100 Years Of Warner Bros. Trailer: Four Documentary Specials Dig Into The Movie Studio's History
Warner Bros. Discovery has been going all out for its 100-year anniversary, starting by reimagining classics from their catalog such as "A Star is Born" and "Rebel Without a Cause." Even beloved Warner brand TCM is getting in on the action, with a slate of remasters of classic films being announced in March of this year. And now, it looks like we're getting a full retelling of the whole Warner Bros. story, with four documentary specials set to hit the revamped Max service (which replaces HBO Max).
"100 Years of Warner Bros.," narrated by Morgan Freeman (naturally) and directed by Leslie Iwerks ("The Imagineering Story," "Recycled Life"), will arrive starting on May 25, 2023, the same date Warner Discovery debuts the new Max service. The first two specials are set to arrive on that date, followed by the third and fourth on June 1. According to a release from the studio, the series will explore, "the impact of Warner Bros. on art, commerce and culture," telling "the unprecedented story of the fabled entertainment studio on its 100th anniversary."
Warner Discovery also dropped a trailer for the ambitious project, which showcases the numerous interviews with directors, actors, executives, journalists, and historians that lent their insights to the film. In fact, it seems Iwerks managed to conduct more than 60 interviews for "100 Years of Warner Bros." which should make for an exhaustive and comprehensive retelling of the studio's history from the people that were there to see it happen.
100 years in four films
Founded in 1923 by Albert, Sam, Harry, and Jack Warner, Warner Bros. was first incorporated on April 4 of that year. And Warner Discovery looks to be celebrating the impressive milestone throughout 2023, with the aforementioned remakes of Warner classics set to start production this summer. It's all part of the studio's "Celebrating Every Story" campaign to commemorate its 100th year, and the "100 Years of Warner Bros." films are yet another part of the festivities.
And it looks as though the films will delve deep, charting the studio's history from the very beginning right the way through to its current incarnation as Warner Bros. Discovery. The first film, entitled, "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" will recount the founding of the studio and the transition from silent films to "talkies, before the second installment "Clint, Kubrick, and Kryptonite" chronicles the studio's story through the 1960s and '70s and will, presumably feature a lot of Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, and Richard Donner's 1978 blockbuster-defining classic "Superman."
On June 1, 2023, Max will drop the last two entries, with "Heroes, Villains, and Friends" taking us through the '80s and introducing, "a new generation" that "helps crown Warner Bros. as a forerunner in Hollywood's blockbuster age," and helps cement the studio as an entertainment juggernaut. The final installment, entitled "Wizarding World and The Big Bang," rounds out the series by focusing on the modern era and hopefully limiting the amount of "Big Bang Theory" content we're exposed to.
A bittersweet celebration
While "100 Years of Warner Bros." looks to be a fittingly epic retelling of the studio's history, the whole anniversary celebration is somewhat bittersweet. Warner Bros. Discovery has axed $825 million worth of content since the Warner/Discovery merger and CEO David Zaslav has confirmed plans to can $2 billion more as part of a brutal cost-saving effort. But according to the studio head, who provided a statement following the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, the worst may be over thanks to his efforts to "reposition" the businesses, "to take full advantage of the many opportunities ahead."
Thus far, his ruthless approach has seemingly had some effect, with WB's mountainous debt reportedly shrinking from $57 million in 2022 to $49.5 billion as of February 2023. It remains to be seen how the HBO Max rebranding will affect things, but "100 Years of Warner Bros." looks like a suitably spectacular way to kick off the platform's launch.
Still, you can't help but feel Albert, Sam, Harry, and Jack Warner might be dismayed to see the state of their studio in 2023. And with the tepid response to the recently-announced "Harry Potter" reboot series, I'm not sure things are headed in the right direction. But there are reasons to be optimistic, with "The Flash" looking like it could give Warner and DC a much-needed hit and perhaps even overcome the general superhero movie fatigue among modern audiences. "True Detective" season 4 looks like it could be a good one for Max, while James Gunn is readying a whole new slate of DC movies that, based on the success of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" I'm not entirely pessimistic about.