Yesterday evening, the news broke that J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot have inexplicably managed to sign a new multi-year film and TV deal with Warner Bros.
The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker filmmaker has produced little to nothing for the studio since signing a $250 million deal in 2019 (including a now-scrapped slate of Justice League Dark TV shows) but according to Puck, this new contract will be for significantly less money.
Elsewhere in the piece, various updates are shared about similar deals, including Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller's partnership with Sony Pictures Television.
The duo signed a five-year, nine-figure TV deal with the studio in 2019, with the idea being that they'd oversee a slate of Spider-Man projects on streaming. Despite Sony's habit of producing terrible Marvel movies like Morbius and Madame Web, this partnership generated a fair bit of excitement among fans.
The first of those TV shows, Silk: Spider Society, was scrapped earlier this year after two years in development. Now, Amazon is moving forward with the Nic Cage-led Spider-Noir, even after it "endured a heated fight over its budget."
As a result, "Sony is not expected to renew the deal, which did, however, deliver two seasons of another pricey show: the Apple TV+ anthology series The Afterparty."
With Lord and Miller no longer overseeing these small screen Spider-Man TV shows, it's hard to escape the feeling that they'll head the way of Sony's failed efforts to expand the wall-crawler's world in theaters.
Other interesting tidbits in the report include an update on Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Amazon deal to develop a new Tomb Raider series. Apparently, "many insiders placing bets on whether it will ever come to fruition."
Back to Noir and it's been said that Cage is playing Ben Reilly in a series which tells the story "of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero."
As we previously reported, Oren Uziel (Mortal Kombat) and Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher) are co-showrunners and developed the series with Lord, Miller, and Pascal, who will executive produce the series.
"Expanding the Marvel universe with 'Noir'; is a uniquely special opportunity and we are honored to bring this series to our global Prime Video customers," said Vernon Sanders, head of television for Amazon MGM Studios, earlier this year.
"The extremely talented Nicolas Cage is an ideal choice for our new superhero and the accomplished producing team with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, and the incredible team at Sony is dedicated to expanding this franchise in the most authentic way."
As always, stay tuned for updates.