The tenure of J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot at Warner Bros. Television will hit the 20-year mark. After months of negotiations, the company has closed a new film and TV deal with Warner Bros., sources tell Deadline. The pact is believed to be two-year, first-look, non-exclusive in both areas.
It succeeds Bad Robot’s previous big five-year exclusive deal, signed in 2019 at the height of the Peak TV-fueled overall deal bubble. That $250M agreement was among a number of big-ticket items that came under scrutiny following the April 2022 close of the Warner. Bros.-Discovery merger when HBO pulled the plug on Abrams’ sci-fi drama Demimonde.
Ultimately, Bad Robot’s deal proceeded, and the company saw a couple of new series get on the air this summer, Caped Crusader, which launched on Prime Video, and David E. Kelley’s Presumed Innocent for Apple TV+, which started as a limited series but was renewed for a second season after becoming the streamer’s #1 drama launch. Three documentaries/docuseries, Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes and Yankees Win, also debuted this summer.
The TV marketplace is not where it used to be five years ago when Bad Robot’s previous WB pact was made, with overall deals down significantly in volume and price tags post-PeakTV on the heels of the pandemic and the double Hollywood strikes amid industry contraction and belt-tightening at the legacy media companies. In many cases, overall pacts are succeeded by less-expensive first-look deals which give creatives flexibility. That is the case with Bad Robot at Warner Bros.
Coming up for the Bad Robot is drama series Duster on Max, with Speed Racer among other shows in the works. On the film side, the company has a slew of projects in development, with its first movie under for Warner Bros. deal, Flowervale Street, slated for 2025 release. Abrams also is directing his first feature in years with a mystery WB film, which is eying start of production at the beginning of 2025.
Abrams has been at Warner Bros. TV for 18 years. His company Bad Robot had been based at Paramount before he signed the film and TV deal with Warner Bros. in 2019.