They’ve been courted by every major studio in Hollywood, but now it appears that J.J. Abrams and co-Bad Robot CEO Katie McGrath are close to signing a $500 million dollar deal with WarnerMedia.
The sweepstakes to land a massive overall deal with Bad Robot, the famed production company run by J.J. Abrams and his wife and co-CEO, Katie McGrath, is nearing the finish line.
Following a monthslong courting process that included multiple suitors, WarnerMedia is in final negotiations for a new partnership with Bad Robot, sources say. It’s unclear how many years the new agreement is for, as the deal that would keep Abrams with the company he has called home since 2006 has not yet been finalized. Still, sources have estimated that any new pact for Bad Robot could be valued in the $500 million vicinity when all is said and done. That would put the deal at the top of the recent wave of nine-figure pacts for prolific producers, including Greg Berlanti ($400 million from Warner Bros. TV), Ryan Murphy ($300 million from Netflix) and Shonda Rhimes ($100 million from Netflix).
Under the deal, Abrams and company will continue to create and develop new projects for WarnerMedia and supervise other producers across film, TV and digital platforms. Sources say the process of moving Bad Robot’s feature film deal over from Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures has already begun.
Representatives for WarnerMedia and Bad Robot declined comment.
With Abrams deep in the editing process on The Rise of Skywalker, does this mean that he’s scratched his Star Wars itch for the final time, never to return to Star Wars at Disney (or Star Trek at Paramount for that matter), or does this deal tie in Bad Robot as an entity, but not Abrams as an individual? Only time will tell.
- English (Publication Language)
- 230 Pages - 11/13/2018 (Publication Date) - University Press of Mississippi (Publisher)
