‘The Batman’ Filmmaker Matt Reeves Inks Overall Film, TV Deal With Warner Bros.
The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves is staying in the Warner Bros. family. Reeves and his 6th & Idaho banner have signed a first-look deal with the film studio and re-upped with Warner Bros. TV, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Reeves is attached to direct and co-write a sequel to The Batman, the Robert Pattinson film that grossed $770.8 million globally this year. He will pen the script with Mattson Tomlin, who worked on the first installment. On the TV side, Warners is moving forward with a spinoff starring Colin Farrell as the Penguin, the villain he played in The Batman. Reeves also previously developed a series focused on Gotham’s police, but that has been reconceived as centering on Arkham, the institution for villains in this world. It is unclear if that series will come to fruition.
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The deal comes at a tumultuous time for Warners following the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, which has seen new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav seek $3 billion in cost savings. Among the casualties has been Batgirl, an already filmed HBO Max project that was shelved as a tax write-down earlier this month.
A Reeves project is also among the casualties of cost-cutting. On Monday, news broke that the Reeves-produced animated series Batman: Caped Crusader will no longer have a home on HBO Max. However, according to sources, the series is deep into production and will be shopped elsewhere.
Reeves is a cerebral filmmaker who also creates projects with mass appeal. Before Batman, he helmed the final two installments of the Planet of the Apes prequel series. He cut his teeth directing Cloverfield, the 2008 found footage hit.
Reeves is the first filmmaker to receive a first-look deal under the leadership of new Warners film bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. Securing Reeves comes at a time in which the studio seeks to assure filmmakers that it is still a talent-friendly studio in the wake of Batgirl’s cancellation.
“Making this legendary studio my home is a dream,” said Reeves in a statement. “I am so excited to be working with Mike, Pam, and [Warner Bros. Television Group chairman] Channing [Dungey] and our teams to bring captivating stories I am truly passionate about to the big and small screen.”
Deadline first reported the news.
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