and anyway it is separated from the main DCEU. Maybe Zaslav wants to restart with a slate of good movies coming out not widely spaced in time, or do some reshoots that will actually bring Shazam closer to the DCEU.

And we still have the whole The Flash problem. Recently Ezra Miller wrote a message to the fans where he said "Sigh, sob, I recognise that I did horrible things, I have mental health problems, I'll check into a facility". Interestingly enough, this weepy confession was put out by Warner, not by Ezra...

There are some things we know for sure: the old management wanted a new "holy trinity" composed by Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Woman. Zaslav wants to make money. Since the two things are not compatible a lot of things are changing behind the scenes - both in the people involved and in the upcoming movies themselves.

The latest word on the housecleaning at DC concerns DC Comics itself. Seems that heads may roll there as well.

That would be long overdue, IMHO.

And if Jim Lee has to go back to drawing comic books, well, win-win.

Quote from: Lurkndog on August 27, 2022, 09:20:07 AM
The latest word on the housecleaning at DC concerns DC Comics itself. Seems that heads may roll there as well.

That would be long overdue, IMHO.

And if Jim Lee has to go back to drawing comic books, well, win-win.

Any real fix necesitas firing all the HR people and any D.I.E. related departments, if they don't aby "fix" will be at best temporary and pretty soon the allegations of istophobia, sexual misconduct etc will start.

These are real actual comic book covers, if I were Zaslav I would stop ALL publishing, fire al the woke from the top down including HR and all D.I.E. related departments.

https://twitter.com/travisbhill5/status/1563583215746830336

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 27, 2022, 09:44:08 PM
These are real actual comic book covers, if I were Zaslav I would stop ALL publishing, fire al the woke from the top down including HR and all D.I.E. related departments.

https://twitter.com/travisbhill5/status/1563583215746830336

Good lord, those are stupid.

First pic: Kyle Rayner, carrying a green flag reading VIVA MEXICO and a bag of tamales. First off, I wasn't aware Rayner is Hispanic to start with, and second, boy, is that half-assed if he is.

Second pic: Jessica Cruz standing over several defeated villains and... eating a burrito. Um. OK. A little puzzled at the theme I'm seeing here...

Third pic: Blue Beetle III (Jaime Reyes) in what looks like a bizarrely uncomfortable pose (wouldn't surprise me if that stance was repurposed from a Spider-Man cover)... holding TWO burritos. GUYS WE KNOW, HE'S HISPANIC.

Fourth pic: Hawkgirl and... what? She's waitressing in a Hispanic restaurant? Why?

It's not JUST that it's idpol, it's garbage. I was listening to a friend whimper about 'all the cool projects Zaslav is killing'. If this is indicative of the quality of work coming out, then he should keep swinging that axe, by all means.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on August 28, 2022, 12:20:12 AM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 27, 2022, 09:44:08 PM
These are real actual comic book covers, if I were Zaslav I would stop ALL publishing, fire al the woke from the top down including HR and all D.I.E. related departments.

https://twitter.com/travisbhill5/status/1563583215746830336

Good lord, those are stupid.

First pic: Kyle Rayner, carrying a green flag reading VIVA MEXICO and a bag of tamales. First off, I wasn't aware Rayner is Hispanic to start with, and second, boy, is that half-assed if he is.

Second pic: Jessica Cruz standing over several defeated villains and... eating a burrito. Um. OK. A little puzzled at the theme I'm seeing here...

Third pic: Blue Beetle III (Jaime Reyes) in what looks like a bizarrely uncomfortable pose (wouldn't surprise me if that stance was repurposed from a Spider-Man cover)... holding TWO burritos. GUYS WE KNOW, HE'S HISPANIC.

Fourth pic: Hawkgirl and... what? She's waitressing in a Hispanic restaurant? Why?

It's not JUST that it's idpol, it's garbage. I was listening to a friend whimper about 'all the cool projects Zaslav is killing'. If this is indicative of the quality of work coming out, then he should keep swinging that axe, by all means.

Yeah, Kyle is of Mexican descent IIRC.

Dude he should shut down the comics division and clean house, then restart it with sane people only.

With DC and Marvel at present, it's not just the creative side of the business that is bankrupt, their business model doesn't work either.

The direct comics market is a creepy inbred failure, and circulation for "mainstream" titles is down below what an indie comic would have pulled in the 1980s.

There was a time around the 2010s when Archie Comics was pummeling Marvel and DC, because Archie still had mainstream sales of things like their Comics Digest titles, which were in regular stores and sold through a modest but steady mail order business. Archie has since gone woke and lost a lot of customers, I'm not sure where they are at now.

Kyle Rayner was a true American blend back in the day; (legal) Mexican immigrant father and an Irish mother.

And at this point; burn the comics parts of DC and Marvel to the ground. They're nothing but trademark holding bins until the parent companies can get around to using them in other media.

Quote from: Chris24601 on August 28, 2022, 08:51:33 AM
Kyle Rayner was a true American blend back in the day; (legal) Mexican immigrant father and an Irish mother.

And at this point; burn the comics parts of DC and Marvel to the ground. They're nothing but trademark holding bins until the parent companies can get around to using them in other media.

They're also a cheap way to develop new storylines and characters, if they're done well. As well as an income stream in their own right.

Quote from: Lurkndog on August 30, 2022, 11:29:24 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on August 28, 2022, 08:51:33 AM
Kyle Rayner was a true American blend back in the day; (legal) Mexican immigrant father and an Irish mother.

And at this point; burn the comics parts of DC and Marvel to the ground. They're nothing but trademark holding bins until the parent companies can get around to using them in other media.

They're also a cheap way to develop new storylines and characters, if they're done well. As well as an income stream in their own right.

Only till the rights holders completely ruin the IP. Which seems to happen like clockwork. And even the ones that succeed rnd up getting dragged down eventually.

Due to the backlash DC recanted the Kyle Rainer with tamales cover and will use the original that pays homage to La Patria.

LOL.